{"id":74032,"date":"2026-06-15T08:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/74032\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T08:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:30:11","slug":"uk-bans-social-media-for-under-16s-ai-romantic-chatbots-for-under-18s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/74032\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Bans Social Media for Under-16s, AI Romantic Chatbots for Under-18s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe social media ban for children under the age of 16 in the U.K. is official, with legislation set to finalized for a formal launch in 2027. Prime Minister and Labour Party boss Keir Starmer unveiled landmark legislation on Monday, which will make the likes of X,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0YouTube, SnapChat<\/a> and\u00a0TikTok<\/a> unavailable to under-16s in a move that follows the lead of Australia, where such a ban was launched late last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot covered are messaging services, such as WhatsApp. The government said that the ban will formally launch by spring 2027 once legislation is finalized.<\/p>\n

\n\tPromising \u201cworld-leading action,\u201d the U.K. government said on Monday: \u201cChildren will be given back their childhoods,\u201d with\u00a0\u201cless time for scrolling and more time for play.\u00a0The plans will set a new normal for future generations, kickstarting a cultural shift and driving forward the government\u2019s fight to give every child the best start in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded the administration: \u201cThe government\u00a0plans\u00a0to use the same model for a social media ban as Australia. This would capture user-to-user platforms, whose purpose is to enable social interaction and\u202fwhich allow users to post material, alongside algorithms. The ban will therefore include platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram,\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and X. We do not intend for messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to be included in the social media ban.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe goal is to \u201ccapture user-to-user platforms, whose purpose is to enable social interaction and\u202fwhich allow users to post material, alongside algorithms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMedia regulator Ofcom, which is tasked with working out details, said: \u201cSo far, Ofcom has driven some of the strongest changes of any online safety regulation in the world, from widespread age checks to grooming protections for children. But the industry needs to go much further to make people safe. The Government has entrusted us to build on this progress with new measures to protect children, and we\u2019re ready to work closely with them as the detailed regulations take shape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSaid Starmer: \u201cParents want to keep their kids safe and happy, but the online world has made that harder than ever. I\u2019ve heard firsthand from families crying out for change and we will do right by them. That\u2019s why we\u2019re going further than any country in the world by banning social media for under-16s and putting wider protections in place to give kids their childhood back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd he concluded: \u201cThis is a line in the sand. Tech giants had their chance and failed, but we\u2019re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe government also highlighted the rise of \u201cso-called AI<\/a> \u2018romantic companion\u2019 chatbots \u2013 designed to simulate sexual relationships or roleplay with users\u201d that will \u201chave to enforce a minimum age of 18. Similar intimate functionalities will be restricted for under-18s on AI chatbots more widely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tConcluded the U.K. government: \u201cTaken together, these measures will\u202fmean a much more comprehensive model than just a blanket ban on social media \u2014 one that responds to how children experience harm online, rather than just where it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The social media ban for children under the age of 16 in the U.K. is official, with legislation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,1471,25,1148,898,2588,756],"class_list":["post-74032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artifical-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-facebook","tag-international","tag-snapchat","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}