LONDON 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Monday to take on big tech companies and curb the "addictive nature" of social media, suggesting new restrictions could be implemented within months.

Speaking at an event in southwest London, Starmer said the “status quo is not good enough” and warned legislation has historically taken too long to keep pace with evolving technology.

He confirmed that the government is prepared to move quickly on a potential ban on social media for children under 16, pending the results of an ongoing consultation.

Starmer also highlighted the dangers of compulsive consumption, often referred to as doomscrolling, and the design features that keep users “glued” to their devices.

"We also need to act very quickly, not just on the age concern, but on the devices and applications that mean the sort of auto-scrolling, the constant gluing to the machine that you can never stop scrolling, and it just encourages you or that one thing follows from another," he said.

"We have to break that habit to stop the addictive nature," he added.

The government’s plan includes seeking stronger powers to regulate tech companies more aggressively. He said the era of long delays in tech regulation must end.

"Now we're taking the powers to make sure we can act within months, not years," he added.

Britain's data protection watchdog has recently launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s X and xAI companies after the Grok AI tool allegedly produced indecent deepfakes without people’s consent.

The probe followed reports that Grok was used to generate non-consensual sexual imagery of individuals, including children, the Information Commissioner’s Office said in a statement.