This website uses cookies to help us understand the way visitors use our website. We can't identify you with them and we don't share the data with anyone else. If you click Reject we will set a single cookie to remember your preference. Find out more in our privacy policy.

Easy Read

Donate

Easy Read

Donate

Easy News – Social media ban

An Easy News article explaining the new social media ban for people under 16.

Easy News – Social media ban

Easy Read home

    1. The Government has said it will ban children under 16 from social media.

    2. They haven’t decided on the details of this ban yet, but say there will be new rules for websites in early 2027.

    3. The ban will be for sites including TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and X (which used to be called Twitter). These sites are all types of social media where users can create and post their own content.

    4. Websites will need to know the age of people before letting them make an account. Many websites know this already, but some websites will need to find out.

    5. This will mean some websites will introduce Age Verification. This could include making everyone who wants to use the website upload a picture of their face.

    6. The Government thinks that social media is making people unhappy and is made to be addictive. They think that children are not old enough to decide if they want to use it or not.

    7. They asked parents and found that 9 out of 10 parents agreed that a ban would be a good thing, Australia already has a ban like this.

    8. The Government has also said it's not right that adults can message children when they are playing online games. This might lead to a ban on messaging in games for people under 16.

    9. Some people think the ban is a bad idea. They think children will just start to use Virtual Private Networks (also known as VPNs) to get around the ban.

    10. VPNs hide the user’s location, making it possible for them to avoid following the rules in their own country.

    11. Some people worry that making websites collect more information about their users will make the internet harder to use for everyone.

    12. Many adults won’t need to do checks because they’ve already got an account that has been open more than 16 years, has a credit card connected to it, or is linked to an email address that’s age-verified in other way.

    13. Companies that do not check the ages of their users properly could be made to pay a fine worth 10% of all of the money they make in year. A fine is a payment charged as punishment for breaking a law.

    14. No one will know for sure whether or not the ban will work until it happens.

    Back to top