The UK Government announced this morning that it is pushing ahead with a social media ban for children. Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X will be in scope. It appears to be a popular policy. A recent Government consultation, 'Growing Up in the Online World' asked whether people supported a legal requirement for social media services to have a minimum age of access. We are told that 90% of parents agree. Perhaps surprisingly, most young people who responded to the consultation (several thousand) were also in favour of a ban.
Whether this a matter for indifference, celebration or wailing and gnashing of teeth in your household, we thought an explanation of what is going on would be useful.
How will the law change?
The ban will be implemented via secondary legislation, using Henry VIII powers created in the recently enacted Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This will allow the Government to act quickly, meaning that the ban could be in place by spring 2027. The mechanism is likely to take the form of an amendment to the Online Safety Act 2023.
What will the scope of the ban be?
We are told that the Government plans to use the same model for a social media ban as Australia. This would mean introducing restrictions on platforms whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allow users to upload and share content with other users.
That sounds vague - and it is - but in practice it would be supplemented by regulatory guidance that spells out what platforms are/are not in scope.
When Australia implemented their ban back in December, regulatory guidance said:
In scope: Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube
Out of scope: Discord, GitHub, Google Classroom, LEGO Play, Facebook Messenger, Pinterest, Roblox, Steam and Steam Chat, WhatsApp and YouTube Kids.
Will there be an exemptions?
Australia also created various generic exemptions to avoid banning platforms that are generally considered beneficial for children by mistake. These cover services that have the sole or primary purpose of:
- enabling end-users to communicate by means of messaging, email, voice calling or video calling
- enabling end-users to play online games with other end users;
- supporting the education or health of end users;
- facilitating communication between educational institutions and students or students’ families; or
It will be interesting to see if the UK mirrors Australia's approach exactly, or chooses to diverge in some way or another.
Age assurance
Social media services that fall within the scope of the ban will need to implement age verification or age estimation that is 'highly effective' at correctly determining whether their UK users are over 16 or not. The existing method of ticking a box to confirm you are old enough will not be sufficient. According to Ofcom’s January 2026 guidance, the following are some of the key methods considered capable of being highly effective:
- accessing the information a bank has on record regarding a user’s age, with the user’s consent;
- capturing relevant information from an uploaded photo-ID document and comparing it to an image of the user at the point of ID upload to verify that they are the same person; and
- analysing the features of a user’s face to estimate their age.
It will be interesting to see how affected platforms approach this.
How is the ban working out in Australia?
A ban is unlikely to be 100% effective. Since Australia's ban began in December 2025, the number of children's social media accounts has reportedly declined by 37% (not an unqualified success, it is fair to say). Advocates argue that the policy is about resetting cultural expectations and that compliance will improve over time.
Are any other measures being considered?
Yes. We are told that the Government will ban AI chatbot providers from acting as a ‘romantic companion’ to under 18s. This will cover the likes of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. It will be interesting to see if these platforms choose to implement age assurance in order to continue offering this type of interaction to users who are over the age of 18 or disable it for all users. Might some platforms even choose to withdraw from the UK market, rather than comply? (one imagines Elon Musk will not be a fan of this sort of policy).
We also heard this morning that the Government is considering “overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under-18-year-olds and will set out more detail in July.”
Comment
If you would like advice on any of the issues raised in this article, please get in touch.
Our content explained
Every piece of content we create is correct on the date it’s published but please don’t rely on it as legal advice. If you’d like to speak to us about your own legal requirements, please contact one of our expert lawyers.