What UK social media ban for children would look like as PM admits he needs to 'do more'

Joe Harker
2026-01-21T17:22:34.053Z
News

The government is considering it, but hasn't decided yet

The UK government is considering introducing a social media ban for children and is holding a three-month consultation to examine the idea.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the UK needed to 'do more' to protect children when he was asked if he thought social media access ought to be restricted by age.

Among the things considered during the consultation will be an Australian-style ban, Sky News reports, while it will also look at ways to better verify the ages of people trying to access the internet.

In December 2025, Australia implemented a social media ban for under 16s, with the Online Safety Amendment Act requiring major social media platforms to implement age verification methods such as facial estimation through selfies, uploaded ID documents, or linked bank details.

The government has already tried to do something similar with the Online Safety Act which requires people to verify their age before accessing sites containing adult content, though people have been finding ways around it with VPN usage.

Something else being looked at in the consultation is the addictive nature of social media and the impact the ability to keep scrolling through content basically forever has.

Keir Starmer has said the government needs to 'do more' to protect children online (Jordan Pettitt / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

What could a social media ban in the UK look like?

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said today (20 January): "We are determined to help parents, children and young people deal with these issues, with a lasting solution that gives children the childhood they deserve, enhances their wellbeing and prepares them for the future."

She said the upcoming consultation would look into the possibility of 'banning social media for children under 16' as well as the option of 'raising the digital age of consent to stop companies using children’s data without their or their parents’ consent'.

Other things it will be looking at include overnight curfews from the internet, enforced breaks to stop children doomscrolling and seeing how existing laws could be used to take action on age verification and VPNs.

The House of Lords is this week voting on an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which would require social media platforms to stop under 16s being on the platform.

Liz Kendall announced a three month consultation onto what a social media ban for children could look like in the UK (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

What is an Australian-style ban?

UK ministers will be going to Australia to look at how they've put their social media ban for children together, as it came into force last month (10 December, 2025).

Their social media ban targeted some of the biggest platforms on the internet, telling them to abide by the ban or be fined up to £25 million.

Unless the Australian government decides they can be excluded, websites which meet a certain criteria have age restrictions applied to them.

Sky reports that the criteria are first that: "The sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between two or more users."

Secondly: "The service allows users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end-users."

Finally: "The service allows users to post material on the service."

It's the responsibility of platforms to think about whether they fit this criteria and make the assessment themselves.

Some major platforms which could arguably fit this bill but aren't included in the ban are Discord, GitHub, Roblox, WhatsApp, YouTube Kids, Steam, Pinterest, Messenger, Lego Play and Google Classroom.

Australia has banned children from 10 of the biggest social media sites on the internet, and UK politicians will look at how their model is working (Brent Lewin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The 10 biggest platforms targeted in Australia

The Australian government has said its list of sites targeted is subject to change, but it has started with 10 of the largest on the internet which have been hit by the social media ban.

They are as follows:

Facebook

Instagram

X

Threads

Reddit

Snapchat

YouTube

TikTok

Twitch

Kick

Of these sites, all besides X have said they'll comply with the social media ban for children, and will use a method called 'age inference' where the site will guess a person's age based on their internet activity.

People will also be able to use 'age estimation' as a verification method, which is typically done by sending in a picture of oneself.

As for how a possible UK social media ban for children could take shape, that'll depend on how the consultation goes.