LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to announce a social media ban for young teenagers Monday, designed to protect children from harmful content and excessive screen time.
Britain would join a growing global movement to tighten online safety for children. Australia, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced legislation or announced age-based restrictions or requirements for children’s access to social media. France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are among others studying or developing similar approaches.
“How we keep kids safe online is one of the biggest debates of our time," Starmer said in a statement released Sunday. “This is a choice about whose side we’re on: families across the country, or a status quo that isn’t working."
Starmer, who is under pressure to step down from members of his own party over what they see as poor leadership, said he would be announcing a “world-leading” action to protect children. He suggested it be more prohibitive than the Australian-style ban on social media for children under 16.
The Sunday Times reported that the U.K. would also restrict chatbots, features on some gaming apps and place a curfew aimed at preventing older teens from late-night scrolling.
The under-16 ban would apply to TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Threads, Twitch, Kick and Reddit, the Times reported.
The decision follows a public comment period in which the government got 116,000 responses from parents, the tech industry and children. The number of responses was second only to one seeking input about equal marriage in 2012.
The vast majority of respondents wanted an under-16 ban, including youths, said Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who added that a ban should be part of other measures.
“I don’t think banning social media on its own is the silver bullet solution, but I do think Australia has shown very clearly that it has a significant role to play,” Nandy told BBC on Sunday.
The ban could further inflame tensions with the U.S., which has warned that regulations should be narrow and not violate free speech protections, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in London. It said it was also concerned that regulations would place greater burdens on American technology companies.
Jon Crowcroft, a communications systems professor at University of Cambridge, said people supporting social bans are well-meaning but probably misguided, and changes could prevent children from accessing sites they need.
“There is a real risk this will drive some users to worse sites and policing devices is close to impossible technically,” Crowcroft said. “Policing platforms is far easier, if only regulators would bother.”
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, not pictured, attend a business roundtable meeting in Downing Street in London, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (Toby Shepheard/Pool Photo via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine killed rescue personnel in Kharkiv and four people in the capital Kyiv on Monday as strikes set apartment buildings ablaze and sparked a fire at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the country’s most significant religious landmarks.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones overnight, primarily targeting Kyiv, while also striking the cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv. The military said air defenses intercepted or electronically suppressed 632 aerial targets, including 50 missiles and 582 drones. Preliminary data showed 20 ballistic missiles and 27 attack drones hit 42 locations across the country, while debris from intercepted drones fell at 12 sites.
A series of powerful explosions echoed across Kyiv, with a wave of ballistic missiles followed by Shahed drones as many people sought shelter underground and officials urged residents to take cover.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said four people were killed and at least 30 were injured, including two children aged 5 and 6.
Five strikes hit civilian sites in the city’s Shevchenkivskyi district in less than 30 minutes, he said, including a 25-story apartment building, while a market and a grocery store caught fire. In the Obolonskyi district, a nine-story residential building took a direct hit.
Striking apartment blocks was a “deliberate decision” by Russia, he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it carried out a strike with long-range precision weapons and drones on military industrial facilities in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro, as well as military conscription offices and military air bases. It said “the goals of the strikes have been fulfilled and all the designated facilities have been hit.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 123 Ukrainian drones overnight.
In Kharkiv, authorities said Russian forces used a “double tap” tactic, launching four additional drone strikes on the site of an earlier attack in the Kholodnohirskyi district after emergency crews had arrived.
Four emergency service workers and an employee of the Kharkiv City Council’s emergency department were killed, while six rescuers and three civilians were injured. Separately, a woman was injured in the city’s Shevchenkivskyi district, where residential buildings and vehicles were damaged in a drone strike.
In Dnipro, one of the buildings of a local college was destroyed, while the blast wave shattered windows at a school and the city’s House of Organ and Chamber Music, according to Dnipropetrovsk regional administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.
Two people were injured and infrastructure, businesses, a college and cultural institutions were damaged. Russian forces also carried out nearly 30 attacks using drones, artillery, missiles and guided aerial bombs in Dnipro as well as the Kryvyi Rih, Pavlohrad, Synelnykove and Nikopol districts.
In the Sumy region, three people including a child were injured after a Russian strike hit an apartment building and damaged a non-residential structure, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
Damage at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a monastic complex, was substantial and a serious fire had broken out, said Tkachenko, who accused Russia of deliberately striking “the heart of one of the largest Christian shrines.”
The roof of the Dormition Cathedral caught fire during the overnight attack, said Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. He condemned the strike as another Russian crime “against humanity, against history, against Christianity” and appealed for prayers to save the site.
The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, is a sprawling complex of monasteries and churches, including some underground, built from the 11th to the 19th century. Some of the churches at the UNESCO-listed World Heritage site are connected by a labyrinthine complex of caves spanning more than 600 meters (2,000 feet).
The cathedral, churches and other buildings overlook the right bank of the Dnipro River and have been a pilgrimage site for centuries.
Local residents gather near the entrance to a damaged residential building following an overnight Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
A local resident uses a firehose to extinguish a fire at a building following an overnight Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
A woman stands at a street near a damaged building following an overnight Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
An explosion of a Russian drone is seen on the horizon in front of the Mother Motherland monument of Second World War during a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescue workers put out a fire of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves during a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescue workers try to put out a fire at the Dormition Cathedral of thousand-year-old Monastery of Caves, also known as Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, following a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
The roof of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is on fire during the overnight Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
The roof of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra burns, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
