The United Kingdom follows in the footsteps of Australia and could ban social networks for those under 16 years of age

A myriad of dangers await young people on social media that can severely undermine their physical and mental health. And more and more governments are willing to protect minors from the threats that roam freely on these platforms. Like Australia, The United Kingdom Government is considering imposing a minimum age of 16 to be able to enter social networks.s. “When the safety of the youngest people is at stake, everything is subject to debate,” says Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Technology of the Executive led by Labor Party Keir Starmer.

However, before implementing any measures in this regard, Kyle wants to take a closer look at how the law that would ban anyone under 16 from accessing social media could be enforced in practice.

According to the Online Security Law, Social media operators such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook will be obliged from next year to adequately protect their usersespecially children and adolescents, from illegal and potentially harmful content that finds its way into their domains. And this includes social networks committing to imposing and enforcing certain age restrictions.

Ofcomthe UK regulatory body with a focus on telecommunications and media, will be in charge of monitoring social networks to ensure that they comply with the provisions of the law and if they break it, they could face fines of several million pounds. In addition, the authorities could open criminal investigations against those platforms that violate the law.

Age restrictions are difficult to implement on social networks

Kyle has also committed to starting a research project to analyze the harmful effects of social media on children and adolescents. Organizations that ensure the protection of minors have warned on multiple occasions that on social networks, young people are unfortunately exposed to bullying, abuse and harmful content that promotes eating disorders and self-harm.

The Australian Government recently announced a new law under which only users aged 16 and over would have access to social networks. In Europe, age restrictions are set by the platforms themselves and they almost always allow users under 16 years of age to access their channels. The minimum age established by most social networks is normally set at 13 years.

On the other hand, it is worth noting that Verifying the age of the user on social networks is an extraordinarily complex task. In some countries, parents of children under 16 must theoretically give their children consent to use social networks, but in practice paternal and maternal consent is rarely verified. Furthermore, the user’s date of birth can easily be falsified during registration to 2.0 platforms.