The UK Banned Under-16s From Social Media.
The United Kingdom announced it will ban children under 16 from accessing major social media platforms, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saying the government hopes to pass legislation before Christmas and the ban coming into force in spring 2027. The platforms affected will include TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, and X, with the full list to be confirmed when the legislation is released. Messaging apps including WhatsApp and Signal will not be banned, and YouTube Kids is exempt, but features such as livestreaming, stranger contact, and infinite scroll will be restricted for younger users. The decision follows a three-month public consultation that received more than 116,000 responses, with 90 percent of parents who participated backing the ban and more than 83 percent saying the risks of social media outweighed the benefits for children. Starmer said he was not prepared to compromise on the safety and happiness of children and that the ban would happen.
The announcement was welcomed by bereaved parents who have campaigned for years for stronger protections after losing children to harms originating on social media platforms, including Esther Ghey, whose daughter Brianna was killed in 2023. The co-founder of the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign group called it a major step forward and said millions of children would now get a few more years to grow up before entering online environments that were never designed with their wellbeing in mind. Tech companies pushed back, with Meta, Snapchat, and YouTube all warning that a blanket ban risks pushing children toward less regulated and less safe alternatives. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the measures would take power away from tech giants who had had countless opportunities to keep children safe and had failed to do so, and made clear that the announcement was not the end of the story for online safety reform. The UK follows Australia, which banned social media for under-16s in December 2024, though early research suggests some children found ways around those restrictions, a challenge the UK government said it is actively factoring into its enforcement planning.
