British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday said the UK intends to block youth under age 16 from using social media, saying that his government’s plans will be the strongest kids online safety measures in the world once they take effect.

The ban will apply to all “user-to-user platforms, whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which allow users to post material, alongside algorithms,” according to a press release from the government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X and YouTube will be subject to the ban while messaging platforms like WhatsApp will not, the press release said.

AI ‘romantic companion chatbots and “intimate functionalities” on all other chatbots will be restricted for children under 18.

The UK government plans to get lawmakers legislation before Christmas and expects the ban to be enforced by spring 2027, according to the press release.

The ban will be modeled after a similar one that took effect in Australia last December, the press release said, but will go even further by including additional safeguards.

“In a move to protect children online and address the scale of the challenge, the government will also go further than a blanket ban on social media with world-leading blocks on harmful functions such as livestreaming and stranger communication with children for under-16s,” the press release said. 

“These restrictions – which together with the ban go further than any other country – will apply to a wider range of online services, including on gaming sites.” 

Outdoing Australia

The UK also plans to require “highly effective age assurance” methods, which go beyond those Australia has in place. The UK’s communications regulator has been tasked with designing those age assurance measures and is due to report back to the central government with a plan by October.

Further measures will be announced next month, the press release said, including possible overnight curfews and required “breaks in infinite scrolling” for teens under 18.

The Australian social media ban has not succeeded at keeping large numbers of Australian youth off of the platforms, according to a study released in March by the country’s eSafety Commissioner.

Surveyed parents reported that prior to the ban taking effect nearly half had children with an account on a regulated platform. After the ban took effect, 31.3% still had an account on at least one of the platforms, the Australian government said at the time.

More than two-thirds of Australian children who still maintained accounts did so because the tech firms hadn’t asked them to verify their age, according to the study.

The UK has been conducting a series of pilot programs to test certain restrictions and held a consultation process inviting the public to weigh in. Nine in 10 of 116,000 parents surveyed back a ban, the press release said.

“I’ve heard first hand from families crying out for change and we will do right by them,” Starmer said in a statement.

“Taken together, these measures will mean a much more comprehensive model than just a blanket ban on social media — one that responds to how children experience harm online, rather than just where it happens.” 

Tech companies have been given many chances to reform their practices and have failed to do so, requiring the ban, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said in a statement.

A rapidly growing movement

Britain is one of several countries that has implemented a ban or plans to. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in February that his government would ban social media for under 16s.

"We will protect [children] from the digital Wild West," Sanchez said at the time. "Social media has become a failed state, where laws are ignored, and crimes are tolerated.”

Also in February, the new minority government in the Netherlands said it would seek a ban for children 14 and younger.

French lawmakers are working on legislation to ban children under 15 from social media. Malaysia and Turkey have bans in place for children under 16 and 15, respectively.

Some human rights and civil liberties organizations are critical of the UK’s approach.

“This is a case of the right diagnosis but the wrong prescription,” Kerry Moscogiuri, the chief executive of Amnesty International UK, said in a statement.

“The problem is not that children exist on social media; it’s that social media companies have built platforms that are unsafe by design,” the statement said. “If the diagnosis is that social media platforms are harming children, the remedy should be to regulate the platforms, not exclude children.” 

Privacy risks will be a key factor in the public debate over the ban, Joe Jonas, the director of research and insights at the IAPP, said in a statement.

Starmer’s political weakness could make it hard for the government to push the ban over the finish line, Jonas said.

“Hanging over this announcement is the extent to which the current government can move this initiative forward with political uncertainty swirling,” the statement said. “These might be the last days of the Starmer Government and enacting a social media ban might be too slippery a floor to carry a precious Ming vase over.”