UK to bar kids under 16 from using social media apps including TikTok, YouTube: Starmer

The UK will bar children under 16 from using a range of social-media platforms — including Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube — in an effort to shield young people from toxic online content and ballooning screen time, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday.The sweeping restrictions are set to take effect early next year, delivering a blow to social media giants whose services have grown wildly popular with younger users. “Every parent can see it with their own eyes.Social media is making children unhappy,” said Starmer, who has two teenage children.

“I’ve heard first hand from families crying out for change and we will do right by them.”The PM said at a press conference he’s prepared to stand up to tech titans that oppose the policy, adding that companies that don’t make reasonable efforts to enforce the ban could face multimillion-dollar fines.Enforcement would be aimed at tech companies, as opposed to kids, he emphasized.The ban is expected to cover Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, though it will not apply to YouTube Kids or messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal.A Meta spokesperson said the company’s teen accounts are designed to keep youths safe online, adding that “we don’t think bans will achieve this goal.”“To be both effective and easy for parents, any restrictions must be underpinned by an age verification system on devices so people aren’t asked to hand over ID to dozens of individual services to prove their age.

We will continue to engage with the government and Ofcom as they work to implement this policy,” the spokesperson added, referring to the UK’s communications regulator.YouTube echoed the criticism, telling The Post: “We’ve invested in expert-led, age-appropriate experiences and default protections for teens for over a decade and will continue to do so.“Blanket bans push kids out of … curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less safe services.”The UK ...