{"id":62956,"date":"2026-06-14T22:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/62956\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T22:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T22:37:07","slug":"phone-curfew-for-under-18s-and-no-tiktok-how-uk-social-media-ban-will-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/62956\/","title":{"rendered":"Phone curfew for under-18s and no TikTok: How UK social media ban will work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce that the Government is pushing forward with a ban on social media for under-16s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The UK is expected to go further than a similar ban in Australia, with measures to stop teenagers using certain platforms, as well as curbing the daily usage for 16 and 17-year-olds.<\/p>\n

While some details of the policy remain unclear, here\u2019s what to expect from Starmer\u2019s plan which will be announced on Monday. <\/p>\n

Ban on social media sites<\/p>\n

The UK will follow Australia in banning teenagers under the age of 16<\/a> from accessing some of the world\u2019s biggest social media platforms.<\/p>\n

Platforms hit by the UK ban will include TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.<\/p>\n

In Australia, under-16s are banned from using ten platforms, with Facebook, YouTube and Reddit also forbidden.<\/p>\n

A government source told The i Paper that the ban would not designate a set number of sites, because the policy would have to be flexible to change with the times.<\/p>\n

The messaging platform WhatsApp is not expected to be included in the ban.<\/p>\n

Curfews for older teenagers<\/p>\n

As well as the outright ban for under-16s, the Government wants to introduce curfews for 16 and 17-year-olds.<\/p>\n

The idea of the curfews would be to prevent older teenagers from engaging in unhealthy late-night scrolling habits, which parents and teachers blame for damaging young people\u2019s mental health and educational attainment.<\/p>\n

The i Paper understands that the precise details on the curfews will not be outlined on Monday, but Starmer\u2019s announcement will set a direction of travel towards the curbs.<\/p>\n

Chatbots and gaming<\/p>\n

The Government will introduce restrictions on romantic or sexual chatbots, while children will also be blocked from having conversations with strangers on gaming platforms.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said banning social media would not be a \u201csilver bullet solution\u201d, but needed to be part of a \u201cbasket of measures\u201d.<\/p>\n

What has the PM said about the ban?<\/p>\n

Ahead of the announcement, Starmer said: \u201cHow we keep kids safe online is one of the biggest debates of our time. As a dad, I know every parent wants their child to grow up safe and happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a choice about whose side we\u2019re on: families across the country, or a status quo that isn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople rightly expect action, and this government will always stand up for parents and put children first.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we will call time on a system that\u2019s failing our kids and take bold action to give every child the best possible start in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do parents think?<\/p>\n

In the Government\u2019s consultation on a social media ban, nine in ten parents said they supported a minimum age of 16 before platforms can offer their services to children<\/a>. Eighty-three per cent said that social media risks outweigh the benefits for children.<\/p>\n

However, not everyone agrees on an outright ban. Ian Russell \u2013 the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life after viewing harmful content online \u2013 said he thought that Starmer had \u201crushed\u201d the plan for political reasons, which he said was \u201cdeplorable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Molly Rose Foundation argues that a ban \u201cwill fail to tackle fundamental product safety risks and leave parents with a false sense of safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

Feryal Clark, the Labour MP for Enfield North who co-chairs the Digital Creators All-Party Parliamentary Group, has meanwhile raised concerns about young people losing access to educational content on platforms like YouTube.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cHigh-quality, creator-led educational video content is a critical public resource and is not the same thing as media.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny legislative intervention must address this distinction,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

What don\u2019t we know?<\/p>\n

It is not yet clear when the ban will come into effect. However, the Children\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Act passed earlier this year gives ministers the ability to introduce new measures to restrict harmful features on online services without needing to pass new laws. This means there is potential for the ban to be introduced quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce that the Government is pushing forward with a ban on social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[10218,393,1474,142,1598,5,6],"class_list":["post-62956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-children","tag-facebook","tag-online-safety","tag-social-media","tag-tiktok","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116750860075830097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}