When the announcement landed on 15 June, it carried the weight of more than 116,000 consultation responses and the quiet exhaustion of countless parents who had watched their children disappear into endless scrolls. Nine in 10 of those parents said they wanted social media kept away from anyone under 16. Two-thirds of the young people who replied agreed that children of that age should stay off at least some platforms.
The government has chosen what it calls an "Australia plus" model. User-to-user services that rely on algorithms and public posting, among them Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook and X, will be barred from offering accounts to under-16s. Messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal fall outside the restrictions. Additional rules will block livestreaming and contact with strangers across other online spaces, including many gaming platforms. Romantic or intimate AI chatbots will carry an 18 minimum age.
Parents want to keep their kids safe and happy, but the online world has made that harder than ever. I’ve heard first hand from families crying out for change and we will do right by them. That’s why we’re going further than any country in the world by banning social media for under-16s and putting wider protections in place to give kids their childhood back. This is a line in the sand.
Keir Starmer spoke those words in the official release. In a separate post on X he returned to the same theme: children must find their feet in a world where technology intrudes into every area of their life. The Prime Minister said he could not let that continue. The official Downing Street account echoed the sentiment, framing the move as a way of empowering parents who simply want to do their best for their kids.
For 16- and 17-year-olds the platforms will remain accessible, yet livestreaming and stranger contact will be switched off by default. The regulations are due before Parliament by the end of this year and implementation is scheduled for spring 2027. Ofcom has been asked to carry out a rapid study on age-assurance technology and to set out how enforcement will work. Separate research on children’s use of VPNs is expected in July.
The policy sits on the foundations of the Online Safety Act 2023 and draws new powers from the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. It responds to years of evidence that unchecked platforms have eroded the ordinary rhythms of childhood: time for unstructured play, face-to-face friendships, the slow work of learning who you are away from algorithmic judgment. Ministers present the measures as a defence of parental authority rather than an expansion of state control.
Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, put it plainly. Tech companies had been given countless opportunities to keep children safe yet had failed to act. The new rules, she said, take power away from the tech giants and put it back in parents’ hands. Her stated aim is to give every child, whatever their background, the best possible start in life.
