The United Kingdom is considering banning children under the age of 16 from using social media and raising the digital age of consent to curb the use of children’s data without proper authorisation.
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Liz Kendall, disclosed this on Tuesday while addressing lawmakers at the House of Commons in London.
Kendall said the government is closely studying Australia’s approach, which introduced a landmark ban on social media use for under-16s in December 2025.
The Australian policy restricts children from creating or maintaining accounts on platforms such as Meta-owned Facebook, Instagram and Threads, as well as TikTok, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, Snapchat and Twitch.
The move was aimed at safeguarding young people’s mental health and protecting them from harmful online environments. Under the policy, technology companies that fail to comply with strict age verification and access control measures face fines of up to $32 million.
As part of plans to adopt a similar framework, the UK government intends to consult widely with parents, experts, organisations representing children and bereaved families, technology firms, as well as children and young adults.
According to Kendall, the consultation will examine issues such as overnight social media curfews, excessive screen time and doomscrolling, stricter enforcement of existing age-verification laws, and the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass online protections.
“We will also be developing evidence-based screen time guidance for parents of children aged five to 16,” Kendall told the lower chamber of parliament.
She added that the government is ready to address growing concerns from parents, teachers, doctors and other stakeholders about children’s screen use both at home and in schools.
Last week, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson announced that screen time guidance for children under the age of five is being developed and will be released in April 2026.
Meanwhile, the UK government has issued updated guidance on the use of mobile phones in schools, with the education watchdog, Ofsted, mandated to monitor compliance during inspections.
In addition, the government has made intimate image abuse and cyberflashing priority offences, while also criminalising the use of artificial intelligence tools to generate child sexual abuse material.
