BREAKING: The UK government is banning children under the age of 16 from social media this week.
The formal plan goes to Parliament tomorrow.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy confirmed today the ban is coming, telling Sky News that tech companies "have had more than enough time to get their house in order" and that if they refuse to comply, they should "lose the right to market their products to children."
The ban will go further than Australia's version in two ways.
It covers AI chatbots alongside social media platforms, and it will also place daily usage limits on teenagers, not just block access entirely.
The chatbot element is significant.
The UK is specifically targeting romantic AI chatbots after several legal cases where AI systems simulating relationships encouraged children to take their own lives.
The government's public consultation received 116,000 responses, the largest response to any UK policy since the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2012.
89% of parents backed the ban. Greece, France, Indonesia, and Malaysia are all moving on similar restrictions at the same time.
The enforcement is the hardest part. To verify ages, the government is looking at using the same banking, credit card, and mobile network operator checks already used to restrict children from pornography sites.
That means every adult on every platform has to hand over financial or phone data to prove who they are.
Discord already tried collecting age verification documents in the UK after the Online Safety Act required it.
In October 2025, hackers breached a third-party provider handling those verification complaints and walked out with government ID images, selfies of users holding their IDs, names, email addresses, and billing details.
That was one platform. This ban covers every major social media app and AI chatbot in the country.
Australia went first in December 2025. Their own age estimation technology was found to be wrong by two to three years. Millions of children are still accessing platforms today.