31st Mar 2026 03:51
(Alliance News) - A ban on social media for under-16s is not the "right approach" and could push children towards more dangerous and unsupervised corners of the internet, Alphabet Inc's Google UK boss has warned.
Kate Alessi, managing director and vice-president of Google UK and Ireland, told the Press Association the tech giant – which owns YouTube – is not supportive of "blanket bans" as the government faces mounting calls to stop children having access to social media.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer signalled at the weekend he was prepared to take action to curb features that keep young people addicted to social media, with the government currently consulting on an outright ban for under-16s.
A landmark court case in the US last week saw Facebook owner Meta Platform Inc and Google found liable for a woman's childhood social media addiction through deliberately designing addictive products, and ordered to pay damages of USD56 million or GBP4.6 million between them.
Alessi said Google does not agree with the verdict and plans to appeal.
She said a social media ban is not the answer to children's online wellbeing and cautioned if countries such as the UK followed the lead of Australia, which introduced a world-first social media ban for under-16s in December, it could have unintended consequences.
Alessi told PA: "We don't believe that's the right approach.
"We believe blanket bans take choices away from parents and push kids out of supervised spaces."
But she said it was important that "appropriate guardrails" are in place, with YouTube recently introducing features to help prevent addictive behaviours in children and teenagers, such as timers for its Shorts format, as well as customised "Bedtime" and "Take a break" functions.
"We want to make sure our products are built to be as safe as possible," Alessi said.
"We'll work with government and continue to partner with them as they work through this," she added.
The comments come as Google announced its latest community programme to boost artificial intelligence knowledge and skills to help Britons progress professionally.
It is launching pop-up hubs across the UK to train people on how to get the best out of AI, including "quick win" demos on areas such as how to automate admin tasks and use agentic tools to carry out tasks and research, as well as guides on building a social media presence.
The pop-up hubs – called Squeeze the Juice bars – will be based in Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham and the Government's so-called AI Growth Zones in Oxfordshire, the North East, Wales and Lanarkshire.
The firm is also launching a tour of university campuses nationwide, while it has earmarked nearly GBP2 million in funding through its Google.org charitable arm to help fund AI initiatives run by social enterprise group Inco, children's charity Chance and the Good Things Foundation.
Google hopes the programme will "uplevel" AI use, with recent research commissioned by the firm showing only a quarter of AI users believe they are getting significant value and only one in 10 see themselves as advanced users.
Alessi said: "Unlocking real value means moving beyond basic adoption to 'squeeze the juice' from these tools.
"With AI Works for Britain, we'll bring practical AI skills to people in every corner of the UK – from juice bars to Jobcentres – to help them use AI to achieve their goals."
By Holly Williams, Press Association Business Editor
source: PA
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