Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy answers YOUR questions on social media ban

Jenny has been speaking to the government minister in charge of culture, media and sport, Lisa Nandy.

Lots of you have been sending in your questions for the government on the social media ban for under-16s.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer led plans for the ban, which would apply to platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram - but not WhatsApp.

Mr Starmer has since announced that he'll be stepping down as prime minister, but Ms Nandy has said that the ban will still go ahead as planned.

Keep reading or watch the video to find out more about what the minister said.

Talking about Keir Starmer's decision to step down from his job, Lisa Nandy explained that a few weeks ago her party, the Labour Party, had "some very bad election results and lots of people very unhappy".

As a result Mr Starmer "decided that it wouldn't be good for the country if he tried to carry on with lots of people being very unhappy, so he's put the country first".

She added: "I'm sad about it because he's been a good prime minister and he's a good friend.

"But there are lots of those in politics who really care about the things that he's been trying to do, like helping young people to have better childhoods, and lots of that will continue."

Lisa Nandy said that while a new prime minister "will want to come in and have a look at how that works", she believes that the question of whether we have a ban or not has already been answered.

She spoke of how, following the government's consultation: "Lots and lots of parents across the country have told us that they really want us to do this. They think it's better for children."

She added: "We've looked at lots of evidence over the last few years about what is happening to children online, including in Australia, where they've got a social media ban - and we've decided that this is the right thing to do to keep children safe and to keep them happy and to keep them healthy."

Lisa Nandy said that there are different ways that you can check the age of somebody who's going onto social media - but that "none of them are foolproof".

She added that there will always be children who find a way to get around it, but that the government wants to remove the "pressure to be on social media".

"What we've learnt from Australia is that just by bringing in a ban, even if you can't enforce it for everybody, it just changes the presumption.

"It means you're not on it automatically and it means you're not under a lot of pressure to go onto it at a very young age."

When asked by Jenny if it was likely children would get around the ban anyway, she said: "We're going to be tougher than Australia in the way that we check age."

She continued: "In Australia, the vast majority of children were not on social media, so we know we can do that already because we're going to introduce tougher measures to check age than they had there."

Lisa Nandy said that many families she had heard from didn't want their children on social media, but "want them out playing with their friends, learning new skills, playing sports".

To help with this and give children things to do apart from being on social media, she said the government would be putting "millions of pounds into youth clubs, sports pitches and things like dance and drama and music".

She said this would be the "biggest investment into youth in a generation" with investment in youth services, also paying for things like mini-buses to help them get to sports and youth clubs that already exist.

Lisa Nandy said one of the concerns children she has spoken to have about the ban being for under-16s is not knowing how to deal with social media once they get to 16, if they've never used it before.

She told Jenny: "One of the things that we're doing is putting more money into helping young people to understand what they're seeing online, and what they're dealing with, how to keep themselves safe online.

"We know we need to do more to help children find really good quality things online and good quality information that they can trust and know when they can trust it and when they can't."

Lisa Nandy said that while the government is saying children shouldn't be on YouTube, it's not banning YouTube kids, which has stricter checks.

One Newsround viewer pointed out a downside of the ban is that they would no longer be able to use YouTube to find inspiration for art.

Lisa responded saying that the government is looking at a lot of the platform providers to see what can be done to make it better for young people.

She added: "We know that there will always be young people who ask their parents for permission to look at things on their accounts.

"But this will mean that parents will have far more oversight and understanding of what children are looking at, and that there's a proper conversation that happens to make sure it really does help them, and it's good for them."