LONDON (AP) — Britain will ban children under 16 from using a range of social media apps, including Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, to protect them from harmful content and excessive screen time, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday. The ban, expected to take effect early next year, makes the UK part of a growing global movement to tighten online safety for children.
Australia, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced legislation or announced age-based restrictions, while France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are studying similar approaches.
"Every parent can see it with their own eyes. Social media is making children unhappy," said Starmer, who has two teenage children.
"I've heard first hand from families crying out for change and we will do right by them." The plan received mixed reactions, with some praising Starmer for taking action and others questioning the effectiveness of a blanket ban.
YouTube and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, warned that a blanket restriction could push kids into unregulated spaces. "Blanket bans push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less-safe services," a YouTube spokesperson said.
Meta added that a ban could drive teens to online alternatives without parental controls.
Starmer acknowledged enforcement challenges but said, "I do believe we can enforce it." He added: "Teenagers drink before they should, but we do not then say, 'in which case let us abandon any attempt to stop them buying alcohol.'" The prime minister, under pressure from his own party over perceived poor leadership, said he is "not prepared to compromise on the safety and happiness of our children."
The UK will follow the model used by Australia, which last year became the first country to bar under-16s from holding social media accounts. Platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to exclude younger children could face multimillion-dollar fines.
The ban applies to Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, but not YouTube Kids or messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal. Starmer stressed enforcement will target tech companies, not children, and said the move was "a big moment for our country," going further than Australia's measures.
The government will also act to prevent strangers from contacting children on gaming and livestreaming platforms, restrict AI chatbots simulating romantic or sexual relationships to over-18s only, and consider additional measures like overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under-18s. More details are expected next month.
The decision follows a public comment period with 116,000 responses; over 90% wanted an under-16 ban. Ellen Roome, whose son took his own life at 14, welcomed the move.
"The tech companies, if they wanted to make changes, they could have done that by now. They've chosen not to do it," she said.
"We need to come down hard on them."
But critics argue age verification is difficult to enforce and a blanket ban fails to address harmful algorithms. Kate Edwards of the Molly Rose Foundation said, "This is far too easy to work around...
It does nothing to address the actual problem itself." Meta said bans risk isolating teens from online communities. Professor Jon Crowcroft of Cambridge University warned of a risk driving users to worse sites, calling policing devices "close to impossible technically."
The US has warned that regulations should be narrow and not violate free speech protections. Starmer said he expects to discuss the issue with President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in France.