The Government has announced new age-based restrictions on children’s access to certain social media platforms and functionalities as part of the UK’s next phase of children’s online safety regulation.
This blog explores what Government must do to ensure the new restrictions make children safer, drawing on findings from Internet Matters Pulse, a survey of 1,000 children and 2,000 parents, conducted between April and May 2026.
Summary
- The Government announced in June 2026 plans to restrict select social media platforms from offering services to under-16s from Spring 2027.
- It has also announced restrictions on some risky features, including livestreaming and stranger contact, and action on sexualised AI chatbots.
- To work effectively, the new rules must capture the right services, be backed by effective and privacy-preserving age assurance, and be monitored to understand whether they are improving children’s safety and wellbeing.
- Further action is also needed beyond the restrictions announced, including on other risky features and functionalities, AI chatbots and practical support for families.
What has the Government announced – and why does it matter?
In June 2026, the Government announced a major development in the UK’s approach to children’s online safety. The UK will restrict select social media platforms from offering services to children under 16, and require services to limit children hosting livestreams and communicating with strangers. The Government also announced that under-18s will be prevented from accessing AI chatbots designed for sexual relationships or sexualised content, as well as sexually explicit interactions on general-purpose chatbots. Government is expected provide a further update on its proposals in July 2026, alongside further actions.
Our latest data shows why this action is needed. A year ago, the Online Safety Act’s Protection of Children Codes were introduced to improve children’s safety, yet many children continue to experience a wide range of harms online. Internet Matters Pulse finds that one in five (20%) children have been contacted by a stranger, while 16% have come across content promoting unrealistic body images and 14% have seen violent content. Issues like the amount of time children are spending online are also not well addressed by the legislation.
“My screentime is like 8 hours a day and in that time I’m not doing anything else. I’m just eating, then going on my phone, then going on my iPad. I’m just on my phone and I’m forgetting about homework.” – Girl, 12
“I definitely say I spend a lot of time on my phone. I’m on it at 3AM on a school night.” – Girl, 16
What needs to happen for the new restrictions to work
For the Government’s proposed age-based restrictions to work in practice, three things are needed.
1. The rules must capture the right services
Children use a wide range of online spaces, including social media, gaming services, messaging apps, video-sharing platforms and AI tools. We also know that harm occurs on a range of platforms, not just social media. For instance, a quarter of children (26%) tell us they have experienced harm on messaging services such as Facebook Messenger, iMessage and WhatsApp in the last 12 months. Furthermore, 42% of children report experiencing harm on gaming services including Fortnite and Roblox.
If the rules apply only to a narrow set of platforms, there is a risk that children continue to encounter similar harms on services outside the scope of the new regulation. To be effective, the Government’s approach must focus on the breadth of environments where children experience harm and be regularly reviewed as services adapt and new features and functionalities emerge.
2. Age assurance must work in practice
Age assurance will be central to making the Government’s proposals work. If services cannot or do not reliably identify whether a user is under 16, they will not be able to enforce age restrictions or apply age-appropriate safeguards. Government and Ofcom should consider which approaches, including device-level options, are most likely to work in practice for children and families.
This must come alongside strong enforcement, because existing data shows us what happens when social media platforms are left to regulate who can access their platforms. Internet Matters Pulse shows many children are using services with stated minimum ages of 13: 54% of UK children aged 9-12 use WhatsApp, 33% use TikTok and 24% use Snapchat.
Current age checks encountered by children are also seen as easy to bypass, and many children have bypassed them: 32% of children said they had bypassed age checks in a two-month period using methods such as entering a fake birthdate (13%), using someone else’s login (9%) or device (8%), using a VPN (7%) and in some instances, drawing on facial hair. Not only does this show the need for effective age-checks but also a need for supporting parents and carers to understand the ways in which children may circumvent them.
3. Government and Ofcom must outline what success looks like and monitor progress
The success of the new rules should be judged by whether they improve children’s online safety and wellbeing.
Government and Ofcom should monitor how the rules are implemented, whether age checks are working as intended, and whether children are still exposed to similar harms on services outside the scope of the restrictions. This should include listening to children and parents, tracking children’s reported experiences of harm, and requiring services to provide evidence that their safety measures are working in practice.
This monitoring should also look at whether harm shifts between different types of services after the restrictions are introduced. If children move from restricted platforms to other online spaces with similar features but fewer safeguards, the policy may not deliver the improvement in safety that families expect.
What further action is needed
Three key areas for further action were missing from the Government announcement.
1. Regulate AI chatbots accessed by children
Government should go further on regulating AI chatbots. Its proposed action on sexualised AI chatbots is welcome, but regulation also needs to address the wider risks AI chatbots can pose to children.
AI chatbot use is growing among children, with 71% now saying they have used an AI chatbot, compared with 63% a year ago. Our research shows that children use AI chatbots for a range of purposes, including schoolwork, advice, emotional support and companionship. These uses can create risks around harmful advice, over-reliance, emotional dependency, and children being exposed to responses that are not appropriate for their age or needs.
Government should require AI chatbot providers to design age-appropriate experiences for children, including safeguards around sensitive advice, emotionally responsive interactions, companion-style features and user-created bots.
This must come alongside stronger media literacy support as AI becomes more embedded in children’s lives, including in education. Our recent blog shows that children do not currently have equal access to the knowledge and guidance they need to use AI safely and critically, risking wider inequalities.
2. Address high-risk features not covered by the announcement
Government should regulate the risky features that its June 2026 announcement did not address. This includes disappearing content, which can perpetuate harmful practices like intimate-image abuse. New requirements to limit nude image-sharing at the device level should also apply to services themselves, so platforms have clear responsibilities to prevent, disrupt and respond to harmful image-sharing.
Persuasive design features were also not covered by the announcement. Internet Matters Pulse shows that 35% of parents support removing features intended to keep children on platforms for longer, while 34% support restricting certain functionalities for under-16s. This support reflects wider concerns about screen time: 73% of parents are concerned about their child spending too much time online, while 39% of children say they spend too much time online.
Services should be expected to remove children’s access to design features and functionalities that encourage prolonged or compulsive use and make it harder to disengage, including infinite scroll, autoplay, recommender systems, notifications and streaks.
3. Provide support and guidance for families
Government must provide practical support to children and families. Parents tell us they want a role in keeping children safe online: 74% favour parental approval beyond age 13 when children create accounts on social media platforms and other online services. Families also need tools that are easier, clearer and more consistent across services, with 83% of parents agreeing that parental controls should be standardised across online platforms.
Families also need clear guidance to help them navigate children’s online lives. This should include advice on age-appropriate services, parental controls, screen time and online safety issues, as well as support to identify high-quality content that is reliable, enriching and suitable for children’s age and stage of development.
What next for Internet Matters?
At Internet Matters, we will continue to track children’s and parents’ experiences through Internet Matters Pulse. We will also continue to support families with practical guidance while holding Government, regulators and industry to account for creating safer, age-appropriate online experiences for children.
For further insights into our Pulse data, check out our interactive webpage and for more detail on how Internet Matters believes Government can create safer, age-appropriate online experiences for children, read our blog here.
For advice and guidance on how to support and safeguard children’s ahead of a social media ban, head to Internet Matters hub.
