'Designed to be addictive': UK bans social media for under-16s

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that the UK will ban children under 16 from all major social media platforms, following a similar move by Australia in December and citing mounting evidence of harm to young people's mental health and wellbeing.

"Social media is making children unhappy. It's making it easier for bullies to harass and abuse them, and it could even be harming their mental health," Starmer said, adding that platforms were exposing children to dangerous content "because that's what grabs the attention — it's designed to be addictive." Speaking as a parent of two, Starmer acknowledged the ban was "not cost-free" and that social media had brought genuine benefits to young people, but said a full ban was nonetheless the right choice.

The ban, which could come into force as early as spring 2027, will be enforced through age verification measures overseen by media regulator Ofcom, which will carry out a rapid study to identify the most effective methods. Options under consideration include facial recognition checks. Most adults will not need to re-verify their age, the government said, as existing account history, credit card links, or prior checks under the Online Safety Act will be sufficient.

The announcement drew immediate pushback from Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, which said a ban would not keep teenagers safe and risked "isolating teens from online communities and information, driving them to unregulated alternatives that lack built-in protections." Meta argued that restrictions should instead be enforced at the device level rather than requiring users to hand over identification to individual platforms.

England's Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza welcomed the announcement but called for the ban to be extended to all under-18s and said the debate needed to shift from banning children to banning companies that failed to demonstrate their platforms were safe. "This is a decision that will define childhood," she said, noting that children themselves wanted an end to addictive design, explicit content, and unwanted contact from strangers online.

Civil liberties campaigners have raised concerns about the privacy implications of age verification tools, including the risk of biometric data being compromised. The use of VPNs to circumvent the ban is also expected to pose an enforcement challenge, a point Starmer addressed directly. "We don't say, 'Oh look, a teenager managed to get a drink somehow, so let's not bother banning alcohol sales to children,'" he said. "Laws are rules. But they're also an expression of our values."