Under-16s will be banned from social media from early 2027
- company Meta
- company Roblox
- company Signal
- company Snapchat
- company WhatsApp
- company YouTube
- company x
- person Sir Keir Starmer
The UK government plans to ban under-16s from accessing major social media platforms, including TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram, with the ban set to come into force in 2027[1].
The ban, announced by the UK government, will cover platforms 'whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allow users to post material'[2]. Apps like YouTube, Facebook, and X will also be inaccessible to children under 16. However, messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal are expected to be exempt[1]. The government is still considering how to determine which platforms will fall under the restrictions and plans to provide an update in July. YouTube Kids will not be included in the ban, but it is unclear how YouTube will prevent children from accessing the platform without an account. The ban is expected to closely follow Australia's, where additional platforms like Kick, Reddit, Threads, and Twitch are banned for under-16s. Roblox's status is uncertain, but it may be exempt if the UK follows Australia's approach[2].
regulationsafety-research
Background sources we checked (8)
- en.wikipedia.org ↗ Since the passage of the Online Safety Act 2023 in the United Kingdom and the publication of The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt in 2024, which became the catalyst for Australia's social media ban, many countries across the globe have passed or proposed laws to require age v…
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- en.wikipedia.org ↗ The Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People (commonly referred to as the Cass Review) is an independent review commissioned in 2020 by NHS England and NHS Improvement and led by Hilary Cass, a retired consultant paediatrician and the former pr…
- en.wikipedia.org ↗ A list of events relating to politics and government in the United Kingdom during 2026.…
- en.wikipedia.org ↗ The Albanese government is the sitting federal government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of the Labor Party. The Albanese government was sworn in on 23 May 2022 by the governor-general of Australia, David Hurley. The party governed with a two-to-three seat m…
- en.wikipedia.org ↗ A metaverse is a virtual world in which users interact while represented by avatars, typically in a 3D display, with the experience focused on social and economic connection. The term metaverse originated in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash as a portmanteau of "meta" an…
- en.wikipedia.org ↗ Roblox ( , ROH-bloks) is an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users. It was created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004, and released to the public in 2006…
- en.wikipedia.org ↗ People Make Games (PMG) is a British investigative video game journalism YouTube channel. The channel focuses on the developers and people who make video games. People Make Games has reported on topics such as video game crunch, outsourcing, and worker exploitation. Their work ha…