Under-16s in the UK will be banned from using social media by spring next year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced, in a major new restriction on children’s online access.
The move follows a government consultation in which 89% of 9,499 parents and carers backed a legal minimum age for social media, with 88% supporting a threshold of under-16s.
Platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X will be included in the ban. Messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal will be exempt. Details on enforcement have not yet been confirmed.
The announcement has prompted questions over how effective the measure will be in practice.
Katharine Hill, UK director of Care for the Family and author of Left to Their Own Devices, told Premier Christian News her views on regulation have changed as concerns about children’s wellbeing have grown.
“I used to think it was the state overstepping the mark and interfering in family life… but I have changed my mind, because I think the dangers have increased, and there is so much more now at stake," she said.
She added that concerns about mental health and online harm had influenced her shift in position:
"At Care for the Familt we have a bereaved parents network and bereaved parent support, and we hear their stories, as are reported in the media as well, of children who have taken their lives, but other children who are really suffering with self-harm, mental well-being, anxiety.”
She continued: “I saw the graphs that measure children's levels of anxiety and mental well ill health, and those graphs spike upwards in 2007 2010 and that is exactly the same time that the iPhone was introduced, exactly the same time that Instagram came on in the front-facing camera. So I don't think we can blame it all on technology, but I think common sense means there has to be a connection.”
Hill also pointed to evidence of reduced sleep, attention problems and increased dependency on devices.
“There's quite a lot of evidence about the lack of sleep that children are getting, the lack of social interaction, what's called attention fragmentation, so distraction, you know, loss of attention, and finally addiction, and that's a very loose term, probably not really talking about clinical addiction there, but actually just that feeling of parents thinking I cannot get this child off their phone or other device," she said.
Hill acknowledged enforcement would be difficult but said the principle was similar to other age restrictions.
“It is going to be difficult to enforce, but a lot of 15-year-olds can sneak into an off-license with fake ID and buy a bottle of vodka. We don't then say, 'Well, let's not have any laws about alcohol.' So I think it's a cultural message that will strengthen the arm of parents," she said.
She added that parents would still play the central role in setting boundaries.
“Have conversations, have conversations with them, explain the dangers, explain why. To be honest, they're probably going to get around some of it anyway, but that's not the point," she said.
The government says the ban is aimed at improving children’s mental health and online safety, though questions remain over how it will be implemented.