United Kingdom, Feb. 20 -- Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of "appeasing" big tech companies and being "late to the party" on regulating social media and artificial intelligence.

Baroness Beeban Kidron, the crossbench peer and former award-winning film director, made the remarks in an interview with BBC's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson.

She was responding to proposals from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has launched a consultation on banning under-16s from social media and pledged to clamp down on what he described as the "addictive elements" of apps.

The government said it had already introduced "some of the strongest online safety protections in the world" and rejected claims it was soft on technology companies.

In the in...