‘Children will be given their friendship back’, the UK government said in a statement.
The UK is the latest to ban social media from young users, as countries around the world reassess the impact of Big Tech on children’s development and safety.
“Children will be given their childhood back … with less time to scroll and more time to play”, the UK government said in a statement today (15 June).
The government completely bans minors under the age of 16 from large user-to-user platforms that allow social communication and allow users to post to algorithmic feeds, such as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X.
Live streaming and “stranger communication” are also banned, although social networks such as WhatsApp and Signal have narrowly avoided the government’s hand, despite the security concerns associated with them.
“These restrictions – which along with the ban go further than any other country – will apply to a wide range of online services, including gaming sites,” the government said.
The announcement follows the largest public consultation in the country which received more than 100,000 responses from parents, children and experts.
The data showed that 90% of parents supported banning social media for under-16s, while two-thirds of young people agreed that under-16s should not be allowed to use social media at least.
The UK has said it is expanding with the same ban model as Australia, which became the first country to restrict social media to minority users last December.
Age-gating is an industry-wide challenge that often requires the use of AI or the collection of sensitive data by third-party platforms or services.
An Australian government-commissioned report last year found that age-matching technology was also “prone to error” – meaning children could be wrongly judged to be older than they are, while other issues such as VPN use, joint family accounts or fake accounts also persisted.
The UK media regulator Ofcom is expected to carry out a new study on working age verification, review its enforcement powers and draft a clear verification strategy.
Restrictions will automatically apply to under-16s and 17-year-olds to prevent a cliff limit at 16, and the government has said it will also look at curfews and unlimited scrolling breaks for under-18s.
The government is also enforcing a minimum age of 18 for AI ‘love buddies’ – chatbots designed to play roles with users.
“This is the line in the sand. The tech giants had a chance and they failed, but we intervene to protect children, restore parents and make normal for future generations,” said prime minister Keir Starmer, echoing the words of his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who told the press in January that “children’s brains are not for sale”.
Alongside the UK, France and Australia, countries such as Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Spain and Greece have also taken similar steps to restrict children’s use of social media, which comes at a time when social media giants including Meta, Google and X are facing increasing scrutiny of child safety controls on their platforms.
Meanwhile, the EU, which also requires a minimum age to access social media, video sharing platforms and AI partners is trying to create an app to enable anonymous age verification.
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UK prime minister Keir Starmer holds a press conference on children’s online welfare. Photo: Number 10 via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
