‘Tech firms are losing the public’: social media age bans near tipping point

The UK plans to have a social media ban in place by spring 2027. Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty View image in fullscreen The UK plans to have a social media ban in place by spring 2027. Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty Analysis ‘Tech firms are losing the public’: social media age bans near tipping point Dan Milmo Global technology editor UK is latest country to set minimum age for social media access but big tech is fighting back globally against curbs Social media bans go global: big tech faces a reckoning after Australia’s crackdown Arturo Béjar, a former employee turned whistleblower at Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, has talked to parents around the world. He says they share the same perspective: they dread the day their children are old enough to go online. Governments appear to be listening too. This month the UK became the latest country to state that it would set a minimum age of 16 for accessing major social media platforms. Social media bans are becoming a legislative trend after the precedent set by Australia last year, when it imposed an age limit on platforms including Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Elon Musk’s X, TikTok and Snapchat. “I’ve spoken to parents from several countries, and I have yet to meet a parent of young kids who is not dreading when they’re old enough to go online. Or a young person who has not experienced something awful and preventable,” Béjar said. View image in fullscreen In the US, tech companies have been lobbying against the Kids Online Safety Act. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters Béjar, 55, was a senior engineer and consultant at Meta. He was a witness at recent trials in the US that ruled Meta was liable for deliberately designing addictive products and had misled consumers about the safety of its platforms. The trial in California in particular received coverage that will not have dissuaded politicians around the world from taking action. “They [social media platforms] keep showing the world why we can’t trust them,” he said. Meta said it disagreed with the verdicts and would appeal, and said the “profoundly complex” issue of teenagers’ mental health could not be reduced to a single cause, adding that it remained committed to building “safe, supportive environments for young people”. People’s lack of trust is manifesting itself in action. Indonesia and Malaysia have introduced bans for under-16s on certain platforms, while Austria, France and Norway are also looking at age restrictions. Brazil has introduced a blanket mobile phone ban in schools, and children under the age of 16 are allowed to access social media only if it is linked to a parent’s account. Global map showing different stages of social media age-restriction policies in different countries The UK plans to have a ban in place by spring 2027, while Canada is also going to bar under-16s from platforms unless those apps implement adequate safeguards. In the US, the home of the big powers in social media and of the first amendm