Cybersecurity Policy Report, U.K. Regulators Comment on Proposed Social Media Ban for Kids, (Jun 17, 2026)

By Tony Foley and Lynn Stanton

The United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a statement on the U.K. government’s recent announcement regarding a ban on access to social media platforms by children under age 16.

In the statement, ICO said that keeping children safe online was one of its top priorities, adding that its response to a government consultation on “growing up in an online world” sets out its plans to ensure that social media platforms are blocking underage users on their platforms under U.K. data protection law. It cited enforcement actions against Reddit and Imgur, as well as its Children's Code strategy as further evidence of its work in the area of children’s online protection.

“We will continue to engage with government, as well as other regulators, to ensure that any legislative changes deliver robust protection for children online,” the statement concludes. “Whilst government develops its plans, the existing law still applies, and organisations should be clear that their data protection obligations remain.”

Meanwhile, the U.K.’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) informed the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology in a letter yesterday that, in addressing age-verification for users under 16, it was aware that it had “more work to do to understand the effectiveness and accessibility of different methods, the availability of identity and age attributes at 16, and the privacy considerations of different existing and emerging methods.”

It added that the evidence from Australia, where a similar ban is in place, “does not yet show that [age-inference] models can deliver an effective, privacy-preserving solution for an under 16 ban.”

News: InternationalLegislation DataPrivacy