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Leading social media companies have cast doubt on the effectiveness of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s social media ban for under-16s. The prime minister announced the ban in response to concerns social media is unsafe, making children miserable and could cause lasting damage to their mental health. The restrictions, set to be passed by Christmas and in place by spring next year, will leave technology firms, rather than children, liable for enforcement action if they fail to comply. The plans are modelled on a similar ban in Australia, but the gGovernment has aimed to learn from the mistakes of the restrictions imposed there, and has gone further with new limits aimed at preventing children from speaking to strangers while gaming online. Leading tech firms spoke up against Starmer’s plans following the announcement, warning that a blanket ban on social media for under-16s could drive them into unregulated online spaces. Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company of both Facebook and Meta, said it shared the government’s ‘goal of keeping teens safe online’, pointing to its development of teenage accounts which ‘automatically limit who can contact them and the content they see’. But a spokesperson for the company added: ‘Like others, we don’t think bans will achieve this goal. ‘As we’ve seen in Australia, bans risk isolating teens from online communities and information, and driving them to unregulated alternatives that lack built-in protections and parental controls. ‘To be both effective and easy for parents, any restrictions must be underpinned by an age verification system on devices so people aren’t asked to hand over ID to dozens of individual services to prove their age. ‘We will continue to engage with the government and Ofcom as they work to implement this policy.’ Alphabet Inc’s YouTube similarly warned that the bank could push children toward ‘less safe services’. A YouTube spokesperson said: ‘We’ve invested in expert-led, age-appropriate experiences and default protections for teens for over a decade and will continue to do so. ‘YouTube is a vital resource for young people, educators and parents. ‘Blanket bans push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less safe services.’ The prime minister suggested in his Monday morning announcement there would be a carve-out for online learning tools such as YouTube Kids. A spokesperson for ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok said the company would ‘examine the details of the government’s measures’ and looked forward to ‘collaborating constructively with the government on this important issue’. The spokesperson said: ‘We share the government’s goal of safe online experiences for teens, which is why teen accounts on TikTok have more than 50 pre-set safety and privacy settings, such as private accounts, and we continue to invest in the latest technologies to advance platform safety.’ The company said it welcomed that other platforms would be required to adopt measures it had already implemented, and warned children could be driven to less safe parts of the internet if protections did not apply across the board. source: PA Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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