UK to ban Social Media for under 16s .. will we/EU follow suit? Is it enough?

I think it's a great idea. Sunak's government passed the Online Safety Act but I think banning social media for under-16s is much more important. I think every account should be credit card-verified to get round the issue of VPNs. Unfortunately, the Brits adore banning things so VPNs' days may be numbered as well.

I'd be all for a smartphone ban as well. No good reason for children to have them.

Who is going to enforce this ban? Because it doesn't seem to be working with things like knife crime, anti-social behaviour, sexual assault, drug trafficking, violence in schools and a load of other crimes that 16 year olds get away with on a daily basis.

I think we’ve come too far to reverse things- strong clear education from early years may work for future generations - but banning it just sends it underground - you can supervise what you can see happening - if your under 16 is using social media away from the family setting unknown to the family due to a legal ban, that makes for a very vulnerable teen in my view - education and ongoing parental support guidance and interest as to what the teens are engaging in online is the only way forward

They've tried this in Australia. Too early to say success or failure. But plenty of criticism of it so far. Youre dealing with teens. They will find a way around it no bother. But other hand with dont reduce beer or cigs to 16 because some do it.

However, I do not believe this is about child safety, but rather about controlling narratives and information.

60% of 12-15-year-olds in Australia are still using the platforms.

Or their parents were stopping them, so it could easily be 100% of kids who were using SM before the ban still are.

Addicted to snake we were.

only was around it is for the likes of Facebook and TikTok to detect VPN usage and enforce it but there never going to do that as would cost them millions in lost revenue. Rte player is actually surprisingly good at it to detect VPN usage, one of the best sites I’ve seen for it. Porno sites would never invest in it. Other options really is lock down windows and iPhones and androids and have to confirm your over 16.

There’s no real way of stopping but they need to make it harder to bypass.

Bring back the landline in the sitting room, where if you wanted to chat up a girl you had to do it in front of your folks while they were watching Coronation Street

Edit ... sarcasm

A smart phone is an incredible tool. The phone isn't the problem. It's the social media apps that are designed to mess with our reward circuitry. The very first thing it asks after you install it is to give it permission to send you notifications. Then it turns into a slot machine where every *ding* becomes a spin of the wheels and you might get something interesting. Variable ratio reward schedule. Those crack like shorts/reels. The endless scroll with a flick of a thumb giving us a squirt of dopamine seeking out novelty. The For You curated feeds based on algorithmic recommendations. The ultimate for these companies is to get people addicted since all they want is to keep people on them for as long as possible so they can throw ads at them - the attention economy. We know they are addictive, deliberately so, so the rationale is that children shouldn't have access to apps that cause behavioural addiction. Is it right that a child is watching something stupid like Alphabet Lore and then has to endure a 30 second ad for scumbags like Tony Bet? Nothing stopping teens having phones and they can still access whatsapp et al to contact their social circle. Surely removing exposure to the social engineering of social media is a good thing.

It's nothing to do with protecting children, all about trying to get rid of anonymity online for adults, only way they can prove whether you are over 16 is photo ID has to be provided, so in order to "protect the children" if you want to use social media they'll try and push it through eventually so that you have to scan in your passport,drivers licence etc and your online anonymity and ability to say whatever you want is gone.

Thanks for letting me know the difference between a tablet and a phone. I honestly thought they were just HUGE phones.

Yes, that was sarcasm.

The thing is that giving a child a "dumb phone" also called for some reason a feature phone, doesn't stop them from accessing content on other devices. Most kids have tablets at home. They also might have an actual computer. Giving a child a phone that can't use a browser or apps only potentially blocks them from access through one source. BTW, many dumb phones, like nokias come with browsers. They have opera mini installed. And a nokia was top of the list on the page you provided.

A OS level block is better. It's easier for parents to administer. It would work if a child used a VPN.

Apple just released a whole suite of features that do a lot of this.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-previews-new-child-safety-features/https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-previews-new-child-safety-features/

https://www.apple.com/child-safety/https://www.apple.com/child-safety/

Iphones/ipads cost a fortune, but at this point they may be the safest devices for children.

This is not about 16 year olds, this is about forcing people to register for digital IDs similar to what Frank Abagnale told us at a google conference years ago.