The UK's big new social media ban should have under-16s everywhere feeling nervous

The UK intends to ban young kids from social media. Under a newly announced initiative, starting early next year, social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, and more will need to verify that their UK users are 16 or older, with potential fines for failing to comply.

The plan was announced today in a press release, as well as on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s YouTube channel and Substack. The UK’s plan is modeled on Australia’s ban that came into force last year and similarly bars children under the age of 16 from social media.

Australia’s plan that bars young kids from social media puts the onus on social media companies rather than parents: social platforms have to take “reasonable steps” to keep under-16s away or face penalties for failing to do so. In practice, it’s meant that Australians who want to use social media are generally required to either submit to facial scans or provide platforms with a scan of identification documents that confirm their age. The UK’s plan, explicitly based on the Australian model, would presumably play out in the same way.

Submitting biometric data or important documents to social media companies isn’t the same as flashing your ID to buy a six-pack at the corner store. Mishandled data can end up where it shouldn’t, as happened when an age verification contractor leaked photos of up to 70,000 user IDs, submitted to instant messaging platform Discord for age verification, last year. Affected platforms are also sounding the alarm, pointing out that banning kids from comparatively safe online spaces may push them to seedier corners of the web.

Starmer says that the plan is about both protecting kids online while also encouraging “children using their time in a completely different, dare I say it, more traditional way.” The UK government’s press release says that nine in 10 parents it surveyed support banning children under the age of 16 from social media.

While the US has had its own age-verification controversies, there hasn’t been any kind of national age group ban like the ones in Australia and, soon, the UK. Legislation will show up in Parliament by the end of the year, with restrictions tentatively planned to go into effect next spring.