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The under-16 social media ban: what it covers, and what it doesn’t

By Ben, co-founder of Sayph · Last checked: October 2026

A smiling girl with a school backpack looking at her phone

It has been announced. It isn’t law yet, and it doesn’t cover everything.

In June the government announced that children under 16 will be kept off social media. It is a significant step, and many parents have welcomed it. It has also caused some confusion, including adverts saying the ban is already in place. It isn’t yet.

We make a phone for children, so we have a stake in this conversation. We have tried to set out the facts as plainly as we can, with sources, and to be clear about where our product fits and where it doesn’t.

When does the ban start?

Not yet. The government announced the plan on 15 June 2026 and set out more detail in July. The rules will be made through regulations, and the government says the first set will be laid before Parliament before the end of 2026, with the changes implemented in spring 2027. Until then, nothing has changed for children’s accounts.

What will it cover?

The government plans to follow Australia’s model, which covers platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X. Platforms in scope will have to stop providing their services to under-16s and check ages. Ofcom is setting out which forms of age check will count.

Some protections reach beyond social media. Livestreaming and contact from strangers will be restricted for under-16s, including on gaming platforms. For 16 and 17-year-olds, social media will have an overnight curfew from midnight to 6am by default.

What won’t it cover?

  • Messaging apps. The government has said it does not intend to include messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal in the ban. Children will still be able to use them, subject to each app’s own age rules. WhatsApp’s minimum age in the UK is 13, a limit set by Meta, which owns it (Meta lowered it from 16 in 2024). That number is not a judgement about what suits a child. It traces back to a US data-privacy law, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, and the age was settled by negotiation between policymakers and industry rather than by research into child development.
  • Dedicated educational platforms that support schoolwork and learning.
  • Gaming is not banned, although the restrictions on livestreaming and stranger contact apply.
  • The phone itself. The ban works platform by platform. A standard smartphone still comes with an app store and a web browser, and the ban relies on each platform checking ages. The government has acknowledged that some children may try to get round age checks, for example with VPNs, and has commissioned research on it.

What does it mean for a first phone?

For many families, the ban may make it easier to hold a line they had already chosen: a first phone for staying in touch, with the bigger questions left for later.

It doesn’t settle every question, though. Group chats are often where the pressure of a first phone is felt, and messaging apps are outside the ban. Our guide to WhatsApp and your child looks at that in more detail. And a smartphone with parental controls is still a smartphone: the controls decide what is switched on today.

Where Sayph fits

Sayph is a first phone for staying in touch, built on a Samsung handset. It does calls, texts and location, with contacts you approve. It has no app store, no web browser, no social media and no WhatsApp. Because there is no app store, there is nothing to add later: the phone stays as simple as it is on day one.

It costs £189 for the handset, plus Sayph Space at £4.99 a month, with the first three months at £1.99 a month when you set it up on the web. Through the Apple or Google apps it is £2.99 a month for three months, then £7.99. You add your own SIM, from £2–3 a month with the networks we recommend (see choosing a SIM).

“The Sayph Phone offers a convincing middle ground for families who want location tracking, messaging and a modern handset without giving their child an open smartphone.”
From Smartphone Free Childhood’s guide to smartphone alternatives

See how Sayph works, or compare first-phone options in our objective buying guide.

Sayph may not suit your family if…

  • your child needs WhatsApp for school or club groups (Sayph uses ordinary texts and calls instead);
  • you want a phone that grows into a full smartphone over time; or
  • you would rather wait, or start with a watch or a basic phone. Those are good choices too, and our objective buying guide covers them.
Sayph Phone 4G: Gold, Best Child-Friendly Phone, MadeForMums Tech Awards 2026.

This guide is part of our complete UK guide to phones for kids.

Sources

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