UK social media ban copies Australia’s under-16 model

Britain is preparing to use Australia’s under-16 social media ban as the starting point for tougher child-safety rules, giving Canberra’s contested model a second test in another large English-speaking market. The proposal would block teenagers from the main social platforms and add limits around gaming apps, including chat with strangers.

The plan, expected from UK prime minister Keir Starmer, would borrow from Australia’s under-16 model while reaching beyond the usual social media list, the Guardian reported. For Australian policymakers and platforms operating here, the UK move is an early sign of whether Canberra’s approach becomes a template other governments try to adapt.

The UK already has an Online Safety Act that places duties on online services to reduce illegal and harmful content. The new proposal would sit above that framework. It follows a UK consultation that drew 116,000 responses, according to the Guardian’s explainer, and comes as ministers in several countries look for harder age gates after years of voluntary platform tools.

Scope is the key difference. Australia’s law is built around access to named social platforms. The UK version, as described by the Guardian, would also cover features that let young users interact with unknown adults inside services not usually treated as social networks. Gaming chat, safety defaults and age-assurance workflows would be pulled into the same regulatory fight.

Australia’s rollout has delivered large headline numbers and messy enforcement questions. ABC News reported that 4.7 million under-16 accounts were locked or deactivated when the ban first took effect, but an eSafety survey of 898 parents found 70 per cent said their children still had active social media accounts six months later.

Australian communications minister Anika Wells defended the uneven start in that ABC News report, saying a world-first scheme would not arrive cleanly.

“This was always going to look untidy; it’s world-leading.”
Anika Wells, Australian communications minister

The enforcement question is the part British officials appear to be studying most closely. Age-assurance specialist Tony Allen told ABC that individual checks could still be spoofed in some cases. Children’s online safety advocate Iain Corby argued platforms had incentives to make the Australian model look weaker if they feared wider adoption.

What platforms will watch next

For Meta, TikTok, Snap, YouTube and X, the practical question is whether the UK adopts a platform-by-platform ban like Australia’s or a broader feature rule that follows teenagers across messaging, gaming and live social spaces. Reuters reported last week that Australia had restricted 10 major platforms under its under-16 rules, while European countries were also moving to curb children’s access to social media.

That would make the British proposal more than a domestic child-safety measure. If London proceeds with an Australia-plus design, platforms may face a second large-market compliance template within months, with tighter rules for services that have so far sat outside the core social-media ban.

For Canberra, the feedback loop is direct. A UK scheme that tightens Australia’s model would give the eSafety Commissioner a foreign comparison point as Australia’s own ban moves from launch politics into compliance evidence, parent behaviour and platform enforcement data.