LONDON (AP) — The British government says it will consider banning young teenagers from social media as it tightens laws designed to protect children from harmful content and excessive screen time.
The government said it would consult with parents, young people and other interested parties about the safe use of technology amid growing concern that children are being harmed by exposure to unregulated social media content.
“As I have been clear, no option is off the table, including looking at what age children should be able to access social media and whether we need restrictions on things such as addictive features like infinite scrolling or streaks in apps,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on Substack.
As part of their investigation, government ministers will travel to Australia to learn about the country’s recent move that requires major social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X to bar children under 16 from their platforms.
More than 60 lawmakers from Starmer’s center-left Labour Party earlier this week wrote to the prime minister calling on the government to introduce an Australia-style ban in Britain.
“Successive governments have done far too little to protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms,” they wrote. “We urge the government to show leadership on this issue by introducing a minimum age for social media access of 16 years old.”
The government said Tuesday that it planned to respond to the public consultation on online safety by this summer.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement in the media briefing room of 9 Downing Street, in central London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/Pool Photo via AP)
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The U.N. World Food Program said Thursday that more than a million people in northeastern Nigeria could lose access to emergency food and nutrition aid within weeks unless funding is secured, as violence and hunger surge in the region.
The food agency of the United Nations said in a statement it will sharply scale back assistance, limiting it to only 72,000 people in February, down from 1.3 million assisted during last year’s lean season, which runs from May to October.
According to WFP, 35 million people are likely to experience severe hunger in Nigeria this year, the highest figure on the continent and the largest recorded since the agency began collecting data in the country.
WFP has provided food assistance in northeastern Nigeria since 2015, reaching nearly two million people a year in hard-hit areas.
“Despite generous contributions that sustained WFP’s life-saving aid to the most vulnerable in recent months, those limited resources have now been exhausted,” the agency's statement on Thursday read.
“This will lead to catastrophic humanitarian, security and economic consequences for the most vulnerable people who have been forced to flee their homes in search of food and shelter,” David Stevenson, WFP’s Nigeria Country Director, said.
Renewed violence in Nigeria has displaced around 3.5 million people in recent months, destroyed food supplies, and worsened malnutrition to critical levels in several northern states. Widespread attacks by various armed groups have deterred farmers from using their land, officials said.
Last week, gunmen abducted more than 150 worshippers in simultaneous attacks on three separate churches in northwest Nigeria.
The West African country also has been hard hit by a massive scaling down of U.N. food assistance following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to gut the United States Agency for International Development.
Nigeria is one of several countries in the region where the cut to USAID has deepened the food crisis. In July, WFP suspended food assistance across West and Central Africa.
FILE - People wait to receive food donations from the United Nations World Food Program in Damasak, northeastern Nigeria, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Chinedu Asadu, File)
