Data (Use and Access) Bill Report Stage: New Clause 19

Parliament voted on 7 May 2025 to reject a Conservative proposal, New Clause 19 in Division 189, that would have required the Secretary of State to conduct a formal review of whether the minimum age at which children can consent to their personal data being processed by social media platforms should be raised from 13 to 16. The proposal was defeated by 294 votes to 160 during the Report Stage of the Data (Use and Access) Bill. The vote matters because it touches directly on how social media companies can collect and use data from teenage users. Under current UK law, children aged 13 and over can consent to platforms processing their personal data, including for targeted advertising and algorithmically curated content. The Conservative new clause would not have changed that age immediately; it would have required the government to examine the practical barriers to raising it to 16. A separate Liberal Democrat proposal, New Clause 1, went further and would have raised the age directly in statute, but that too did not carry the day. Every Labour and Labour and Co-operative MP who voted did so against the amendment, while every Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Reform UK, and Green MP who voted supported it, as did most independents. The Conservative shadow minister Dr Ben Spencer argued that a review was needed to understand enforcement challenges before any change was made, while the Liberal Democrats' Munira Wilson pressed him to explain why his party preferred a review over the more direct change her own new clause proposed. The division sits within broader parliamentary activity on the Data (Use and Access) Bill, which passed through several further contested votes in May and June 2025.