Social media to be fully banned for under-16s in UK.

[TheSword]

It’s all over the British news but social media will be banned in spring 2027 for under 16s in the UK.

Ban will broadly follow the Australian model, which has banned Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Kick, Reddit, Threads, Twitch, X and YouTube. Bluesky, some dating apps and livestreaming sites are also likely to be covered.

Platforms such as Discord, Roblox, Pinterest, YouTube Kids and WhatsApp are not banned. Educational services, e-commerce, libraries, museums and music streaming platforms are also expected to be exempt.”

The UK is going further than Australia by banning certain features on any platform for under-16s, such as stranger communication and children streaming themselves in real-time or near-real-time while gaming.

There are other possible measures for 16 and 17-year-olds that will be unveiled next month, including night time curfews and restrictions on features that encourage “compulsive overuse”, such as infinite scroll.

Doesn’t look like it will apply to EnWorld. I guess it’s a small player. Not sure if there are fundamental
differences between here and something like Reddit though, perhaps the algorithms.

 

[Scribe]

Pretty sure Canada is doing the same I saw, or at least proposed it.

 

[Minion X]

I for one am shocked that they are hanging those over 16 out to dry.

 

[TheSword]

I for one am shocked that they are hanging those over 16 out to dry.

It would be a better world without them, there’s no doubt. But it’s a good start.

 

[TheSword]

it’s going to be interesting to find out which streamers have been making a fortune off subscriptions off kids this whole time.

 

[jian]

It’s all over the British news but social media will be banned in spring 2027 for under 16s in the UK.

Ban will broadly follow the Australian model, which has banned Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Kick, Reddit, Threads, Twitch, X and YouTube. Bluesky, some dating apps and livestreaming sites are also likely to be covered.

Platforms such as Discord, Roblox, Pinterest, YouTube Kids and WhatsApp are not banned. Educational services, e-commerce, libraries, museums and music streaming platforms are also expected to be exempt.”

The UK is going further than Australia by banning certain features on any platform for under-16s, such as stranger communication and children streaming themselves in real-time or near-real-time while gaming.

There are other possible measures for 16 and 17-year-olds that will be unveiled next month, including night time curfews and restrictions on features that encourage “compulsive overuse”, such as infinite scroll.

Doesn’t look like it will apply to EnWorld. I guess it’s a small player. Not sure if there are fundamental
differences between here and something like Reddit though, perhaps the algorithms.

The Conversation articles about this are quite informative (as usual). The Australian ban wasn’t very effective initially - only about 30% of young people reported being significantly affected by the ban and there was an uptick in less popular social media platforms such as Rednote. The concurrent ban on phones in schools (which is just legislation of currently common policy) seems to help.

The Australian ban is notable for the different reactions of different media platforms - some basically didn’t do anything (not even adding a “confirm you’re over 16” button) and some put in facial recognition and similar since presumably they thought things would get more strict, not less. I think this sort of thing is probably only going to get more common and more strict.

The onus will still be more on parents (and schools) than on the social media companies, I think, but hopefully many parents will be glad for the support from the legislation.

 

[Evaniel]

 

[billd91]

 

[R_J_K75]

I'm not very computer savvy these days, nowhere what I was 20 years ago. I wonder how enforceable this will be without parents taking the initiative? What's to stop a kid 16 or under from deleting their old accounts and just creating another with an age over 16 if they wanted? Will say Facebook and other apps know that someone at that IP address who was under 16 had an account and block the new account?

 

[Morrus]

I'm not very computer savvy these days, nowhere what I was 20 years ago. I wonder how enforceable this will be without parents taking the initiative? What's to stop a kid 16 or under from deleting their old accounts and just creating another with an age over 16 if they wanted? Will say Facebook and other apps know that someone at that IP address who was under 16 had an account and block the new account?

What's to stop a kid from buying alcohol? What's to stop a murderer from doing a murder? Obviously there are people who will circumvent any law. That's not a reason not to have laws.