With an announcement by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the United Kingdom joins Australia in banning social media for minors. But enforcing the ban won’t be easy.
After Australia, this time it is the United Kingdom that announces the next one ban on access to social media for children under 16 years. The measure was announced yesterday by the British Prime Minister Keir Starmerand will come into force in the spring of 2027. The ban, as in the case of Australia, was justified by the Prime Minister with the need to safeguard the little ones.
According to Starmer, in fact, “Social media is making kids miserable,” “they are making it easier for bullies to harass and abuse them, and may even harm their mental health by exposing them to harmful content, because that is what gets them attention.”
Australia Plus model
Hence the announcement of the tender, with the British plan which takes the Australian model as a reference but expands it, so much so that the Guardian defined it as “Australia plus“.
In fact, the restrictions extend beyond traditional social appsalso touching on some functions of online gaming and communication services.
The services mentioned in the advert include Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Xwhile messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal are not expected to be affected, as are education, e-commerce and music streaming platforms.
The ban announced by the Prime Minister also provides for the blocking features such as live streaming and contacting unknown users on a wider range of online servicesincluding gaming, and these protections will remain active by default even for 16-17 year olds, so as not to automatically lose them upon turning 16.
The provision also concerns artificial intelligence, in particular i chatbot “companion” designed to simulate romantic or sexual relationships, which must impose a minimum age of 18.
The difficulties of the Australia plus model
However, the experience of Australia itself indicates that such a ban will be difficult to implement. The central issue remains age verification. The government talks about a “highly effective” system for confirming age, but the technical standard has not yet been set.
The Australian experience also shows that determined kids and VPNs continue to pose a problemalthough platforms like Snapchat claim to base verification on account usage history and not network location alone.
For their part, Meta, YouTube and Snapchat have warned that the ban could push teenagers towards less regulated platformswhile Starmer acknowledged that some users will find ways to circumvent the rules, reiterating however that enforcement difficulties are not a reason to give up on the measure.
The problems caused by social media to minors
While the methods and timing of the ban sought by the British government are certainly questionable, the overuse of social networks seems to be increasingly associated with depression and anxietyidentifying in some cases a dose-effect relationship between time spent online and symptoms.
In 2023, for example, Dr Vivek Murthy of the US Surgeon General had released a formal public statement entitled, Social Media and Youth Mental Healthin which he had spoken about Growing evidence of a link between social media and worsening youth mental healthwith a more pronounced impact on teenage girls, linked to online bullying, eating disorders and sleep quality.
In November last year, an internal study by the company dubbed “Project Mercury“.
Meta’s internal investigation (carried out in collaboration with the survey company Nielsen) found that users who deactivated their Facebook account even for just a week showed a net reduction in depression, anxiety, loneliness and negative social comparison.
However, it should be noted that there is not yet a single scientific consensus on the matter; Despite this, more and more governments seem to be moving towards an iron fist on social media, and the United Kingdom has decided to join the list.
