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Starmer announces under-16s ban for social media

ended 15. June 2026

Keir Starmer has announced that under-16s will be banned from social media.

TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram are among the apps that will be included.

The measures are part of the government's plans to protect young people from harm online and address unhealthy late-night scrolling on phones.

A consultation, which concluded earlier this year and had more than 116,000 responses, found that 85% of parents believe the risk of social media outweigh the benefits.

Australia became the first country in the world to introduce a similar ban in December last year.

  • What is your reaction?
  • Will it work? 
  • Any other thoughts?

Responses asap.

7 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Samuel Mather-Holgate
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
Starmer’s right to pick this fight. For too long, parents have been left worried, while Silicon Valley floods children’s bedrooms with addictive algorithms, endless scrolling and strangers at midnight. Will a ban work perfectly? No law does. Teenagers will test it and the platforms will plead technical difficulty. But that is not a reason to do nothing- it is a reason to make enforcement sharp, expensive and unavoidable. This is a proper dividing line. Children first, tech giants second. At a moment when his leadership is being questioned, Starmer looks strongest when he stops sounding managerial and starts sounding like a prime minister willing to take on powerful interests.
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Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
As a parent of under 16s I did breathe a sigh of relief. Social Media can be as addictive and destructive as alcohol, so it shouldbe regulated in a similar way. It is an absolute minefield for parents to navigate, so this ruling will provide clarity. The biggest issue now, is that we have to wait until Spring ‘27 for this to kick in, a lot of rows between parents and teens over the coming months. The VPN providers will be rubbing their hands this morning.
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Paul Denley
CEO at Oakham Wealth Management
This cannot come soon enough. Social media isn't a neutral communication tool; its business model depends on maximising engagement. Children are being targeted by algorithms backed by billions of pounds and vast computing power. If many adults struggle to resist, expecting children to is unrealistic. The incentives reward outrage and division because attention drives advertising revenue. Many young people don't even enjoy social media but feel trapped by peer pressure; a universal ban removes that pressure in a way individual parenting cannot. Imperfect enforcement isn't an argument against sensible safeguards. These companies have built enormously profitable businesses while accepting remarkably little responsibility for the content their algorithms promote. With the resources and engineering talent at their disposal, that has always been a choice, not a constraint. The ban is a start. Accountability is the destination.
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Lee Chambers
CEO at Male Allies UK
It’s a start. The fact that it expands beyond social media is positive. But the work is far from done. Many young people use social media for belonging and connection, and while this will block some of the algorithmic violence they face, we need to consider what will fill the space. We know from our work the offline spaces are often not there and there’s a rise in use of AI companion and girlfriends apps. The most important thing as this ban comes in is to remember the most important thing: making these products safe by design for everyone. And we shouldn’t forget that these companies don’t retaliate overtly, they often tweak adults algorithms to cause political instability when nations impose laws on them.
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Dr Marianne Trent
Clinical Psychologist at Good Thinking Psychology
As a Clinical Psychologist and Mother of a 13 and 10 year old I couldn't be more thrilled about this news. I think this will help caregivers to make safer and healthier choices with and for their children whereas currently peer pressure has made this more challenging.

Social media is an unregulated space consisting mainly of user generated content and this combined with algorithms looking to keep all of us on platforms for longer means it's an unsafe space for any mind let alone a developing one.

I am keen to learn how and when this will come into force, my only current concern being that given many parents have already allowed even primary school age kids to be on apps like TikTok I do wonder how this will be enforced.
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Arabella Harvey
Owner at Raven Botanicals
This news could not be more welcome. We are seeing clear evidence of the toxic impact social media has on children and young people, affecting everything from concentration, creativity, sociability and self esteem to mental health and wellbeing. Children are being exposed to inappropriate content, negative influences and harmful ideologies long before they have the maturity to process them critically. The crisis in youth mental health and disengagement speaks for itself. Childhood is precious and fleeting. We should be doing everything we can to protect it and allow our children the freedom to develop without the pressures and risks of social media.
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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
This is long overdue. Social media is damaging children, and arguably adults too. The nation's mental health is woeful with millions of people addicted to platforms engineered to keep them doomscrolling the rage-bait just to feed them ads. Banning under-16s is welcome, but let's not pretend the harm stops at 16.

The problem is how you enforce it. Every adult now has to upload government ID to third-party verification providers that leak like a sieve. TechRadar reported 70,000 government ID photos were already leaked in the UK when Discord's verification provider was hacked. That's the system we're trusting with the nation's identity documents.

VPNs also get caught in the crossfire too. They protect journalists, and ordinary citizens every day, who aren't using them for nefarious purposes. They're not criminal tools. They're essential for anyone using public wifi.

This is digital ID by the back door, dressed up as child safety. It is not the answer. Robust parental education is.