Government is committed to ensuring that children have the best start in life. Preventing social media companies from offering their services to under-16s will help children have a healthier relationship with technology.

We will monitor closely how these new measures work in practice and change children’s online experiences. We will use surveys, media monitoring data, justice and health statistics to understand effects on children’s attitudes, time online, and potential harms they face. Insights from parents, young people, platforms and experts will also be critical to evaluate these policies.

We will also work with Wellcome Trust, who will be funding independent nationwide studies of the impact of the social media ban on youth mental health, with research teams working with tens of thousands of teenagers across the UK.

We plan to use the same model for social media restrictions as Australia. Their approach includes user-to-user platforms that allow users to post material, alongside algorithms, with a set of exemptions.

We will set out the final detail in regulations this year. We are going further than Australia by introducing world-leading restrictions on stranger communications to stop strangers discovering and communicating with children, including on gaming platforms.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the new social media restrictions are effective in practice and deliver meaningful protections for children. Through the ‘Growing up in the Online World’ consultation, the government sought views and evidence on circumvention and the measures that could be used to address it.

The Government is carefully considering the consultation responses and will set out its approach to addressing circumvention in its full response shortly.

Following the Government’s announcement that it will restrict social media access for under-16s, the Secretary of State asked Ofcom to conduct a rapid assessment of what will constitute highly effective age assurance and what is fair and accessible. Ofcom will publish its findings in October.

Government is considering a range of options. Any use of digital identity services would remain voluntary.

On 15 June, the government published a progress statement following the ‘Growing up in the Online World’ consultation.

This set out a package of new measures including banning social media platforms from offering their services to under 16s and restricting harmful functionalities, including stranger communication, across a wider range of services for under 16s. Restrictions on harmful functionalities will also be on by default for 16 and 17 year olds.

The government has been clear that it will consider the case for exemptions when it sets out the final detail in regulations.

We have taken a power in the Crime and Policing Act to close loopholes in the Online Safety Act regarding AI chatbots. This means unregulated chatbots will have to comply with duties under the Online Safety Act to protect their users from illegal content once the relevant legislation is passed.

Alongside this we are considering the evidence from the ‘Growing up in the online world’ consultation. Some responses felt that chatbots could support children’s wellbeing. However, we also heard concerns about how these services can provide children with harmful, misleading, or inaccurate advice.

Following the publication of the progress statement in June, we plan to provide a further update on the consultation in the coming weeks.

On 15 June, we announced that we will be banning social media companies offering their services to under 16s. The government aims to use the same definition as Australia. Their restrictions cover services which are user to user platforms, whose purpose is to enable social interaction, and which allow users to post material alongside algorithms.

Further details will be set out in regulations.

DSIT works routinely with many other departments to ensure that child online safety is embedded in their work. Examples include with DCMS and DfE to support safe offline spaces and activities for children, access to high-quality programming and content, and a modern curriculum that helps young people understand the law, social media and how to engage critically online, and with Home Office given the critical overlap with Violence Against Women and Girls and Child Sexual Abuse Material policy.

We have taken a power in the Crime and Policing Act to close loopholes in the Online Safety Act regarding AI chatbots. This means unregulated chatbots will have to comply with duties under the Online Safety Act to protect their users from illegal content once the relevant legislation is passed.

Alongside this we are considering the evidence from the ‘Growing up in the online world’ consultation. Some responses felt that chatbots could support children’s wellbeing. However, we also heard concerns about how these services can provide children with harmful, misleading, or inaccurate advice.

Following the publication of the progress statement in June, we plan to provide a further update on the consultation in the coming weeks.

Keeping children safe online is a priority for this government. On 15 June, the government published a progress statement following the ‘Growing up in the Online World’ consultation.

This announced that government were banning social media companies offering their services to children under the age of 16, preventing under 16s accessing harmful functions on a wider range of services and preventing under 18s from accessing AI chatbot services that primarily offer sexualised content and requiring AI chatbots to prevent children under 18s from accessing features that generate sexually explicit conversations.

The government will provide a further update on any curfew measures in the coming weeks.

I am grateful to my Hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme for his strong advocacy on behalf of his constituents.

Keeping children safe online is a priority for this government. We published the ‘Growing up in the Online World’ consultation, which closed on 26 May. As part of the National Conversation which ran alongside the consultation, the government engaged with children across the UK and heard directly about their experiences.

Following the consultation, the government has now set out plans to ban social media companies offering their services to children under the age of 16, prevent under 16s accessing harmful functions on a wider range of services and prevent under 18s from accessing AI chatbot services that primarily offer sexualised content and require AI chatbots to prevent children under 18s from accessing features that generate sexually explicit conversations. Government will take whatever action is need to keep children safe online.

Protecting women and girls online, including from AI-enabled harms, is a top priority for this Government as we work to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. The Online Safety Act places clear legal duties on platforms to proactively tackle illegal content which disproportionately affects women and girls, including harassment, stalking, and intimate image abuse, and to remove it swiftly where it occurs. This includes content which has been generated using AI, such as non-consensual sexual deepfakes.

We continue to tackle emerging AI harms to women and girls and have criminalised the creation of non-consensual sexual deepfakes, banned nudification apps, and taken powers to bring unregulated chatbots into scope of the Online Safety Act. We have also, through the Crime and Policing Act, introduced a new duty requiring platforms and search services to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid report. Ofcom has also introduced new hash-matching measures to help deliver our ambition that NCII victims only have to report the content once.

In our progress statement following the 'Growing up in the online world’ consultation, we have also announced that we will prevent under 18s from accessing AI chatbot services that primarily offer sexualised content and features that enable sexually explicit or sexual role-playing content.

Protecting children online is a priority. Through our recent consultation, we heard directly from 14,000 children, including those who are often underrepresented such as children with learning disabilities, who, according to research, encounter disproportionately more harm online.

On 15 June, the government published a progress statement announcing a ban on social media services from providing their services to under 16s. We recognise the need to support those with additional needs. The government is continuing to strengthen wider support for children, including access to youth services and enrichment activities in schools and beyond the classroom, backed by funding through the national youth strategy. Our approach will reduce serious harms while preserving safe, positive online spaces such as access to learning resources. We are also helping to connect trusted adults with young people, including funding mentoring through The King’s Trust.

On 15 June, the government announced its intention to ban social media companies from offering their services to under 16s. The government aims to use the same definition of social media as Australia, which covers user to user platforms whose purpose is to enable social interaction, and which allow users to post material alongside algorithms.

Additional restrictions on risky functionalities such as stranger communication and livestreaming will apply across a wider range of services for under-16s, with default-on restrictions for 16–17-year-olds. This includes gaming services.

Chatbots primarily for sexual relationships, and sexually explicit features on general-purpose chatbots, will not be available to under-18s.

Further details will be set out in regulations.

The UK and United States share a deep and close relationship, engaging across a range of economic, security and technology issues. Ministers regularly engage with US government officials and technology companies.

The UK is going further than any country in the world by banning social media companies offering their services to under-16s and putting wider protections in place to give children their childhood back.

Discussions on the Economic Prosperity Deal continue, which will look at addressing tariff and non-tariff barriers, increasing digital and services trade, and unlocking new commercial opportunities that benefit both nations.

The government recently announced restrictions on social media services offering their services to under-16s and wider services offering livestreaming or stranger communication to under-16s.

Combined with requiring more device level protections for children preventing the taking, sharing or viewing of nude images, this will make a difference tackling the key risks of disappearing messages.

Ofcom’s codes of practice also include recommendations regarding children’s account visibility, to support compliance with existing illegal harm and child safety duties. The government has committed to provide an update on any further restrictions in July.

The Government recognises the harms caused by particular design features on online services such as social media. That is why on 2 March we launched a consultation seeking views on a range of restrictions, including a minimum age for social media and restrictions on particular design features.

On 15 June , we announced that we will be banning social media companies offering their services to under 16s. The government aims to use the same definition of social media as Australia, which covers user to user platforms whose purpose is to enable social interaction, and which allow users to post material alongside algorithms.

Harmful functionalities including communicating with strangers and creating livestreams will be restricted for under-16s on online services, including gaming. These functionalities will be off by default for 16 and 17 year olds.

As the Secretary of State outlined, she is also considering further default overnight restrictions and restrictions on persuasive design features, such as infinite scroll for 16 and 17 year olds.

The government is committed to addressing functionalities posing the greatest risks to children.

The government is clear that access to high-quality educational content is essential. We want to see more high-quality services designed specifically for young people.

Through the EdTech Testbed Programme the government are investing £24m to identify and test the impact of technology tools and resources, and have launched an innovative programme to develop safe, high quality AI tutoring tools. Oak National Academy provides free, national curriculum-aligned resources across all national curriculum subjects, and has a dedicated online pupil interface for access to curriculum resources, including lesson videos delivered by teachers and interactive quizzes.

Government has been clear that proposed restrictions will apply to social media services, with a narrowly defined list of exemptions including, for example, educational services.

Protecting children online is a priority for the Secretary of State. Through our recent consultation, which included parents and children's consultations and nationally representative polls, we heard from over 116,000 people.

Following this, on 15 June the government published a progress statement announcing a ban on social media services from providing their services to under 16s as well as targeted functionality restrictions on a wider range of online services. This includes restrictions on creating livestreams and communicating with strangers. These functionalities will also be off by default for 16 and 17 year olds.

Keeping children safe online is a priority for this government. That is why the Secretary of State announced a ban on social media platforms offering their services to under-16s.

We aim to use the same model as Australia. This means capturing user to user platforms, whose purpose is to enable social interaction, which allow users to post material alongside algorithms. A narrowly defined list of exemptions, including messaging and educational services, will also be set out and kept under review.

The Secretary of State will set out the final criteria in regulations that she brings forward before the end of 2026.