If you have a child in Year 6 or Year 7, you have probably had the conversation already. Everyone else has Snapchat. Everyone else is on TikTok. And you have been trying to work out where the line sits.
That line is about to be drawn for you. In June 2026 the government announced that it intends to stop under-16s using social media in the UK, with the rules expected to come into force in spring 2027. Here is what has actually been announced, what has not been settled yet, and what it means for the next year or so in your house.
What has been announced
The announcement on 15 June 2026 followed a national consultation called Growing up in the online world, which drew more than 116,000 responses. Around nine in ten parents who responded backed a minimum age of at least 16 for social media. Notably, about two-thirds of young people who responded agreed that children under 16 should not be using some platforms.
The plan has four parts.
A minimum age of 16 for social media. The government has named Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X as the kind of services in scope. These are platforms built around posting to an audience and algorithmic feeds.
Blocks on specific risky features for younger users. Livestreaming by children and the ability for unknown adults to start conversations with them are to be restricted, and this extends beyond social media to services such as gaming sites.
A separate, stricter rule on romantic AI chatbots. This one is worth reading carefully, because the age is different. AI companions built around sexual or romantic role play are to be restricted to over-18s, not over-16s, and other AI chat apps will have to lock down intimate functions for anyone under 18. The government says this makes the UK the first country to bar under-18s from that kind of chatbot.
Default settings for 16 and 17 year olds. Announced on 15 July 2026, these follow a pilot involving more than 300 teenagers and parents. For 16 and 17 year olds there will be an overnight curfew from midnight to 6am with notifications switched off during that window, and autoplay and personalised feeds turned off by default. These are defaults rather than locks, so an older teenager can change them.
The point of the feature blocks and the default settings is to avoid a cliff edge where a child goes from no access at all to a completely unrestricted account the morning of their sixteenth birthday.
What is not covered
This is where a lot of the confusion sits, so it is worth being clear.
- Messaging apps are not in the ban. The government has said it does not intend WhatsApp and Signal to be included.
- Services children use for schoolwork are not in the ban. Educational platforms are outside the rules.
- Shopping sites and music streaming are not in the ban.
That distinction matters for how you plan. If your eleven year old's main worry is losing touch with friends, group chats are very likely to still be there.
The timings, honestly
Nothing changes today. The first set of regulations is due to be laid before Parliament by the end of 2026, with the measures expected to come into force in spring 2027. Ofcom, the regulator, will work through the detail and has said the industry needs to go considerably further than it has so far.
Between now and then, several important questions genuinely do not have published answers yet:
- What happens to accounts under-16s already have. The published material does not say whether existing accounts will be closed, suspended or aged out gradually.
- Exactly how age will be checked. Ofcom will set out the acceptable methods. Age checks have already improved a great deal under the Online Safety Act: Ofcom's research found that the share of children meeting a genuinely effective check rose from 25 per cent to 43 per cent between July 2025 and January 2026.
- Whether parents can opt in on a child’s behalf. As things stand there is no published route for parental consent to override a minimum age. If that matters to you, it is worth watching.
We will not guess at these. When the regulations are published we will update this page.
What to do in the meantime
The temptation is to wait for the law to do the work. That is a mistake, because a rule that arrives in spring 2027 does nothing about the next eighteen months, and because a ban only removes access. It does not teach judgement.
A few things worth doing now.
- Do not rush to hand over an account because a ban is coming. Some parents are treating the announcement as a last chance to let a child join before the door closes. It is the opposite of a deadline.
- Set up the controls that already exist. Instagram Teen Accounts and TikTok Family Pairing both give you meaningful settings today. Our social media guide walks through both, step by step.
- Get the phone right, not just the apps. Screen time limits, app age ratings and download approvals all sit at device level, and they carry over whatever happens to individual platforms.
- Talk about the reasoning, not just the rule. A child who understands why stranger contact and livestreaming are the risky bits will handle their sixteenth birthday far better than one who has simply been waiting for a restriction to lift.
- Agree what happens instead. If social media is off the table for a couple of years, the gap needs filling with something real. A written family agreement is a good way to make that a shared decision rather than a punishment.
The honest summary
This is a significant change, it has broad support from parents and a fair amount from young people themselves, and it is still a plan rather than law. Treat it as a useful signal of where things are heading, plan for spring 2027, and keep doing the ordinary work in the meantime. The settings you put in place this month are the ones that will actually protect your child this year.