UK examining age assurance accuracy, kids social media use to build on OSA

For social media, the regulatory genie is out of the bottle. As nations look to Australia, which has prohibited social media accounts for kids under 16 to much fanfare but little disruption, it is becoming clear that efforts to legislate age minimums for social platforms are no policy flash in the pan, but part of a larger paradigm shift.

The UK government has been murmuring about pursuing age assurance requirements for social media, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently changing his tune on the possibility. With each day, the prospect appears more likely. This week, the government launched a consultation on children’s social media use and bans on phones in schools.

“We’re launching a national conversation to gather views and drive action to keep children safe online,” says a release from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the Department for Education, and MPs Liz Kendall and Bridget Phillipson. The discussion is to include a “ban on social media access for children,” as well as addictive design features and biometric age assurance technology for age checks.

DSIT mounting national tour to gather feedback

The consultation will solicit input from parents, young people and other stakeholders. To do so, it’s going on tour nationwide, on a mass information collecting mission. Ministers are also planning a trip to Australia, to see how its social media restrictions are working on the ground, and to consider the best way to adapt the model for the UK.

Regarding social media, issues on the table include establishing the right age for a minimum, or a digital age of consent; how to limit functions that purposefully drive addictive or compulsive use of social media; and “how to improve the accuracy of age assurance for children to support the enforcement of minimum age limits so children have age-appropriate experiences and see age-appropriate content.”

A statement from Technology Secretary Liz Kendall highlights an important point: the UK is already navigating the Great Age Verification Highway, through its Online Safety Act and regulator Ofcom’s enforcement of age assurance laws for sexually explicit adult content sites. Per the release, 8 million people now access adult sites with age checks every day, and the number of visitors to pornography sites has reduced by a third since the rules came into force in July 2025. The percentage of minors encountering age checks online has risen from 30 to 47 since then, and Ofcom has opened investigations into over 80 pornography websites.

Inertia dictates that more regulation is ahead.

“Through the Online Safety Act, this government has already taken clear, concrete steps to deliver a safer online world for our children and young people,” Kendall says. “These laws were never meant to be the end point, and we know parents still have serious concerns. That is why I am prepared to take further action.”

No ifs or buts on no phone policy, says MP

The other channel in the government’s consultation concerns the status of phones in UK schools. Some 90 percent of secondary schools already have a phone ban in place. As such, the question is enforcement; around 60 percent of high school students say phones are being used, anyway.

To address the gap, Ofsted will immediately begin checking schools’ mobile phone policy on every inspection.

“We have been clear that mobile phones have no place in our schools but now we’re going further through tougher guidance and stronger enforcement,” says Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. “Mobile phones have no place in schools. No ifs, no buts.”

The government is also releasing new screen time guidance for parents of kids between 5 and 16. It is looking at regulating addictive and exploitative patterns in AI technology. It has made cyberflashing a priority offence. And it announced plans to ban AI nudification tools outright.

Sober reflection sets in after social tech bender of early 2000s

All of this is indicative of the social shift occurring worldwide, as people begin reckoning with the idea that maybe it’s not a great idea to have access to everything in your pocket, all the time. If the first quarter of the twenty-first century was about worshiping at the altar of technology, the second is shaping up as a crisis of faith.

An opinion piece in the Guardian, ostensibly about the rift in the quasi-royalty of the Beckham family, sums up the prevailing winds: “Societies are in a mess. Literacy’s in a mess. Young people’s mental health is in a mess. The world’s in far more of a mess than it was when the techlords found it.”

The flip-floppery of Keir Starmer offers evidence in real time that popular opinion is turning away from Silicon Valley. The Times points out that Starmer initially opposed a social media ban; “however he backed down after being warned that the government risked defeat in the House of Commons with more than 60 of his MPs prepared to defy the whip to vote for an outright ban.”

Online safety laws and age verification for social media are not universally popular. Advocacy groups, including the NSPCC, Molly Rose Foundation and Internet Watch Foundation, oppose the laws, arguing they risk cutting off access to resources for teens from vulnerable communities.

But their objections are beginning to sound hollow, especially as they align with the interests of Big Tech. The Times quotes Labour MP Jess Asato, who indicates that this is not just a matter of partisan support.

“Parents and carers across the country are calling for bold action now and it’s crucial the consultation does not simply kick this issue into the long grass. Listening to parents, children and the generation who have grown up with this technology must take priority over the industry itself.”

Article Topics

age verification  |  children  |  Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT)  |  Online Safety Act  |  regulation  |  social media  |  UK age verification