UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, June 15, introduced that each one customers underneath the age of 16 within the nation can be banned from accessing social media platforms, together with TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Calling the transfer a “actual change for our youngsters and our future,” Starmer made the announcement in entrance of an viewers that included mother and father who had misplaced youngsters after affected by the ‘dangerous’ results of social media, in response to a report by The Guardian. The transfer is a part of the UK authorities’s broader plans to maintain younger folks protected on-line and assist tackle late-night scrolling on telephones.
Starmer additional stated that his authorities is trying to cross laws formalising the choice by the tip of this 12 months, with the ban set to return into pressure by early 2027. It comes amid mounting considerations over the affect of social media on youngsters’s well being and security.
Australia in December 2025 turned the world’s first nation to ban social media for youngsters underneath 16, blocking them from platforms together with TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube, and Meta’s Instagram and Fb. Since then, a number of governments have imposed or thought-about imposing related restrictions. In June 2026, Malaysia started barring these underneath 16 from registering accounts on social media platforms. Turkey has additionally handed laws banning the use of social media by youngsters underneath 15.
The Indian authorities, alternatively, is exploring a extra nuanced, graded method to safeguarding younger customers on-line, The Indian Specific beforehand reported. Nonetheless, the state authorities in Karnataka introduced a ban on social media use by youngsters underneath 16 in its newest Finances. Different states like Andhra Pradesh and Goa are additionally shifting to introduce related measures.
Stating {that a} full ban is the best selection, Starmer on Monday stated, “Social media is making youngsters sad, it’s making it simpler for bullies to harass and abuse them, and it might even be harming their psychological well being.”
“This isn’t one thing I do calmly, and I cannot current it as cost-free, as if social media has [brought no] advantages to younger folks, as a result of clearly that’s flawed. However the authorities is at all times about selections, and it’s clear to me {that a} complete ban is the best selection,” the UK prime minister was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
We’re banning social media entry for underneath 16s.
Nowadays children should discover their ft in a world the place know-how intrudes into each space of their life.
I simply can’t let that go on anymore. So we’re giving youngsters their childhoods again. pic.twitter.com/jn7iQrcwk8
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 15, 2026
On the chance of youngsters making an attempt to avoid the ban, Starmer stated, “We don’t say, ‘Oh, look, a young person managed to get a drink one way or the other, so let’s not trouble banning alcohol gross sales for youngsters.’ We don’t do this, will we? I simply don’t settle for that. Our legal guidelines are guidelines, however they’re additionally an expression of our values. They form the social contract, and so this may change the conversations that folks have, and the expectations of kids over time.”
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“Sure, it’s exhausting – exhausting to legislate for, exhausting to manage, exhausting to implement. That’s why we sought a variety of views on this. That’s why we listened to folks, had a dialog, we appeared fastidiously on the proof, realized from international locations like Australia which might be taking related steps,” he added.
On whether or not he anticipated a backlash from US tech giants over the proposed ban, Starmer stated, “I don’t settle for, and I’ll by no means settle for which you can’t be each professional tech and AI, and on the identical time say we should defend our youngsters. I’m by no means going to just accept the argument that for the way forward for AI and tech, we should go away our youngsters uncovered in the way in which that they’ve been, or they may be sooner or later.”
Earlier this 12 months, the UK authorities carried out a stakeholder session on a social media ban and different restrictions, with youngsters and adults requested to submit their responses on what they suppose ought to occur. The session discovered that 9 in 10 mother and father backed a minimal age of 16 for accessing the apps. Nonetheless, digital rights advocates and specialists have raised considerations {that a} ban might result in extra issues.
Which social media platforms can be banned?
The ban will cowl platforms together with Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Fb and X, as per the UK authorities. Messaging companies like WhatsApp and Sign have been not noted, in response to a BBC report.
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The UK authorities is but to launch the total checklist of which platforms can be banned for under-16 customers. It has stated that the ban will apply to these “whose goal is to allow social interplay and which permit customers to put up materials.”
The UK’s social media ban additionally goes a step additional than Australia’s pioneering determination by proposing to convey gaming platforms underneath the regulatory ambit. It would require platforms to stop youngsters from having the ability to livestream, together with on gaming platforms.
Further features comparable to the choice for youngsters under-16 to talk with strangers would even be required to be disabled. These restrictions on particular features would even be required to be on by default for under-17 customers. The UK authorities can be trying to impose in a single day curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under-18 customers.
On the AI entrance, the federal government stated that corporations behind AI chatbots designed to simulate sexual relationships or roleplay with customers, should implement a minimal age of 18 for entry. AI chatbot makers can even have to limit “intimate functionalities” for under-18 customers.
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How will the ban be enforced?
The UK authorities reportedly plans on requiring platforms to take “extremely efficient age assurance” measures to examine the ages of all customers within the UK utilizing social media. Age assurance usually refers to a set of measures comparable to requiring customers to scan their faces or submit IDs with a purpose to precisely estimate or confirm somebody’s age.
Ofcom, the nation’s web regulatory, has been directed by the federal government to hold out a fast examine to establish one of the best methods to confirm if somebody is over 16. For context, a number of platforms comparable to pornographic web sites are already required to hold out age-assurance checks to stop youngsters from accessing grownup materials. Prior to now, Ofcom has levied fines on platforms that haven’t complied with the foundations.
What are the considerations raised?
One of many key considerations that stem from a social media ban is instruments comparable to digital personal networks (VPNs) or AI-based instruments used to alter the customers’ look, should still permit underage customers to get across the blocks arrange by platforms. Acknowledging {that a} ban doesn’t imply no baby would ever have the ability to log onto social media once more, PM Starmer stated that it was however necessary to behave.
Obligatory age assurance programs on-line additionally pose vital dangers to consumer privateness and safety.
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“Age-assurance checks not solely may be ineffective, however can really diminish security on-line by exposing customers to malware and scams after they resort to different companies that don’t implement verification—and customers will undoubtedly flip to such different sources,” learn a March 2026 open letter signed by tons of of researchers worldwide. The letter requires a moratorium on age-assurance instruments till there may be clear scientific consensus on their advantages and harms.
Teams that advocate for digital privateness and free speech such because the Digital Frontier Basis (EFF) have additional argued that it’s unimaginable to make sure platforms don’t retain consumer knowledge gathered for age-verification.