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Australia’s social media ban for under-16s should be a “wake-up call” for Britain in the fight to protect children online, a former schools minister has said. Lord Nash warned the UK risked “lagging behind” on child safety without ramping up safeguards for youngsters in digital spaces.

He said: “Australia has become the first major nation to protect its children from social media. This should be a wake-up call for us. Britain should be leading the world on child safety, not lagging behind.”

He said his amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill “would adopt exactly what Australia has done – at no cost to the taxpayer and with overwhelming public support”.

He added: “The evidence is mounting, other countries are acting. The Government must back it.”

Australia’s ban, which comes into effect on Wednesday, will mean that children under the age of 16 are no longer allowed to have social media accounts.

But some campaigners have branded Australia’s move as “flawed”, warning it could lead to online threats and bad actors moving to other sites that are still accessible to teenagers.

Andy Burrows, chief executive of Molly Rose Foundation, said: “We can do so much better than an Australia-style ban, which is flawed from the start and that instead of eliminating harm will see online threats and bad actors migrate to gaming and messaging sites still accessible to teens.

“The quickest and most effective response to better protect children online is to strengthen regulation that directly addresses product safety and design risks rather than an overarching ban that comes with a slew of unintended consequences.

“With online harm at unprecedented levels, we need evidence-based approaches, not kneejerk responses. The right answer is a safety and wellbeing by design approach to regulation that gives young people safe use of technology throughout their teens rather than them facing a cliff edge of harm on unregulated platforms when they turn 16.”

The Molly Rose Foundation was created after Molly Russell, from Harrow, in north-west London, took her own life in 2017 following exposure to a stream of suicide and self-harm content online.

Childlight, the global child safety institute, hosted by the University of Edinburgh and University of New South Wales in Sydney, said the Australian government’s ban is an “unfortunate but necessary step” to protect children from escalating levels of online sexual abuse and exploitation.

It comes as a report from regulator Ofcom said children aged eight to 14 spend almost three hours online daily, rising to four hours for 13 to 14-year-olds.

Children between eight and nine spend about two hours online each day.

This only counts time on smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers, not games consoles.

Late-night scrolling is also common among youngsters, with 15-24% of the time spent for the whole eight to 14 age range happening between 9pm and 5am across YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp.

About 4% to 10% of usage happens after 11pm, depending on the platform.

Overall, nine in 10 (91%) children aged eight to 17 said they are happy with the things that they do online.

It comes as the former general manager of TikTok in the UK and Europe said Australia’s social media ban for children is not necessarily “a win for safety”.

Richard Waterworth said the enforcement of age restrictions on social media platforms in the country may lead to many “unintended consequences”.