UK set to announce social media ban for under-16s

6/14/2026 at 4:17:23 PM

I teach children. You have no idea how much social media has affected their attention, memory, critical reasoning and social skills: the social repercussions will be felt for decades.

And this isn't mentioning exposing easily malleable minds to propaganda paid for by states that see the UK as an enemy, all before their critical reasoning skills, and awareness of their emotions, and how their emotions can be used against them, have had the chance to develop.

I expect this to massively electorally backfire on the government. But in the long run, it will be more than worth it. The only alternative would be to blanket ban phones in schools, although they'll still be plugged into social media the minute they leave.

by tarkin2

6/14/2026 at 4:20:59 PM

Tbh I've never understood why a strict non-negotiable ban on phones in schools hasn't been in place. This is an easy win with no negative consequences for adults.

by nly

6/14/2026 at 4:29:54 PM

It already exists in the schools near where I live in the UK, but only came into place in some of them in the last year. I was surprised that they had been so slow about it.

by jvvw

6/14/2026 at 4:34:17 PM

It’s happening in my area, too (US, not UK).

I was also surprised it hadn’t been the case. Apparently there were some policies against phone use during class but the enforcement was so toothless and sporadic that teachers and kids alike were ignoring the rule.

Now the rules are firm, universally applied, and have actual consequences. That last part seems to be the key. You can try to say phones are banned but until there are actual consequences it’s not really going to make a difference.

by Aurornis

6/14/2026 at 4:47:07 PM

Round here they have a locked pouch they have to put their phone in during school which seems to work reasonably well (although I'm sure not perfectly). It makes it more clearcut if they do find somebody with a phone not in their pouch anyway that they've definitely broken the rules. They get locked at registration at the start of the day and then unlocked when they leave school at special points.

by jvvw

6/14/2026 at 4:27:08 PM

I too don't like all this "age-verification" approach, but how does banning phones in school prevent kids / teens from using social media?

by thisislife2

6/14/2026 at 4:32:01 PM

The goal is to prevent phones and social media from being a distraction during school time.

The schools in my district did it. Several kids ran huge campaigns with flyers and news media involvement trying to protest it, but after that died down the response has been very positive.

It’s not going to satisfy the people who think that all children everywhere must be banned from social media at all times whether their parents agree or disagree. It does have a very positive impact at schools.

by Aurornis

6/14/2026 at 4:57:22 PM

Oh ok. I agree with you from that perspective - phone are indeed a distraction and should be banned in school. (I do find that whole debate strange though because in India, schools have never allowed phones in the first place. In fact, my mischievous nephew's phone was confiscated by his school Principal who told his parents that she wouldn't return it till the term ended because they shouldn't be giving a phone to him at his age!).

by thisislife2

6/14/2026 at 5:37:13 PM

it was the case when i was younger and phones were still dumb. We've gone backwards

by vrighter

6/14/2026 at 6:24:25 PM

My kid's school bans phones for that very reason. I find the age limit annoying and very easy to circumvent, which renders it pointless. This is a problem, because I agree with the benefits of kids attention not being eroded at scale.

edit: added age

by iugtmkbdfil834

6/14/2026 at 6:13:33 PM

May I ask how long you've been teaching and generally how big the behavioural change and/or timespan has been?

by yw3410

6/14/2026 at 4:23:07 PM

Do you agree that parents should be the one protecting their children from this 'propaganda' and internet slop?

Whilst I agree that social media can be overwhelmingly negative especially for young people, dont you recon that the risk to privacy and free-nature / increased surveillance of the internet is a greater problem?

by insurgent_dino

6/14/2026 at 6:30:35 PM

I’m a parent, children should be banned from social media and enforcement should include serious fines for parents who don’t monitor their children.

After the first 2-3 fines, people will magically learn to use parental control and the idiocy of age verification will end.

by mmarq

6/14/2026 at 6:11:15 PM

I think they should be "one of" not "the one." You know, it takes a village. And in any event, as others have said, parents have completely refused to participate in the question anyways, so in the real world your statement is not worth the paper it's written on.

by halJordan

6/14/2026 at 4:25:23 PM

Shouldn't parents be the ones to protect their children from the dangers of heroin, rather than an over-reaching state?

by tarkin2

6/14/2026 at 4:32:46 PM

Do you really believe parents can realistically protect their wards from getting hooked to any harmful, addictive drugs? How will they ever know if their kids are experimenting with these drugs? The problem is that the drugs are addictive - all it it needs is for someone to try it a few times to get completely hooked to it. And you don't realise it until it is too late.

by thisislife2

6/14/2026 at 4:27:50 PM

Funny example, because many argue that stopping the war on drugs would solve a lot of problems.

by dom96

6/14/2026 at 4:30:40 PM

Not OP but parental controls have existed for over a decade in these platforms with little to no uptake.

Now that the UK has had 3 major riots in the past 24 months exacerbated by foreign social media bots, it is all the more critical to prevent children from falling into the trap.

The time for the carrot is over. It's time for the stick.

On a separate note, I find it funny that plenty of so called internet freedom supporters are using HN given that it's terms and conditions give YC full ownership of comments in perpetuity.

by alephnerd

6/14/2026 at 5:34:34 PM

Apply the stick to the companies and people doing this, you don't think social media was critical in the UK riots? See how even adults are affected by the thing you're proposing controlling with age limits.

by undersuit

6/14/2026 at 5:30:11 PM

"Parental controls? What parental controls?", a.k.a. "Parental controls are unusable… and it’s why Congress is stepping in." - https://web.archive.org/web/20231115165553/https://gabrielsi... - 113 comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38314224

"Parental controls aren't for parents" - https://beasthacker.com/til/parental-controls-arent-for-pare... - 456 comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464652

"Apple’s Parental Controls Are Broken" - https://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-parental-controls-are-br... - 43 comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36921602

"Apple parental controls have more holes than Swiss cheese" - https://xcancel.com/MichaelErmer_/status/2012515535326527740 - 3 comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46672071

And as a bonus

"Tell HN: Attackers using Google parental controls to prevent account recovery" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47056472

by eesmith

6/14/2026 at 3:13:21 PM

I know many people dislike this movement but really, I think it's a good idea. Yes, it removes the "free" internet as it was 20 years ago, but that's gone already anyway. Yes, it opens up the way to a police state without anonymous internet access, but arguing against any law to be against that just seems like straight up anarchism to me.

I see both children and adults being manipulated by corporations with "algorithms". Honestly, treating social media, porn, and other things as drugs would probably even be the right step.

by atollk

6/14/2026 at 3:27:29 PM

> but really, I think it's a good idea.

> Yes, it removes the "free" internet

> Yes, it opens up the way to a police state without anonymous internet access

Is anyone else as stunned as I am by how many posters on tech websites have suddenly gone full anti-free-internet and embracing the police state?

The internet I grew up on was all about freedom and resisting the police state. Now the top voted comment (at least at time of me responding) is an open-arms welcoming of the internet police state and voicing support for removal of the free internet?

How did people become so naive to believe that this will benefit them? That the regulations are only going to impact kids who use the “bad sites” and not start reaching for your group chat rooms and your social news sites, too?

Do people not realize that they're going after Reddit, YouTube, and other sites, too? It's right there in the article. Think about how this has to be enforced: The only way to guarantee under-16s are banned from these sites is to force everyone to produce ID. You think it's a good idea to force us all to produce ID to watch YouTube videos or read a post on Reddit? This is what you want?

by Aurornis

6/14/2026 at 3:55:36 PM

I'm stunned when people can't reason about a tradeoff between two principles because they assigned infinite weight to one of them.

Police state=bad. Industrial scale drug addiction in kids=also bad. Some compromise must be made.

The slippery slope arguments do nothing. People are trying to solve this problem; trying to scare them with other problems they may have later--which they can solve separately!--is just irrelevant noise.

by ajkjk

6/14/2026 at 4:19:32 PM

We're bringing it up because it's not being mentioned and we think it's important.

I that once freedom of speech and freedom to communicate and freedom to decent are gone they are gone for good.

I dislike very much that politicians like Peter Kyle and Jess Philips have tried to shut down dissenting voices by comparing them to paedophiles or saying this is just about access to porn.

I'm really angry about this. I don't want to live in a "nanny state" and will probably end up voting for a party I otherwise dislike just get this crap repealed.

Labour, Tories and Greens don't seem to care about personal freedom. I do and I'm fed having politicians and journalists that don't listen to me.

by Lio

6/14/2026 at 4:23:10 PM

>We're bringing it up because it's not being mentioned

Huh? I must've read thousands of comments on this site over the years to the effect that any censorship of the internet would be wrong.

by hollerith

6/14/2026 at 4:47:52 PM

Yes, on this site but not in mainstream discussions.

I've lost count of the number of politicians and special interests I've heard on shows like Radio Four's Today Programme talk about online "safety" and funnily enough they never speak about mitigating the fall out from that.

by Lio

6/14/2026 at 4:56:26 PM

Well mainstream discussions are idiotic, lol. You won't find any deep or principled philosophy there.

by ajkjk

6/14/2026 at 4:00:11 PM

Destroying freedom isn't a fucking compromise. If algorithmic feeds are as bad as say, heroin, then the correct response is to regulate or ban them. You're arguing for the Internet version of legalising heroin and installing a physical surveillance state to target the addicts, it's absolute fucking insanity.

by BigJono

6/14/2026 at 4:23:11 PM

We... are... talking about regulating and banning them. That is what is being done. Talking about regulating and banning them. Not

> Internet version of legalising heroin and installing a physical surveillance state to target the addicts

Whatever this is. We would be in agreement that would be bad. The debate is over whether this is that, rather than whether that is bad. Misunderstanding that makes all the discussion pointless.

by ajkjk

6/14/2026 at 5:47:30 PM

The UK is talking about regulating and banning their consumption.

The UK does not have that ability to regulate and ban their production. The US regards such attempts as illegal foreign censorship.

Ban the sale or use of personalized information for marketing or advertising purposes.

Force the companies to develop effective parental controls (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48530053 for links to how the current controls are not effective.)

Once those all decisively fail then we can perhaps talk about "welcoming of the internet police state and voicing support for removal of the free internet".

by eesmith

6/14/2026 at 6:18:09 PM

Hey, if it's irrelevant noise then why are you crying about it?

Anyway, to make it the UK's problem even more, I will be doing what I can to eliminate the UK's traffic to as many services as possible. I have no interest in supporting the small island or it's people or their great red coat firewall.

Enjoy your wall.

by latency-guy2

6/14/2026 at 4:01:04 PM

> I'm stunned when people can't reason about a tradeoff between two principles because they assigned infinite weight to one of them.

I couldn't tell if this post was satire at first read.First it complains about not weighting tradeoffs, then it follows up with a demand that we ignore the tradeoffs as noise and just push through with the regulations.

You see the irony, right? You're stunned that people can't weigh tradeoffs, then you switch to dismissing tradeoffs as noise:

> People are trying to solve this problem; trying to scare them with other problems they may have later--which they can solve separately!--is just irrelevant noise.

Considering the second order and higher order consequences of regulations is the entire point.

You're just waving them all away with an assumption that they will be solved in the future.

Trying to shut down discussion about the consequences of government action as noise is scary. We've reached levels of moral panic that people like you are happy to close your eyes to any consequences and insist we let the government take control and do whatever they want right now, without considering the consequences.

It's terrifying that people think this way.

by Aurornis

6/14/2026 at 4:20:42 PM

It's not satire.

> people like you are happy to close your eyes to any consequences and insist we let the government take control and do whatever they want right now, without considering the consequences.

Nobody said anything of the sort. That's the problem with trying to debate this: you're interpolating this stance into people who don't have it at all.

by ajkjk

6/14/2026 at 4:03:30 PM

Assigning infinite weight to one factor or consideration is sort of the definition of fanaticism, yes?

by lokar

6/14/2026 at 4:02:47 PM

The monopoly on violence is trying to solve this problem, that's a bigger problem.

by hirako2000

6/14/2026 at 4:02:02 PM

> Police state=bad. Industrial scale drug addiction in kids=also bad. Some compromise must be made.

False. The whole point of fundamental rights is that they aren’t compromised on based on outcomes.

“Torture is bad, but not being able to get information out of criminals is also bad. Some compromise must be made.” That’s just not how it works, is it?

by p-e-w

6/14/2026 at 4:50:19 PM

Perhaps it may surprise you to know that's exactly how it works in some democratic countries - e.g. India and Japan - as the system does provide some leeway to the police on how they extract information from suspects. (India leans towards physical torture, while Japan to psychological torture). Moreover, Americans are often surprised to know that not answering police questions can in fact harm your defence in court in many countries, and police misconduct also does not necessarily exclude any evidence collected.

by thisislife2

6/14/2026 at 4:05:03 PM

But where exactly is the line for torture? Is pre-trial or pre-charge detention torture? Solitary detention? Any forced labor at all?

by lokar

6/14/2026 at 4:38:54 PM

> The whole point of fundamental rights is that they aren’t compromised on based on outcomes.

This is false, we generally take away fundamental rights when there's justification for doing so. e.g. the first paragraph of https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47986 (and every other paragraph also; I'm sure there are UK equivalents). We enshrine fundamental rights in order to elevate them above baser considerations, but it's not like a paperclip-maximizer thing where we optimize 100% for protecting them over all other considerations. Nor should it be (for the obvious paperclip-maximizer failure modes).

Anyway, the debate here is not over "police state good" and I'm frankly disappointed in all the commenters who interpret anyone disagreeing with them as claiming that. I for example loathe the idea of a police state and I'm quite sure the people I'm replying to would find I agree with them on most issues related to that. But it is not black and white, despite everyone's attempts at portraying it as such. I would love to hear people's practical, viable, politically-tenable plans for doing something about industrial-scale addiction to social media which do not involve impinging on these freedoms at all.

by ajkjk

6/14/2026 at 4:10:02 PM

OG internet was not swarming with multibillion dollar predators ready to exploit every single psychological trick to manipulate you for profit. If you can solve this, i welcome the OG internet to be free and open place to share ideas. Let me know your suggestions.

by vincnetas

6/14/2026 at 4:26:08 PM

The mistake is thinking that regulation and removing the free internet is going to harm those corporations you dislike and leave the smaller sites untouched.

The more regulations are added, the harder it is for anyone other than the multibillion dollar corporations to set up the infrastructure needed to comply.

That small forum you visit and the chat space you hang out in have to geo block your entire region because their operator can’t take on the legal risk of accidentally violating one of the laws. You are, however, free to move the group to Facebook and continue your group chat on Discord after submitting to the ID verification process of both sites, however. Those are the sanctioned safe spaces that have teams of lawyers and developers ensuring compliance with the laws.

This is the future many here are inviting. They don’t see it that way because they’re imagining laws that say “Kids can’t use Facebook” but the actual laws are going to be written to say “Social sites that host user generated content must ensure that all users are over the age of…”

by Aurornis

6/14/2026 at 4:44:28 PM

If a big player in a space is asking for regulation, always treat it as them pulling the ladder up to make things harder for new upstarts.

As an example, look at what Anthropic's response to the US making them pull Fable. They commended the action and said they believe there need to be permanent regulations around safety of released models with approval committees and mandatory testing.

They aren't recommending it purely because of safety, they want to add expenses to their competitors without so much money to burn.

by techjamie

6/14/2026 at 4:19:13 PM

And not just that, these networks are becoming a conduit for all kind of disturbed people to invade the privacy of kids and pollute their world, sometimes convincing them to harm themselves, including suicide. Let's face it, as the internet has become more and more accessible to just about anybody, needing to police the space was bound to become inevitable.

by pegasus

6/14/2026 at 3:31:40 PM

Over time it's become harder and harder to deny how bad some aspects of the internet are for people, especially for young people. Whether it's right or wrong it's not shocking that people are more willing than ever to entertain the idea of internet restrictions.

by SkyeCA

6/14/2026 at 3:42:42 PM

I'd dig deeper on the problem though. More fundamentally, laws like this are based on the fundamental assumption that both children and their parents can't make good decisions and that the state must instead force the right decisions on them.

by _heimdall

6/14/2026 at 3:49:42 PM

Yet we have laws around child endangerment. I'm a big supporter of parental sovereignty, but I also acknowledge that if society operates the way it does, I can't immediately think of a good reason why "mental health endangerment" (which social media for kids very much is) wouldn't be included in the broader scope of endangerment.

by elmomle

6/14/2026 at 3:46:16 PM

Creativity requires limitations.

> More fundamentally, laws like this are based on the fundamental assumption that both children and their parents can't make good decisions and that the state must instead force the right decisions on them.

Also yeah? Sure? You may not like that that’s the conclusion. Why does everyone say this like it’s some kind of gotcha? Children are incapable biologically of making good decisions.

But yes, I cannot make these decisions of myself and want the state to step in. It’s way too big a surface area.

by techblueberry

6/14/2026 at 3:58:07 PM

I don't say it as a gotcha. I say it to make clear that its an assumption baked into these laws that (a) I'm not sure a strong majority of people agree with and (b) creates further precedent for more government control over our lives and our children.

Edit: why is it you know these decisions should be made but you can't do it yourself? Do you not trust yourself, like an alcoholic avoiding one drink because it turns into 12, or do you not think you're capable of making the right choice at all?

by _heimdall

6/14/2026 at 3:41:30 PM

It doesn't surprise me at all. At least in the US, both major political parties fully embrace censorship and a police state. Sure the disagree on the details, but they agree pretty universally on the direction.

by _heimdall

6/14/2026 at 6:04:06 PM

I believe this is the outcome of technocracy. Technocrats need power, they need a strong police to enforce their legislation, and they need censorship to maintain a narrative. It's a deeply authoritarian ideology, and it's infected much of the western world.

by slopinthebag

6/14/2026 at 3:34:45 PM

Because it’s a lesser evil, at least in the UK, which has a reasonably well functioning government and society.

As much as it pains me, I’d rather have that than the brain rot being forced on young kids. And you can argue all you want about “parental control”, but there are too many parents who don’t care, plus peer pressure is a real thing.

I also think that at that age all the social media sites are a net negative.

by JonoBB

6/14/2026 at 3:45:04 PM

> Because it’s a lesser evil, at least in the UK, which has a reasonably well functioning government and society.

You wrote this in jest, right, right?

by drnick1

6/14/2026 at 5:27:46 PM

We do, objectively speaking. We have free elections, viable new political parties, working mechanisms of feedback from the population to politicians, and a constitution keeping up with the times (we had a constitutional change just this year).

by dgroshev

6/14/2026 at 4:20:57 PM

>Is anyone else as stunned as I am by how many posters on tech websites have suddenly gone full anti-free-internet and embracing the police state?

There is certainly an angle where people are fed up with the current state of things.

But generally speaking, the overall HN has been trending towards anti-free-internet and embracing the police state for a long time. I am pretty sure people can run an LLM on HN comments over the years.

by ksec

6/14/2026 at 4:00:50 PM

Why do you think we lost free internet right now? In my opinion we lost it when all corporations switched to mass surveilance. Now we just stop pretending that social media corporations are not responsible for anything.

by jbvlkt

6/14/2026 at 4:00:46 PM

There are very likely people who's work is to shill... Also here... If not influencing editors of entire sites even. But they are only needed until it becomes full though crime to even think outside of newspeak ;)

by monssooon

6/14/2026 at 5:42:55 PM

Let's look at an actual case study of a police state.

I think we can agree that a state-controlled paramilitary force executing a political opponent in broad daylight, on camera, is pretty far along the "police state" spectrum, right? This kind of thing is entirely incompatible with freedom, and should be a wake up call for the civil society to weed out anything that led to that, root and branch.

Enter the execution of Alex Pretti. Days after it happened, it transformed into yet another partisan issue, a topic for discussion, something that can possibly be justified. Effectively, it was normalised on the social and classic media. Media that, in the US, are pretty "free" [].

Negative freedoms are insufficient to stop a police state. What stops the police state is political engagement and regulation, and that requires a more nuanced understanding than just "either free of regulation or embracing the police state".

: …for moneyed interests to control and influence. For all their problems, I'd argue that BBC is substantially freer than say Fox News.

by dgroshev

6/14/2026 at 3:42:09 PM

As an engineer, I tend to view solutions in terms of tradeoffs and not absolutes. 20 years ago the free and open internet was great. Now I think we’ve gone too far. And more to the point, I think freedom is protected by regulation, not by handing decisions over to whatever billionaire won a cage match.

This is the gen-x part of my xennial talking, but I can’t help but feel like something has been lost when nothing is transgressive anymore. Some people look back and say how can a gen x’er who fought against censorship be so pro censorship now.

A lot of people say this is dumb because teenagers will figure out a way to bypass it. Good! That’s what teenagers are supposed to do. I think there’s a sort of weird like - there’s something distopian about Elon Musk putting his stamp of approval on using edgy racial slurs on social media. If you’re young and want to make edgy jokes. It’s supposed to be transgressive! It’s _not_ supposed to get Elon Musk’s stamp of approval.

I don’t want to send anyone to jail for bypassing these laws or saying the wrong thing. It’s a hard needle to thread, but we need a code of conduct so people can make a choice to break it. So people can create alternate websites to the big social media companies. We need institutions without so much power so they can be jailbroken. And government is just plainly not the only powerful institution I fear.

by techblueberry

6/14/2026 at 3:50:42 PM

> A lot of people say this is dumb because teenagers will figure out a way to bypass it. Good! That’s what teenagers are supposed to do.

So the teenagers bypass it and use other sites while us adults are handing our IDs over just to use basic websites?

How is this good?

by Aurornis

6/14/2026 at 3:53:52 PM

I’m becoming something of an accelerationist on this issue. I think we’re at a dead end with like 5 companies controlling most of the internet. If this pisses people off and encourages them to get active politically or create new modes of communication. Great!

Freedom has to be more than “you can choose any walled garden you want!” We need more spaces that aren’t mediated.

I feel like we’ve accepted this terrible definition of freedom, out of fear it could get worse, not because we love what we have.

But not to worry, I feel comfortable having contrarian views, because my one vote isn’t going to radically change the world.

by techblueberry

6/14/2026 at 4:16:51 PM

You're basing everything on a flawed assumption: That the regulations will be most difficult for the big websites, but not be an impediment to small communities.

It never works that way. The more regulations you add, the harder it becomes to have a small community on the internet. The big companies can spend money to comply and lobby. The small communities cannot.

We are already seeing this. There are websites blocking the UK because they can't afford to comply with all of their laws. Even websites that try to block the UK are getting threats from Ofcom for not ID-checking their users: https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1rk690v/i_ru...

The end game of your accelerationism isn't a utopia where we're all back to small communities.

The end game is that small communities die out because the only companies who can navigate, comply, and lobby are those 5 companies you hated. You're cheering on the consolidation of the internet.

by Aurornis

6/14/2026 at 4:46:44 PM

There’s a reasons I described it as accelerationism. I think whatever the next thing is probably hasn’t been invented yet, but I would hope the discomfort of exclusion might inspire it. It only works if enough people feel left out - I.e. all under 16s

But yeah, it’s not without risks.

But there’s two sort of self-identified reasons for freedom of speech.

One is to get the best ideas on the table. I’m a little suss of this one (when taken to extremes) because speech that costs nothing is just noise.

The second is to make sure everyone has an outlet to express themselves so they don’t rebel. And while I certainly don’t want to see violent rebellion, I think maybe a bit more social and political rebellion wouldn’t be the end of the world.

by techblueberry

6/14/2026 at 4:29:28 PM

The typical medium for the internet today, even among many people who would have been computer nerds in days of yore, is the smartphone, i.e. primarily a consumption device. I can't see people becoming so pissed out that they would overcome the limitations of the phone and actually create bold new modes of communication. Just using an alternative prepackaged app like Signal is way out there for most people.

by TFNA

6/14/2026 at 4:40:23 PM

Despite propaganda to the contratry, meatspace is still an option.

by techblueberry

6/14/2026 at 4:25:46 PM

> Do people not realize that they're going after Reddit

Reddit is a cesspool and an example of how we're in a post-peak internet like the OP says. If you actually browse Reddit the way the vast majority of people do now (i.e. not Old Reddit that masks the decline), it's crazy engagement-farming patterns everywhere, and not much of a community any more when many comments are hidden by default.

Most people today just like to fire off one-sentence comments; if you seek substantial discussion, you'll often now stand out as a weirdo on the spectrum, and may even draw downvotes and "lol wall of text bro" comments.

Yes, I follow close-knit little subs off the main page. There has been a flow of users away to WhatsApp groups, of all things -- it's that bad.

by TFNA

6/14/2026 at 3:31:12 PM

Because we've been conditioned to believe that every good thing harbors a dark and sinister secret, that every attempt at improving our situation contains a fatal flaw.

It's a narrative trope, not real life. Come back to reality. It's what Omelas was trying to convey.

by kelseyfrog

6/14/2026 at 4:40:33 PM

The internet as it is sucks in no uncertain terms.

While I dislike some of those regulations, I have no will to fight for the status quo.

> Do people not realize that they're going after Reddit, YouTube, and other sites, too?

Consider that I have a profound hatred for both YouTube and Reddit.

Why should I care?

by surgical_fire

6/14/2026 at 6:00:33 PM

Why shocked? When the internet got popular and the normies started flooding in the culture of the internet changed.

I’m more shocked in how authoritarian so-called “liberals” have gotten in the last 3 decades. I have to specify I’m a “classical” liberal now in order to not appear as if I desire a police state.

by slopinthebag

6/14/2026 at 3:29:59 PM

The posters account is 89 days old, it's a shill.

by zepolen

6/14/2026 at 4:07:10 PM

> The internet I grew up on was all about freedom and resisting the police state.

I grew up on that internet too (the freedom part). Do you really believe it is the same internet now?

Gone are the days when one could run their own mail server now because Apple or Google or Microsoft can suddenly deem it as "untrustworthy" or "suspicious" (based on some algorithm) and all your email will end up in spam. IRC and newsgroups have been hijacked by centralised Messengers and Social Media firms run by BigTech. They can ban you on these platforms for no reasons, without much recourse, holding your digital life hostage. Last year, I learnt that the much vaunted "free speech" no longer exists online - I have to fight and waste time with everyone - from the moderators to the platform "community managers" - to publish any factual pro-palestine or anti-Israli-right posts because these are being heavily censored on all western platforms (and unfortunately all English language communities are western platforms). Election manipulations by foreign platforms are also another danger every sovereign nations now faces.

> How did people become so naive to believe that this will benefit them?

So I wouldn't say that people are being "naive". We don't want to live in an "echo chamber" controlled by western or Chinese BigTech corporates and their ideas of techno-fascism. Not to mention that we really cannot ignore any more the societal and political impact of some of these platforms - Facebook / Whatsapp are responsible for causing many social unrest around the world and even genocide (How Facebook contributed to genocide in Myanmar - https://systemicjustice.org/article/facebook-and-genocide-ho... ).

The negative psychological impact of social media addiction is so obvious even in adults. So imagine how much worse it is on kids / teens - it truly would be irresponsible to not regulate it.

> That the regulations are only going to impact kids who use the “bad sites” and not start reaching for your group chat rooms and your social news sites, too?

Oh, very true! That is something to be very wary of. And the answer to that is to also fight for stronger privacy regulations and prevent government overreach. Not trust the government or the corporates to behave.

Here, you will have to understand and accept that unlike in America, where mistrust of government is inherent in the political structure (the US Presidential system favoured a weak central government because the makers were distrustful of a powerful Federal government) is very much in contrast to other parts of the world. Europeans expect and have more trust in their governments to regulate some aspects of their society, while the rest of the world prefers a "strong" Central government (and thus it is expected that the government will regulate many aspects of society). That is something fundamentally different vis American politics vs the rest of the world, that perhaps befuddles Americans.

In a democracy though, I don't see anything wrong in "trusting" your government more than local or foreign corporates (or even a foreign country - for all the talk about how America stood for "free speech", my experience with American / western owned platforms censoring my political ideas and beliefs has made me increasingly cynical if they ever truly believe in democratic values; so yeah - I guess you could also say that all this is also perhaps a backlash to current western politics).

by thisislife2

6/14/2026 at 5:55:52 PM

> Gone are the days when one could run their own mail server now because Apple or Google or Microsoft can suddenly deem it as "untrustworthy" or "suspicious" (based on some algorithm) and all your email will end up in spam.

Someone should tell my mail server that because it happily delivers emails to Apple and Google and Microsoft destinations.

(I will concede that it is much more of a ballache these days than it was 25 years ago but such is the way when capitalism intrudes with adequate legal oversight.)

by zimpenfish

6/14/2026 at 3:47:57 PM

> You think it's a good idea to force us all to produce ID to watch YouTube videos or read a post on Reddit? This is what you want?

No, I want more. I want us to not be able to use these sites at all.

The modern internet has become a cesspool. There’s some good stuff here and there but it’s not worth the overly negative downsides. Reddit is mostly bots. YouTube is becoming clickbait slop. Social Media platforms are ruining society.

We need an alternative to the internet. Not long ago, we did not have all these things and it was one of the best times to be alive.

by deadbabe

6/14/2026 at 3:23:41 PM

I disagree. I don’t have a huge problem with the UK government monitoring my online presence; I’m reasonably sure my ISP is siphoning all that information to them anyway. That may be problematic for some, but I’m ok with it.

My problem is that this info doesn’t go to the government; it goes to persona and Yoti. We are literally giving government issued IDs to tracking platforms to tell Meta, Google, ByteDance, Reddit who we are.

This isn’t about keeping children safe - if it was the law would be to mandate parental controls on devices. I’d stand behind that law.,

by maccard

6/14/2026 at 3:19:47 PM

> as drugs

Because war on drugs has been such a successful policy...?

by raincole

6/14/2026 at 4:01:57 PM

As a means of reducing incidence of drug use, prohibition does in fact work.

by duped

6/14/2026 at 3:24:42 PM

I'm not saying the war on drugs has been successful by any means.

But legalization has also been a really disappointing flop. After marijuana was legalized in my state, it has been really disturbing to see usage skyrocket among middle and high schoolers. A lot of people apparently derive their standards of morality from the legal system.

by paytonjjones

6/14/2026 at 3:33:49 PM

Has actual use increased or is it now just more visible to you?

by estebank

6/14/2026 at 3:29:40 PM

Nor arguing and I do appreciate your perspective but that’s so odd: vodka is legal and middle and high schoolers shouldn’t be getting into that either.

by nailer

6/14/2026 at 3:35:32 PM

Yeah if they legalised cannabis use for teenagers that's a failure of how it was regulated - not of the act of legalising it.

by cassianoleal

6/14/2026 at 3:30:58 PM

I want you to imagine the sentiment here if it was "Russia set to announce social media ban for under-16s".

by dindunuf

6/14/2026 at 3:39:32 PM

"Yes, it will lead to mass surveillance but who cares anyway? You can't just argue against that, that's anarchism!"

Do you know how you sound? Stop falling for these tactics, no one is caring for the children while making these laws.

by sunaookami

6/14/2026 at 3:53:48 PM

Keeping children off social media, or to a very limited children only social media seems obviously a good thing.

My issue is the UK “free” speech standards seem to be something like free speech as long as its reasonable, doesn’t offend or excite too many people, cast aspersions on those in power etc, in other words not very free at all. And any form of internet registration could be used to tie more people to their posts.

Of course restricting posting some benefit exists as we seen in the US with robust free speech and twitter being overrun with third world posters attempting to influence domestic politics.

by porknubbins

6/14/2026 at 3:23:43 PM

Isn’t it already impossible to be anonymous on the internet without flawless opsec? I’m surprised there isn’t a TV Tropes article about it but whenever a character in a show needs to be perfectly anonymous they visit an Internet cafe with a baseball cap and glasses - which while it’s a trope I think it also plays on our cultural understanding that significant diligence is required to maintain anonymity.

Edit: though I suppose the counterargument is that we shouldn’t make it any easier for surveillance states, especially technologically inept ones, to perform dragnet surveillance.

by datsci_est_2015

6/14/2026 at 3:50:40 PM

There’s a middle ground between going to cybercafes with sunglasses, and submitting a 4K scan of you gov ID before watching a YouTube video where someone says a bad word.

by butchkass

6/14/2026 at 3:38:52 PM

> Yes, it removes the "free" internet as it was 20 years ago,

social media is not, and never was the "free internet" we all get nostalgic about. maybe the first couple of years was something tangential, but that died very quickly. since then it's been a nightmare-ish hellscape of surveillance, manipulation and hate.

> Yes, it opens up the way to a police state without anonymous internet access, but arguing against any law to be against that just seems like straight up anarchism to me.

anyone claiming something like that is happening here is just spreading paranoiac FUD via a cheap and lazy straw man. if UK law starts requiring me to provide ID just to read rust crate documentation or connect to the internet then that is an issue. i would be very unhappy about it. but that is not happening here.

let's not be drama queens about it.

> Honestly, treating social media, porn, and other things as drugs would probably even be the right step.

i've asserted for a very long bloody time that major social media platforms, not the internet in general, should require government ID verification of some sort to have an account. would likely make it far easier for the police to prosecute a lot of the nasty shit that only happens on those platforms.

having said that, these platforms are designed to prioritise engagement and angry, toxic and hate-filled people click more. so it's the platform's fault but as ever they're not cleaning up their mess.

if folks on HN wanna blame someone or get angry then get angry at the platforms for letting it get to where we are today. it's their own fucking faults.

by dijksterhuis

6/14/2026 at 3:23:55 PM

>Yes, it removes the "free" internet as it was 20 years ago, but that's gone already anyway.

The "free" internet is there, just the same as before. The proportion of people using it in the way they used to might have changed.

by lotsofpulp

6/14/2026 at 3:19:31 PM

A better measure would be to mandate that social media platforms can only show you content from people you follow, and in chronological order.

by stavros

6/14/2026 at 3:25:57 PM

That basically kills the business model and would wipe hundreds of billions of $ in capital away

Not that I disagree

by nly

6/14/2026 at 3:28:07 PM

Good!

by stavros

6/14/2026 at 3:21:57 PM

I like this idea, to me the algorithm the most offending part.

But how do you control what a kid can or cannot follow? They can still follow Andrew Tate and his temu versions

by witx

6/14/2026 at 3:23:32 PM

At some point you have to allow people to see what they want to see. You don't have to make it so that what they want to see is pushed on them, though, and this is what modern social media does. It pushes stuff just because it's engaging.

by stavros

6/14/2026 at 4:32:22 PM

I'm generally in agreement on social media bans for children, but the proposed solution is age verification on all platforms which has a huge amount of problems.

Why can't we just ban the use of smartphones without parental locks for under 16-year-olds instead? That's not perfect but would already be a huge improvement and adults wouldn't be affected by it.

by ginko

6/14/2026 at 4:19:06 PM

The post was edited?!

by monssooon

6/14/2026 at 3:15:37 PM

This is not about the good of the people. And the sooner you realize that this type of regulation will be used to manipulate you as much as what you fear is happening already the better.

The government is an entity that acts to protect itself. It has and always will fear an open and informed public.

by tsunamifury

6/14/2026 at 3:19:00 PM

majority of parents are in favour of such a ban, otherwise they wouldn't do it

if social media companies hadn't made social media a total cesspit of disinformation, child grooming and algorithmic manipulation then the outcome might have been different

by vitriol83

6/14/2026 at 3:49:37 PM

It's a good idea, as long as this clown show of a government doesn't link it to mandatory digital IDs.

by gadders

6/14/2026 at 3:27:55 PM

> it removes the "free" internet as it was 20 years ago

I’m not sure free internet was ever good for us. I didn’t need to see all those beheading videos.

by nailer

6/14/2026 at 3:43:15 PM

I think the bigger issue was when terror attacks started imitating FPS games

by breppp

6/14/2026 at 3:38:26 PM

Right. A lot of "Internet Freedom" is just dishonest Anarchism. A thought terminating cliche that halts otherwise brilliant people from actually considering the tradeoffs of policies like this.

The whole appeal of Anarchy is that The State always has the potential to become Evil. So, at a (very quick) first pass - eliminating The State kinda seems like it heads off some bad futures.

While some of the HN commentariat may be anarchists, you and I at least are not.

by Lonestar1440

6/14/2026 at 3:28:59 PM

[flagged]

by BigJono

6/14/2026 at 3:41:15 PM

Strong worded comment but yes, it's exhausting seeing people here of all places arguint against their own rights and the freedom of the internet :/ I guess the fight is already lost. Remember when people literally went to the streets while fighting SOPA, PIPA and ACTA?

by sunaookami

6/14/2026 at 3:30:48 PM

From someone that’s been here a decade longer than you: actually insubstantial comments don’t belong here and comments that show how people’s thinking evolve are welcome contributions.

by nailer

6/14/2026 at 3:34:49 PM

My comment wasn't insubstantial. It's the correct response to the completely unreasonable position of wanting to destroy the Internet.

by BigJono

6/14/2026 at 3:51:53 PM

Sorry to break it out to you, but the internet was already destroyed by people like you in silicon valley, not the government

by breppp

6/14/2026 at 4:10:33 PM

Why do you think I'm like the people destroying the Internet? Because I said a bad word? Are you actually retarded? I'd love to return to the Internet we had in the 90s and 2000s, we're not going to get there if defeatist bitches like you cave and let the governments of the world control who is allowed to serve http responses to people that don't put their government ID in the header and route it through a 3rd party.

by BigJono

6/14/2026 at 4:33:37 PM

No, because the people who ruined the Internet were people like you who grew up on it, and then continued on to monetize it. The government was always too slow to be an actual threat.

Also chill with the anger

by breppp

6/14/2026 at 3:19:06 PM

> Honestly, treating social media, porn, and other things as drugs would probably even be the right step.

Adopting the drug prohibition model is fine, if what we want is to lavishly enrich the social media cartels, and visit upon the rest of the world needless crime, misery, addiction, and death.

by jMyles

6/14/2026 at 3:22:05 PM

Obviously OP is not

by cenamus

6/14/2026 at 3:10:16 PM

Arguing about whether this is good or effective for kids or not is irrelevant. This isn't about kids at all. It's about surveillance.

by Fervicus

6/14/2026 at 3:15:56 PM

Do you not see that the largest companies on the internet are also surveilling everyone and that the massive troves of data they're collecting about their registered users and even non-registered users is directly and indirectly accessible to governments around the world?

by ElProlactin

6/14/2026 at 3:32:55 PM

Doesn’t that prove their point?

by someguyiguess

6/14/2026 at 4:40:32 PM

How so? If you're anti-surveillance, wouldn't you be pleased that under-16s won't be able to use the most wide-ranging and insidious surveillance platforms ever created?

by ElProlactin

6/14/2026 at 5:31:52 PM

Until they turn 17, then they get to be id-verified surveilled like the rest of us!

Much safe system. Very cozy. Glad kids are safe now. That was close!

by theultdev

6/14/2026 at 5:38:40 PM

So what's your solution?

There's substantial evidence for harms on young people that go beyond surveillance, but I guess we now live in a society that embraces throw them to the wolves and see which ones survive?

by ElProlactin

6/14/2026 at 3:12:30 PM

Regardless of the underlying motives and surveillance outcomes, it will surely affect the kids too. So it's worth discussing.

by paytonjjones

6/14/2026 at 3:19:48 PM

No one is saying we should not discuss it, but discussing it in the context of the kids is a red herring. It will affect everyone.

by undersuit

6/14/2026 at 4:07:52 PM

100%, anti-privacy and surveillance laws have always been wrapped in child protection and public safety.

by insurgent_dino

6/14/2026 at 3:38:20 PM

And yet the vast majority of parents are in favour of a ban.

by JonoBB

6/14/2026 at 4:15:39 PM

vast majority of parents are in favor of banning plenty of things, including some that you like, need, or simply don't find objectable.

by dindunuf

6/14/2026 at 3:13:09 PM

This is obviously about kids. The problem is it requires surveillance. You don't get to decide what it's not about.

by philipallstar

6/14/2026 at 4:26:56 PM

It will apply to everyone once you have to prove you are over 16. Kids are just the excuse.

by haunter

6/14/2026 at 3:20:06 PM

How is it “obviously about the kids”? Is it because they mentioned them? I would argue it will impact the kids but this isn’t being done for their benefit, it’s being done to regulate what we have access to as a whole. Slippery slope coming up!

by childofhedgehog

6/14/2026 at 3:17:31 PM

The way this has been pushed through after countless attempts over the past decade, and push back from advising experts, does not feel like it originates from genuine concern for children. It feels like a state trying to wrestle for digital control amidst rising civil unrest.

by cedws

6/14/2026 at 3:28:07 PM

Almost anything can be made "about the kids" with the right framing.

by folkrav

6/14/2026 at 3:16:07 PM

and why do you get to decide what it "is about"?

by arcza

6/14/2026 at 6:04:35 PM

I didn't say people couldn't decide what it's about.

by philipallstar

6/14/2026 at 5:28:42 PM

Riddle me this. If you have to verify yourself to prove you are over 16, did that just deanonymize you? Yes.

by theultdev

6/14/2026 at 6:03:57 PM

Good job I said this, then:

> The problem is it requires surveillance.

by philipallstar

6/14/2026 at 3:23:30 PM

Interesting that Canada is trying to do the same thing. Seems suspiciously similar.

The idea that this is about surveillance is also interesting.

I think it's important we ask: could we invoke this ban without surveillance?

- identity scan is one solution

But surely there are other solutions? Can't you just make laws that get kids in trouble if they get caught on social media? Kids get in trouble for missing school.. there are other incentives than identify checks, surely?

by peab

6/14/2026 at 3:24:52 PM

The solution is parental controls on devices.

by maccard

6/14/2026 at 3:46:47 PM

The solution is parenting, period. Do not give your kid an Internet-connected device before they are ready for it.

by drnick1

6/14/2026 at 4:35:18 PM

Homework requires internet-connected devices (I guess you can semi-supervise that, but it becomes harder as they become older as you don't want to sit there watching them do all their homework).

There is also a cost socially, which is hard to navigate as a parent. If everybody is talking about minecraft every break and playing it together in the evenings, then it's hard for them if they haven't even seen the game.

by jvvw

6/14/2026 at 4:44:18 PM

>Homework requires internet-connected devices

I see an opportunity for much more reasonable legislation since this is a thing that the gov already controls.

by mathgradthrow

6/14/2026 at 3:54:11 PM

Simpler still, a “minor” bit on the phone, set by parents once. All services must respect the bit in http headers, and app stores should refuse to install certain apps. No need for id check

I imagine that many parent don’t want micromanage their kids apps, this takes care of the problem.

by DenisM

6/14/2026 at 4:26:27 PM

Almost all parents I know just let their kids use their phones. It's wild.

by nly

6/14/2026 at 4:09:29 PM

I’m in favor of this, but it doesn’t solve the full problem. If all your friends use social media as the fabric of their social interactions, you’ll be ostracized if you opt out as an individual.

IOW its a coordination problem. You need most of the other parents in your social group to also implement those controls.

by theptip

6/14/2026 at 3:33:27 PM

Surely we know by now that this is not enough?

Kids find ways around everything. Even adults find the 'digital wellbeing' tools on Android and iOS useless. Just look at the multitude of apps available for digital self regulation these days (ScreenZen, Freedom, BlockSite, etc). No single solution works for everybody at the moment.

Regulation by itself is also insufficient. But maybe combining regulation with parental controls plus other measures will be effective. A 'defense in depth' or swiss cheese strategy, with multiple layers of protection.

I do hope we figure out what layers are needed soon, though. It feels like we're running out of time.

by academic_84572

6/14/2026 at 4:42:14 PM

Regulation does add friction. And it makes it easier for a parent to say 'no, you aren't allowed that app' (which you can obviously say anyway, but it gives you a very solid and non-negotiable reason to say no). Some children will find their ways round things, but a lot, if their friends aren't using a particular app, won't bother, or they will be the type of children who won't try and break the law.

Most apps and sites are terrible in terms of the parental controls they provide - they tend to be all or nothing. E.g. I'd like to have a group for our family on WhatsApp but I don't want my children to be able to join random WhatsApp groups and there isn't any way to have the former and not the latter.

by jvvw

6/14/2026 at 5:31:03 PM

https://blog.whatsapp.com/introducing-parent-managed-account...

It’s very recent but WhatsApp are giving you exactly what you want!

by maccard

6/14/2026 at 3:43:41 PM

I think the idea is that while individuals will absolutely find ways round it, it should help to reduce the network effect of everyone a kid knows being already on it. How true that is remains to be seen.

One campaign I’ve liked is one in the UK to try and get the parents of whole year groups in school to agree to not buy phones until their children are a certain age. This removes a lot of the peer pressure of ‘my friends all have one’.

by jdsnape

6/14/2026 at 3:43:39 PM

Except they are. I’m not aware of any actual bypasses of parental controls on iOS or android. You choose apps and allow or deny them, and you provide limits which are guarded by passcodes or parental prompt (on iOS at least).

> It feels like we're running out of time.

I mean, does it? It feels like we’re running guns blazing into something that will be trivially bypassable (hello free VPN to some random European country - remember Hola?).

by maccard

6/14/2026 at 4:03:47 PM

This

The government shouldn't be parenting other parents kids

by insurgent_dino

6/14/2026 at 4:33:13 PM

I mean, the government bans lots of things for under 18s. Gambling, alcohol, opening bank accounts, getting married are all restricted by governments. I’m not saying governments shouldn’t provide laws on what children can and can’t do, I’m saying that this law is a poor way of doing it.

by maccard

6/14/2026 at 3:53:55 PM

>Interesting that Canada is trying to do the same thing. Seems suspiciously similar.

Australia already did. Commonwealth countries share a lot in common, and of course a lot of problems are common across many countries.

But let's be real -- these countries are announcing it in lockstep because the US is a corrupt plutocracy, and the lords of the nation like Mark Zuckerberg will run to Trump and he'll have a little tantrum (tantrums that always, it should be mentioned, just hurt Americans more. Everything is in the service of the billionaire class) about this.

It's tougher for that grifter to do so if so many countries do it simultaneously.

>The idea that this is about surveillance is also interesting.

What idea is that? That firms from foreign nations will gather IDs, of absolutely zero value for the country, to ensure age compliance? How does this silly conspiracy work?

Kids motivated will just get around it. But I think it's pretty clear at this point, given the idiocracies rising worldwide and how everything is getting stupider/worse, that social media has not been a net good.

by llm_nerd

6/14/2026 at 3:14:31 PM

Somehow all the countries are suddenly proposing the same thing. You'd think at least one of these countries might try something different if they actually cared about the kids, like banning algorithmic feeds. Not suspicious at all.

by Fervicus

6/14/2026 at 6:26:07 PM

And yet you're still labeled a conspiracy theorist if you suggest that their might be ulterior motives for identity verification in the nation that arrested 12,000 people for what they posted online in 2023.

I'm actually very supportive of getting rid of screens + social media for kids. I don't the reasons I'm supportive of that bear any resemblance to the motives of the UK's political class.

by simplyluke

6/14/2026 at 3:25:48 PM

I don’t think it’s suspicious - I think trust globally in tech companies has been deteriorating at the same pace in most western countries is all.

by maccard

6/14/2026 at 3:31:00 PM

But so has trust in government (for very good reasons). And those same unscrupulous governments are heavily influenced by the very same tech companies people are suspicious of.

by someguyiguess

6/14/2026 at 3:19:32 PM

I'm probably going down a conspiracy theory, but it's notable when all the Five Eyes countries seem to start talking about the same problem and pushing through legislation. The US would probably do the same if not for the constitution.

by beejiu

6/14/2026 at 3:32:18 PM

Not sure how closely you follow US news, but a majority of Americans feel that the current US administration is not all that concerned with the constitution, so that not really a blocker.

by someguyiguess

6/14/2026 at 3:21:20 PM

I think there's some sort of 'social pressure' between nations. Policies during the COVID-19 era come to mind.

by da-x

6/14/2026 at 3:23:44 PM

It's called lobbying.

by hnhg

6/14/2026 at 3:48:27 PM

Not beyond the realms of possibility that Meta etc has decided it wants government/photo ID and has convinced governments to implement it

Big tech will act inconvenienced but they will in reality benefit

Just like any attempt by a UK Gov to fix housing: they just make it worse, because that was the real aim (yes I include the latest renter's rights legislation)

by gib444

6/14/2026 at 3:30:12 PM

Everyone started using Claude for coding at the same time, something is suspicious!

by worldsavior

6/14/2026 at 4:27:49 PM

What do you think this will lead to? Will mesh networks explode in popularity or maybe the adults will just log their kids in - and UK will then make that illegal... But how to surveil the parents then.

Personally I fear this will just become whackamole against communication innovation. it feels to me like an addition in a broader attempt to control communications in general.

by monssooon

6/14/2026 at 5:18:38 PM

I agree that children under 16 should be limited in their exposure to social media but... I am deeply worried this will be used to either limit everyone else's access (particularly in "times of crisis") or may lead to a national identity requirement for accessing the internet. It's a little alarming the tech-minded public has not pushed back on this more.

by ajay-b

6/14/2026 at 5:26:08 PM

Yeah where are the site banners? We had more for BLM than this.

Guess gone are the days of net neutrality and privacy protests by devs.

by theultdev

6/14/2026 at 4:04:15 PM

When you try to ban people from doing something they find ways to do it illegally. Humans have a need to socialize and kids are not going to stop using the internet for that just because of some law.

Aided by their parents, I'm sure, they will find seedier ways to do this. Ways that are not regulated at all, even by sensible laws that prevent direct exploitation. The parents obviously don't care that their kids use social media, otherwise they would take steps to stop it.

These laws are not going to bring back the days where we all were riding our bikes outside and reading physical books. That's not the way of life for these kids. But it's, very likely, going to put children in a more dangerous situation as they try to find some kind of solution to their social needs online.

by phyzix5761

6/14/2026 at 4:59:34 PM

> When you try to ban people from doing something they find ways to do it illegally. Humans have a need to socialize and kids are not going to stop using the internet for that just because of some law.

They’ll do what my son has done his whole teenage life, having been banned from social media by me before he even asked for it, and go out and see their mates in real life !

by danw1979

6/14/2026 at 4:07:42 PM

Counterpoint - this is a coordination problem, there are studies suggesting that most kids would rather not participate in the whole social media thing but an individual can’t opt out.

It’s very possible that a policy like this could give everyone a new Schelling point to coordinate around, and thus change the default behavior.

We will see! I certainly agree this policy won’t prevent the kids that really want to use an app.

by theptip

6/14/2026 at 3:10:42 PM

The evidence of social media causing depression and anxiety in youth is mixed and almost all of the affirmative findings are correlational, so I expect to see a variety of takes in this comment thread.

Personally, the strongest positive evidence I've seen comes from the natural experiments tracking when high speed internet & phones were introduced geographically. Rates of teen depression do seem to topple in very close sync with this, as discussed here: https://www.afterbabel.com/p/phone-based-childhood-cause-epi...

by paytonjjones

6/14/2026 at 3:15:58 PM

I happened to talk to a teenage relative about this possibility the other day and she said that she'd be fine with a ban. It seems that it's not as big a deal if everyone's in the same boat. Parents genuinely have a hard time navigating this because drawing a line for their own children has the effect of socially excluding them.

It's not ideal in many senses (what age checks are we talking about here) but its worth thinking about some of the positive effects this might have on the young people growing up in the mess we've made of new media.

by notarobot123

6/14/2026 at 3:15:21 PM

Password to bypass the Magna Carta and hundreds of years of reserving power to the British people: “Its4TheKids”

by shrubble

6/14/2026 at 3:16:56 PM

I'm absolutely fine with a social media ban for under 16s.

And completely against it actually meaning strong identification of over 16s.

by cs02rm0

6/14/2026 at 3:31:53 PM

When considering how to think about these restrictions, I turn to my 15 year old self back in the 90s and ask him "would you want the government to block you from using IRC, forums, guestbooks, and social web sites?"

His response would have been "go to hell", and he would have figured out a way to get around it anyways. Unless they're actually planning to track one government ID per person in a database, a truly horrifying idea that this project is slippery sloping towards (because if the current design is easily defeatable, then why do it at all?)

Having access to the entire internet, warts and all, as a kid did not ruin my life, it was an escape from the people I did not fit in with in the place I grew up, it taught me about humanity and ultimately led to a successful career for me.

Dave Bohnett, the founder of Geocities, stuck his neck out to protect the LGBT section of the site so that young adults could find a place to have community despite often growing up in places where it was dangerous to be gay, like it was for him when he grew up in a very conservative suburb of Chicago.

I don't think anyone has said more negative stuff about Facebook then I have, and I literally made a platform eager to try to destroy it, but this is not the way to do it. We should be thinking very, very carefully about when we let the government become our parents in scenarios like this when the unintended consequences seem quite likely be enormous and when there's no mechanism for retracting the law once it's implemented and we find out that, surprise surprise, it didn't magically cure depression in young adults.

by kyledrake

6/14/2026 at 6:04:57 PM

Social media sites today are nothing like the forums and guestbooks of the 90s. Social media now is highly effective at developing addiction like symptoms as well as driving people to decisive topics and conspiracy theories. It has a measurable effect on teenagers wellbeing and academic performance too.

My bigger concern is the how rather than the why on this topic.

by Peanuts99

6/14/2026 at 3:46:41 PM

I asked my Ouija board some questions and determined that:

- Select 3rd parties friends of government officials will be taxpayer funded to verify government ID's and live facial recognition.

- Said data will be "accidentally leaked" and somehow a myriad of 3rd parties and criminals end up with this data.

- People will be encouraged to purchase some form of identity protection monitoring service.

- People will conclude or theorize that all of this could have been avoided.

I have some ideas that could solve this without impacting anyone currently using the internet but there are no financial incentives for government officials to participate thus such ideas are dead in the water.

by Bender

6/14/2026 at 3:54:12 PM

- It will somehow cost at least £1bn because everything costs £1bn these days

(NB it'll start off at a lower figure)

by gib444

6/14/2026 at 3:09:48 PM

Didn't work in Australia, won't work in the UK.

Parents will just scan the kids in.

by spacedoutman

6/14/2026 at 3:12:36 PM

Can you provide some evidence that it didn’t work in Australia? Given the ban hasn’t been in place that long I’d like to see your sources about it not working.

by yladiz

6/14/2026 at 3:47:33 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/31/meta-...

Limited success might be a better term. But if a supposedly blanket ban only stopped 30% of under-16s accounts from accessing social media, that does seem pretty failure-esque.

by epihelix

6/14/2026 at 4:15:21 PM

This is a story about non-compliance. One hopes the Aus government is going to take some sort of enforcement action. If _that_ fails, then you could claim limited success or failure.

Presumably you wouldn't call laws against murder a failure because there are murders.

by asib

6/14/2026 at 3:33:46 PM

NTA but it's literally in the article.

by sunaookami

6/14/2026 at 3:24:53 PM

A lot of talk about the "why," absolutely nothing about the "how." The "how" is where the problem is.

by rdiddly

6/14/2026 at 3:33:21 PM

Tbh, I think that this is still putting the blame on users and not in the actual tool designed to be as addictive as possible. It's like blaming people who get addicted to cigarettes.

by Gonxa6282

6/14/2026 at 4:38:26 PM

Nice, let's hope they will be using their creativity and smarts to understand deeply how tech works and bypass these or create their own spaces. We have high hopes for you young people.

by hollow-moe

6/14/2026 at 4:06:16 PM

To this I say: Hey kids, go grow your own groups using free/libre open source decentralised, distributed post-blockchain holochain-powered https://moss.social

by oddb0d

6/14/2026 at 3:15:27 PM

In other words, governments around the world finally found the cheat code to demolish online anonymity.

by raincole

6/14/2026 at 4:21:06 PM

I think every country should adopt this actually. The sort of reasoning I see on social media shouldn't be exposed to children.

by melodyogonna

6/14/2026 at 3:28:04 PM

So "login with Facebook" won't be an option anymore for kids.

by ciupicri

6/14/2026 at 3:17:43 PM

A lot of reporting seems to state that it's only for "high risk social media". Is that the case? Are they really picking and choosing which social media they will ban for under 16s?

by dom96

6/14/2026 at 3:26:51 PM

Just ban social media.

by zetanor

6/14/2026 at 3:05:35 PM

Alternative title: ID verification to be required for all UK citizens to use social media

by nly

6/14/2026 at 3:09:57 PM

Well I needed a good reason to quit social media. This can be it.

by jonplackett

6/14/2026 at 3:21:02 PM

He posted, on a social media website.

by stavros

6/14/2026 at 3:49:11 PM

HN is not "social media," in a conventional sense, far from it. For one, it is completely anonymous, at least if you want it to be.

by drnick1

6/14/2026 at 5:49:38 PM

But under Ofcom rules, it is social media if we are to assume that they’ll apply the same scoping as the Online Safety Act does for user-to-user services. I think a lot of comments here assume that only sites like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter/X would be in scope, but I see no reason why they wouldn’t use the same definitions from the OSA (essentially any site where user-to-user communication and content posting takes place, including forums and aggregators).

by davb

6/14/2026 at 3:17:19 PM

And as usual, no pro-privacy or pro-freedom groups were asked to give a comment for the article. I guess nobody objects on those grounds!

by like_any_other

6/14/2026 at 3:12:10 PM

I went back to the UK a few weeks ago for an old friend's wedding, and the ID verification process shocked me.

by danielrmay

6/14/2026 at 4:28:01 PM

And this will apply to everyone once you have to prove you are over 16.

by haunter

6/14/2026 at 3:26:47 PM

Great! Can we ban it for adults too?

by andy_ppp

6/14/2026 at 3:58:35 PM

Not sure if true (as it was on X) but I read that Bluesky would be exempt?

by conradfr

6/14/2026 at 3:32:54 PM

If there was any smart way of doing it, we should block it for everyone. Very little good has come of it. Also solves the age verification problem. It’s soooo difficult to not fall into the addiction trap, and I’m exhausted from keeping myself away from it.

by thesumofall

6/14/2026 at 5:39:10 PM

Hear, hear!!!

by ruicraveiro

6/14/2026 at 3:17:00 PM

It’s pretty amazing how all major nations are using various reasons to force global ID and verification all at once isn’t it?

by tsunamifury

6/14/2026 at 3:47:45 PM

Doesn't even seem like various reasons.

by sufficientsoup

6/14/2026 at 2:59:18 PM

Good

by throwrioawfo

6/14/2026 at 3:04:21 PM

Abstractly perhaps, but I'm not aware of any practical enforcement mechanism I'd classify as "good".

by Retr0id

6/14/2026 at 3:13:23 PM

If the operators are liable, they will find a way, it's easy for the operators to infer a users age based on usage patterns. They must be required to close these accounts.

by throwawayffffas

6/14/2026 at 3:07:08 PM

It doesn't need to be perfect, but in spite of that perfect is possible if people ask for it. Don't tempt them. Look at what happened in Spain with Cloudflare.

by 100ms

6/14/2026 at 3:06:05 PM

Are you saying that with the awareness that this will be used to remove privacy from social media?

by Schmerika

6/14/2026 at 3:49:08 PM

When the OSA came into force I checked the iOS App Store and the top 10 apps in the UK at the time were all dodgy free VPNs. This legislation is utterly idiotic.

I'm sick of this government, they won't be getting my vote in the next GE.

by cedws

6/14/2026 at 5:34:07 PM

Is it just me or did I missed a notice that Bluesky is not on the list of UK's banned social media?

by egberts1

6/14/2026 at 3:23:09 PM

I like it. We don’t need social media. It is just a convenient way for the elites to collect data and push agendas, and people can communicate in other online ways without limiting themselves to short attention span, doom scrolling and others. TBH I’d be happy that it doesn’t exist.

Quebec has it, too. IMO it should be banned for under-18s instead of under-16s.

The only problem is how to enforce it.

by markus_zhang

6/14/2026 at 5:49:06 PM

Exactly, I stoped using all social media and I feel way better and my screen time went significantly down. It is harder to communicate with some people (have to use email or sms) but it reduced mostly meaningless small talk we can do in person.

by jbvlkt

6/14/2026 at 3:34:17 PM

"Think of the children" used to shoehorn in the police state. Shudder to think where this will be in 100 years.

by evilturnip

6/14/2026 at 3:22:03 PM

the party of lord mandelson do not care about kids

by eunice

6/14/2026 at 3:11:57 PM

have a short cartoon about the U.K. banning everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUep-4v_M9k

by functionmouse

6/14/2026 at 3:31:57 PM

Fantastic idea. Now ban phones for under 16s as well.

by dyauspitr

6/14/2026 at 3:02:21 PM

I agree that there are issues, but won't kids find other places to congregate? Maybe in educational sites?

by xhkkffbf

6/14/2026 at 3:13:16 PM

Isn't that better? For one, they're connected to peers they have physically met. Additionally, they won't be exposed to strangers or ads that warp their world view.

I still believe that the government should ban unsolicited algorithmic content (so search engines are exempted), but this is a second best option.

by fyredge

6/14/2026 at 3:12:49 PM

Perhaps using anonymous registration-free platforms like Session

by nly

6/14/2026 at 3:09:07 PM

Yes. Hopefully outside, in the park playing with a ball or running around.

by testing22321

6/14/2026 at 3:06:04 PM

Another headline about the Digital ID prison system they're building to identify and restrict all access to the Internet for people of all ages.

Then perhaps comes the mark which is about restricting and controlling what you're allowed to buy and sell.

by gslepak

6/14/2026 at 3:14:41 PM

Also, stop your BS about a prison system, its not whats going on globally. You are just buying into the BS that Facebook and company are sending you. Good on you for buying into their propaganda. The world existed before social media and it will keep existing.

by calgoo

6/14/2026 at 3:11:43 PM

OR we can try to move this to the positive side instead of fighting the fascists. We dont NEED social media, its a cancer on humanity. So maybe instead accept this BS and move it towards a place that we can all agree upon. I understand the UK political system is corrupt to its core, like all world goverments, but that's not the reason why to ignore and give in to what the government is demanding.

by calgoo

6/14/2026 at 3:19:09 PM

There will still be social media. Most of the public conversation will still take place there. You just won't be able to use it anonymously (possibly not even read it).

by like_any_other

6/14/2026 at 2:59:26 PM

it's illegal for kids to vape too right? how's that working out?

(answer: https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/use-of-e-cigarettes-among-... )

by ck2

6/14/2026 at 3:07:48 PM

The actual ban passed a couple months ago, after the data in your link was collected. But also, smoking bans (etc) had hugely positive effects on smoking rates. There's every reason to be positive.

by camgunz

6/14/2026 at 3:03:49 PM

Better than if it weren't illegal I'm sure. Also I think it is that it is illegal to sell kids vapes. It's not illegal for the kids to vape.

by izzydata

6/14/2026 at 3:20:15 PM

Wow looking at your history, please chill. You are very clearly related to the powers at be, i guess you feel unsafe unless uncle sam tucks you in at night. I feel sorry for you at this point...

by calgoo

6/14/2026 at 3:04:42 PM

So just do nothing, right?

by ElProlactin

6/14/2026 at 3:09:53 PM

Same as whenever they talk about banning anything in society… They can’t keep drugs, weapons, phones, etc. out of prisons, which are entirely under government purview. Elect clowns, expect a circus.

by christoph

6/14/2026 at 3:16:39 PM

and what does that have to do with anything apart from diluting the point we have against the corrupt assholes.

by calgoo

6/14/2026 at 6:02:08 PM

Cry me a river. At least someone is trying

by mPogrzeb

6/14/2026 at 3:04:48 PM

Vaping prevalence among youth in UK has plateaued since 2022. So its slowly working.

Edit: as your own source conclude

by tokai

6/14/2026 at 3:43:04 PM

Maybe, in the future, the UK will thing twice before electing a socialist government.

by drnick1

6/14/2026 at 3:56:40 PM

It's supported by both major parties. Quite strongly by the Conservatives in fact

by gib444

6/14/2026 at 4:01:20 PM

Our governments seem to have just two tools for big issues in society (because they're quick and cheap):

- Nudging, propaganda, posters and automated announcements

- New legislation to ban something

If something can't be fixed with either of those, nothing gets fixed. Shockingly this happens a lot!

Their mates will make some money and lobbyists appeased, then they'll get distracted about what to ban and clutch pearls over next, and the issues our children have will persist and get worse

by gib444

6/14/2026 at 3:23:30 PM

If they were really concerned, they'd be doing something about the algorithmic feeds pumping right wing vitreol into everything and Elon constantly begging for race wars to start.

It's very obviously not about the children.

by Devasta

6/14/2026 at 4:59:19 PM

[dead]

by appybara13

6/14/2026 at 3:03:58 PM

[flagged]

by beefmumbai