Tech Giants Slam UK Social Media Ban For Pushing Teens To “Unregulated” Wild West Of The Internet

Big tech firms have been responding to the UK’s “world leading” social media ban and unsurprisingly they are not impressed.

The UK unveiled legislation earlier today that will see 10 social media platforms including X, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat completely banned for under-16s. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK is taking “world leading action” and the legislation will go further than last year’s world-first Australia ban by introducing curfews for older teenagers and restrictions on AI chatbots.

Responding to the ban, which had been trailed in the UK press for some time, Silicon Valley tech giants argued that it will simply shift under-16s to the internet’s wild west.

A YouTube spokesman argued that “blanket bans push kids out of curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less safe services.”

“We’ve invested in expert-led, age-appropriate experiences and default protections for teens for over a decade and will continue to do so,” argued the spokesman.

YouTube is perhaps seen as something of a surprise on the list of banned platforms. The Google-owned video-sharing behemoth, which has been exciting the UK TV and film industry of late, was initially exempt from the Australia ban before being added further down the line and the UK government would likely argue some of its content is dangerous for under-16s.

A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, concurred with YouTube around the fear of where kids will go instead once the ban comes into force.

“As we’ve seen in Australia, bans risk isolating teens from online communities and information, and driving them to unregulated alternatives that lack built-in protections and parental controls,” added the spokesperson.

Snap, meanwhile, which owns Snapchat, said the majority of time spent on its platform is for “private messaging” between friends and family – and an outright ban doesn’t necessarily make teens safer. “It may simply push them to less safe platforms,” added the Snap spokesperson.

We have requested comment from other big players including Elon Musk‘s X and will update this post when they respond.

Around 18 months after the Australia ban, the UK’s ruling will come into force next year. “Children will be given back their childhoods,” according to the government.

Along with the blanket ban, so-called AI ‘romantic companion’ chatbots – designed to simulate sexual relationships or roleplay with users – will have to enforce a minimum age of 18 and the government will also be looking in more detail at overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under-18s, with more detail coming next month.

Ofcom, which has powers to enforce online safety regulation, will conduct a rapid study on what is effective age assurance for verifying whether someone is over 16, while it is being asked to publish a “clear enforcement strategy.”