What is the social media age limit in the UK?

Ask ten parents what the social media age limit is and you will get several answers. Ofcom asked: only 32% of UK parents correctly said 13, while 34% thought it was higher.^[4] The confusion is understandable, because the honest answer has three layers: what the apps say, what the law says, and what the government has announced. They are not the same.

What is the social media age limit in the UK?

13, on almost every major platform. Ofcom confirms the minimum age for YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok is 13, while Roblox sets 5, and under-13s can use YouTube through a supervised account with parental consent.^[1]

The caveat is that this is a company rule, not a UK law. Ofcom notes that the Online Safety Act does not require social media sites to set a minimum age; many have chosen 13 in their terms of service.^[4] And the rule is widely ignored: Ofcom says its research shows 72% of children aged 8 to 12 accessing the major sites and apps it wrote to in March 2026.^[1]

Why is the minimum age for social media 13?

Because of data law, mainly American. The US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, from 1998, imposes requirements on online services that collect personal information from children under 13, including getting verifiable parental consent.^[3] Most big platforms are American, and setting their minimum age at 13 was the simplest way to sit outside those rules.

UK law lines up with it. Under Article 8 of the UK GDPR, where an online service relies on consent to process a child’s data, a child of at least 13 can give that consent; below 13, a parent must give or authorise it.^[2] This is often called the age of digital consent. You may see it attributed to section 9 of the Data Protection Act 2018: that is where the UK originally set 13, but the age has sat directly in the UK GDPR since 31 December 2020.

Since 29 April 2026, ministers have had a power to raise that age to anywhere between 13 and 16, by regulations approved by Parliament.^[2] In July 2026 the government said it would not use it yet, though 54% of respondents to its full consultation supported raising it to 16.^[8]

Is it illegal for under-13s to use social media?

No. A child who uses an app below its minimum age is breaking the app’s terms, not the law, and parents are not committing an offence either. The legal duties fall on the companies. Ofcom has told Facebook, Instagram, Roblox, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube to enforce their minimum ages using highly effective age assurance, while acknowledging that this is not something the Online Safety Act explicitly requires.^[1]

How are age limits enforced in the UK now?

Mostly through the Online Safety Act 2023, which is about content rather than a fixed age. Since 25 July 2025, sites and apps have had to use highly effective age checks to identify children and stop them reaching pornography and content promoting self-harm, suicide or eating disorders.^[5] Those are Ofcom’s Protection of Children duties.

That is why some UK teenagers now meet age checks on certain apps and sites. It protects children from specific kinds of content. It does not, on its own, keep a 12-year-old off TikTok.

Is the UK banning social media for under-16s?

The government has announced it, and the legal power exists, but the ban itself is not in force. The sequence:

• January 2026: the House of Lords voted 261 to 150 for an amendment on children and social media, moved by Lord Nash, to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.^[7]
• April 2026: rather than writing a fixed age into the Act, Parliament passed section 70, which gives the Secretary of State power to make regulations requiring online services to prevent or restrict access by children up to a specified age, including limiting daily time, night-time use, and contact from strangers.^[6] It became law on 29 April 2026.
• June 2026: after a consultation with more than 116,000 responses, in which nine in ten parents backed a ban, the government announced on 15 June that social media companies will no longer be able to offer their services to under-16s.^[8]
• July 2026: the government’s response said it intends to lay the first regulations before Parliament by the end of 2026, with the restrictions expected to take effect in spring 2027.^[8]

So if you have read that the “social media age limit was rejected”, that refers to a fixed age in the Bill, which was replaced with a power to set one. The direction of travel did not change.

What will the under-16 ban cover?

The detail is still to come. Which platforms count will be set in the regulations. What the government has said so far:^[8]

• Under-16s will also be kept from harmful functions on other services, including gaming, such as livestreaming and contact with strangers.
• 16 and 17-year-olds will get protections switched on by default: no social media access from midnight to 6am, autoplay and personalised feeds off, and push notifications muted overnight.
• Under-18s will be blocked from AI chatbot services that mainly offer sexualised content.
• Children will still be able to use messaging services to keep in touch with family and friends, and compliance will sit with platforms, not children.
• The government has asked Ofcom to assess what highly effective age assurance looks like for telling whether someone is over 16.

The power sits in the Online Safety Act, which applies across the UK, so unlike school phone rules this is designed to cover England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland alike.

What did Australia do?

Australia went first. Under its Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, age-restricted social media platforms have had to take reasonable steps since 10 December 2025 to stop Australians under 16 having accounts.^[9] As in the UK plan, the duty sits with the platforms, not with children or parents. It is too early to say what difference it makes to young people’s wellbeing. The UK government says Wellcome will fund independent studies of the impact of its own version on youth mental health.^[8]

Should social media be limited for teenagers?

That is the real debate, and the evidence is less settled than the headlines. Supporters point to sleep, exposure to harmful content and contact from strangers; critics worry about isolating children and pushing them to less regulated corners of the internet. What is not in doubt is that rules alone do not do the work. A household that talks about feeds, notices what they do to mood, and keeps phones out of bedrooms is doing something no law can.

If you are already past the age question and into the habits, our guide to what to do if your child seems addicted to their phone and our round-up of apps to limit screen time are practical next steps. For a grown-up look at how feeds are built to hold attention, The Anti-Algorithm Audit works through it on paper.