As trailed in the media over this weekend, the UK prime minister Sir Kier Starmer has today announced that the UK government intends to introduce a full ban on under-16s from accessing social media platforms Social media to be banned for under-16s in landmark government move to give kids their childhood back – GOV.UK.

Scope of the ban

For the purpose of this ban, the announcement defines a social media platform as a user-to-user platform, whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allows users to post material, alongside algorithms. The announcement notes that this means the ban will include all of the most well-known social media platforms, although we would expect that all platforms meeting this criteria will be subject to the ban regardless of size. However, the government has gone on to say that it does not intend for messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal to be included in this ban.

Legislative approach

In order to regulate quickly, the government is not proposing to introduce this ban via a new Act of Parliament. Rather, it is planning to use secondary legislation under powers reserved to it under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. Those powers were reserved by way of an addition to the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) UK Online Safety Act Becomes Law | Global IP & Technology Law Blog The Online Safety Act: Does this present a difficult balancing act for online service providers? | Privacy World and allow the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to make provision by regulations requiring providers of “specified internet services” to prevent or restrict access by children to those services (or to specified functions or other features of those services) as they consider appropriate in light of the conclusion of the government’s “Growing up in the online world: a national consultation” in May this year Growing up in the online world: a national consultation – GOV.UK.

As such, the government has said that the first new regulations could come into force as early as Spring next year.

More than a simple ban

Whilst the announcement states that the government plans to follow the same model as already adopted in Australia it goes on to state that the government will also go further than simply a blanket ban on social media with “world-leading blocks” on harmful functions such as livestreaming and stranger communication with children for under-16s with those restrictions applying to a wider range of online services, including gaming sites. 

The government has also said it will be “looking in more detail” at other measures trailed in the media over the weekend including overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under 18s.

AI “romantic companion” chatbots designed to simulate sexual relationships or roleplay with users will also have to enforce a minimum age of 18. Similar intimate functionalities will be restricted for under-18s on AI chatbots more widely. 

Age verification measures

The government has said that further detail on many of these measures will be published next month but in the interim has already asked Ofcom as the relevant regulator to commence work on assessing options for highly effective age assurance measures June progress statement: letter from DSIT Secretary of State to Ofcom Chair and CEO – GOV.UK with Ofcom committing to deliver its assessment by the end of October Letter from Dame Melanie Dawes to Secretary of State for DSIT on the social media ban.

The reference to “highly effective age assurance measures” (HEAA) in this request will be deliberate given that that is a concept already provided for under the OSA 2023 which requires internet services providing access to “primary priority content” (such as pornography or content encouraging self-harm) to use such measures to prohibit access to that content by children.

As such, we would expect Ofcom’s assessment to reflect the guidance which it has already published on appropriate HEAAs in this context Age assurance duties under the Online Safety Act which requires providers to ensure their HEAAs are technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair. In that existing guidance Ofcom has already made clear that it does not consider self-declaration or simple contractual age restrictions to be capable of meeting the required standards but methods including facial age estimation, credit (but not debit) card checks and email-based age estimation are all methods with the potential to be considered “highly effective”.

Existing social media users

In perhaps an attempt to pre-exempt concerns that all current users of social media in the UK will be required to undergo age verification, the government has said that many adults will not need to do so because their account will have already been open for more than 16 years or have a credit card or email address connected with it for age verification purposes and so won’t need to undertake age verification Fact sheet: New rules to protect children online – GOV.UK. Where that is not the case though checks on existing users will be required but with the government keen to stress this “could” be as simple as a facial recognition check for over 18s although that will of course depend on what conclusions Ofcom reach in its assessment.

Conclusion

We will be tracking the progress of these important new Regulations and will publish further updates as the details become clear. In the meantime, please do let us know if you have any questions as to how these regulations may impact upon your business.