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Responding to UK government’s decision to ban children and young people under 16 from accessing social media, Kerry Moscogiuri, Chief Executive of Amnesty International UK, said:
“This is a case of the right diagnosis but the wrong prescription.
“The UK government is right to recognize that many children face serious harms online. Too many social media companies have built products and business models that prioritize keeping children engaged for longer, often at the expense of their wellbeing, privacy and rights.
“But the problem is not that children exist on social media; it’s that social media companies have built platforms that are unsafe by design. Banning under-16s risks treating children as the problem rather than addressing the companies and systems that create the risks in the first place.
“Young people deserve to be safe online, but they also have rights. Social media can expose children to harm, but it is also where many young people learn, connect with friends, find support, organize around issues they care about and make their voices heard.
“You cannot solve a design problem with an access ban. If the diagnosis is that social media platforms are harming children, the remedy should be to regulate the platforms, not exclude children.
“The responsibility for children’s safety should rest first and foremost with the companies that build and profit from these platforms. Government action should focus on ending invasive profiling of children, tackling addictive and manipulative design features.
“Children should not have to surrender their privacy in order to participate in modern digital life. We need strong regulation that tackles surveillance-based business models, protects children’s data and puts safety ahead of profit.”
UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer announced a full social media ban for under 16s on 15 June, 2026. Social media platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X are included in the ban. The ban is expected to take effect in 2027.
Amnesty International is calling for strong and enforceable platform regulation, including restrictions on profiling-by-default, hyper-personalized recommendation systems, autoplay, infinite scroll and other manipulative design features, alongside stronger protections for children’s privacy and safety online.
Amnesty International’s research has documented how platform design can push children into harm’s way. Its 2023 report, Driven into Darkness , found that TikTok’s hyper-personalized “For You” feed could rapidly draw young users showing even limited interest in mental health topics into “rabbit holes” of harmful content, including material that romanticizes or encourages depressive thinking, self-harm and suicide.
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