Social Media Age Limit Tightens as UK Backs 16

JAKARTA — social media age limit rules are tightening after the United Kingdom announced a plan to set 16 as the minimum age for access to major platforms, even as big technology companies push back against similar restrictions across several countries.

The London move comes after Australia opened the door to a comparable rule last year. According to The Guardian, the wave of restrictions is now spreading to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Canada, and several European countries, while tech giants such as Meta, Google, X, TikTok, and Snapchat continue lobbying governments to soften the rules.

Social media age limit becomes a new turning point

Arturo Béjar, a former Meta employee who now works as a whistleblower, says many parents in different countries are anxious about the day their children become old enough to connect fully to the internet. For him, the issue is not just screen time. It is about preventing harm before it starts.

“I have spoken to parents from several countries, and I have never met a parent of a young child who is not anxious when their child is old enough to go online. Or a young person who has not experienced something bad that could have been prevented,” Béjar told The Guardian.

Béjar, 55, once worked as a senior engineer and consultant at Meta. He also testified in a U.S. case that found Meta liable for allegedly designing products that were addictive and misleading consumers about platform safety.

In his view, that case has made politicians in many countries more willing to take a harder line. “They keep showing the world why we cannot trust them,” he said, referring to social media platforms.

UK, Australia and the ripple effect

Britain wants the new rule to take effect in spring 2027. That gives platforms time to adjust age verification systems, safety features, and access policies for younger users. The political message, though, is already clear.

Australia became an important precedent after introducing age restrictions for platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, X, TikTok, and Snapchat. Since then, a number of countries have started moving. Indonesia and Malaysia have already imposed bans for users under 16 on certain platforms. Austria, France, and Norway are also weighing age-based restrictions.

Brazil has taken a different route. In schools, phones are broadly restricted. Children under 16 can still use social media, but they must be linked to a parent’s account.

In Canada, the government plans to ban users under 16 from digital platforms unless those services offer adequate protections. In the United States, a similar federal ban still looks unlikely. Free speech concerns, political gridlock, and the tech industry’s influence make any sweeping restriction hard to pass in the near term.

Tech industry pressure is not easing

On the other side, technology companies continue to oppose or fight rules they see as too strict. A source inside one company affected by the UK proposal complained that not every competitor is serious about building stronger safety features. That, the source said, makes regulators view the industry as inconsistent.

“It is hard to sell your safety measure to politicians if there is no consistency among your competitors,” the source said. The result, the source argued, could resemble Australia, where age rules did not push platforms toward safer design and instead produced many ways to work around the restrictions.

The comment reflects a long-running argument in the sector: does an age restriction really protect children, or does it just push users toward loopholes while giving platforms less reason to improve across the board?

Even so, political pressure on Big Tech does not appear to be fading. In the European Union, large technology firms spent about 150 million euros, or around Rp2.6 trillion, on lobbying last year, up by a third in two years. Meta was said to be the biggest spender at 10 million euros.

Campaign groups Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl say social media remains a high-priority topic in meetings with the European Commission, even as artificial intelligence dominates the bigger agenda. One European Parliament member even said technology companies were “bombarding” Brussels with messages opposing a social media age limit.

The U.S. remains the toughest battlefield

In the United States, lobbying is taking place in Congress through the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA. The bill would require social media platforms to take steps to prevent certain harms to children, including compulsive use.

Meta is described as the largest tech lobbyist in the U.S., with one lobbyist for every six members of Congress, according to Issue One. Between 2020 and 2024, large technology companies collectively spent $260 million on federal lobbying.

Meta says it wants “a single national standard for teen online safety.” But the company also keeps opposing rules it considers too burdensome. Under Donald Trump’s administration, restrictions on technology abroad were often criticized as well, including the possibility of a U.K. social media age limit that was seen as disproportionate.

Darrell West of the Brookings Institution says a broad state-level ban in the U.S. is unlikely. At the federal level, he sees little chance too, because too many lawmakers still resist tech regulation.

Theo Bertram, director of the Social Market Foundation and a former TikTok executive as well as a former adviser to two British prime ministers, calls the UK move a global turning point. He says regulation often begins with one or two countries that move first. After that, others follow.

“In the era of populism, these companies are getting criticism not only from mainstream politicians. Technology firms are losing public opinion, and politicians will move with that,” Bertram said.

For now, the direction is shifting. What once looked like a fringe idea has entered policy discussions. One number keeps coming up: 16.