On 15 June 2026, the UK government released proposals to restrict children's access to social media, including rules against livestreaming and contact from strangers. This is the most concrete step the government has taken so far in an effort that began earlier this year.

Right now, UK law does not set a minimum age for social media. In March 2026, the government asked parents and the public what they thought about this. Nine in ten parents said they supported a ban for children under 16 — an unusually strong level of agreement that gives the government a lot of political support to act.

What the Rules Would Do

The government's June fact sheet is not yet law, but it shows what the government intends to do. The restrictions on livestreaming and stranger contact are specific choices. Child safety experts have repeatedly flagged both as ways that children can be groomed or contacted by adults, and neither is properly controlled by the rules platforms currently use.

Before publishing the proposals, the government ran tests with teenagers and parents, trying out social media bans, digital curfews, and app time limits. This was announced in March 2026. Most governments pass laws and then see what happens; testing first means the eventual rules will be based on real evidence from actual families.

Other Countries Are Doing This Too

The UK is not the only country moving in this direction. Australia and several European countries have already passed similar rules or are working on them, according to a Reuters report from 8 June 2026. Australia's law was a landmark moment because it was the first to set a national age limit for social media rather than asking the platforms themselves to do the checking. When multiple countries adopt similar rules, platforms cannot shop around for the easiest place to operate — they have to follow the same standards everywhere.

The Biggest Problem: How Do You Know If Someone Is Old Enough?

The hardest part of any age limit rule is verification. Social media platforms would need to check that a user is old enough, but that check has to be accurate, keep people's private information safe, and cannot be easy to trick. No country has fully figured this out yet. The UK already tried something similar under an earlier law, and that experience has been messy, slow, and is still not finished. That same mess will likely happen here.

The 90% support from parents in the government's survey is impressive, but there is an important caveat. Parents who are worried enough about online safety to answer a government survey are not the same as all UK parents — they are more likely to be concerned than the average. This does not make the finding invalid, but it means the government should be cautious about claiming that nearly every parent wants this rule.

If livestreaming restrictions happen, platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube will have to change features that bring in money. How they react — by redesigning the feature, by going to court, or by lobbying the government — will determine what comes next. The stranger-contact rule might be easier: platforms could make privacy settings automatically strict for accounts they identify as belonging to children, and some already do this.

What the government has released so far is a rough plan, not a finished law. A lot can change between now and the final rule. Given the timeline — survey done, tests finished, proposals now out — it is likely the government will introduce a Bill in the 2026-27 parliamentary session, though nothing is certain yet. Platforms already know what is coming, so they can start planning how to meet these requirements now.