The U.K. will ban social media from offering services to under-16s, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday, as governments around the world face mounting pressure to ensure child safety online.
The ban could include platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. The first set of regulations could take effect as soon as spring 2027.
The U.K. plans to model its approach on landmark Australian legislation passed late last year, but the country will go further by introducing additional restrictions on features deemed particularly harmful to children.
These include blocking livestreaming and communication with strangers for users under 16, while similar protections will be enabled by default for 16- and 17-year-olds. The government is also considering overnight curfews and measures to limit infinite scrolling for minors.
“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,” Starmer said in a statement.
Social media is making children unhappy and is designed to be addictive, Starmer said at a press conference. He didn’t make the decision lightly and it will not be cost-free, he said, noting that social media had brought some benefits to young people.
The ban comes after the U.K. has seen a number of high-profile cases related to social media and self-harm.
Critics argue that blanket bans are ineffective and will simply stifle access to age-appropriate experiences with parental controls, and that young people will find a way around the ban. For example, a BBC report found that downloads of VPNs in Australia, which hide users’ locations to avoid country-specific restrictions, increased before the ban.
A YouTube spokesperson told CNBC it’s invested in “expert-led, age-appropriate experiences and default protections for teens” and that “blanket bans push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less safe services.”
“Tech companies have had countless opportunities to keep children safe, yet they have failed to act. That is why we are taking power away from the tech giants and putting it back in parents’ hands,” said Technology Secretary Liz Kendall.
CNBC has reached out to the parent companies of the social media platforms that could be affected for comment.
Starmer said he spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday and would see him again this afternoon for the G7 meeting, and that they would discuss “this and many other issues.”
— CNBC’s Kai Nicol-Schwarz and Sawdah Bhaimiya contributed to this report.