Cheryl returns to the spotlight to back campaign and urges government to ‘do the right thing’

Cheryl has made a rare return to the spotlight to campaign for the UK government to ‘do the right thing’ and raise the age of consent for social media users to 16-years-old

Cheryl has briefly stepped back into the spotlight to throw her weight behind a campaign that calls for the UK government to raise the age of consent for social media users to 16-years-old. She joins Simon Cowell’s wife Lauren who has also backed the campaign recently.

Cheryl, who has eight-year-old son Bear with late One Direction star Liam Payne, shared a passionate video to Instagram where she called on the Labour party to ‘do the right thing’, insisting that there’s no ‘reasonable argument’ against raising the age limit for youngsters.

The 42-year-old said: “I back this campaign a million per cent, and I cannot see a reasonable argument for the opposite.

“I do not believe our youth need to be subjected to such addictive, emotionally destroying and mentally damaging platforms.

“Our youth are already vulnerable, and some are even going to the extremes of taking their own lives.

“That should be enough.

“You can see the damage that’s happening without much benefit.”

She went on to urge her followers to contact their local MPs about the Raise The Age campaign, she continued: “It’s time for our government to stand up and do the right thing to protect our youth.

“They’ll thank us in the future.”

Cheryl’s plea comes ahead of a House of Commons vote on a potential social media ban for under 16s, a law that was a succesfully implemented in Australia in 2025.

Simon Cowell’s wife Lauren has previously admitted she doesn’t allow their 12-year-old son Eric to have a phone, and she has spoken out in support of the campaign.

She said: “We are campaigning to raise the social media age to 16 to protect children from platforms designed to be addictive and proven to harm mental health and in some cases, cost young lives.

“This is our generation’s Big Tobacco moment, a chance to be on the right side of history”.

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