A real one digital and cultural revolution is ready to invest in Great Britain, drawing a clear dividing line in the relationship between new generations and virtual space. This morning, in fact, the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the impending ban absolute access and use of social platforms for all children under 16 years of age.
Speaking directly from Downing Street, the Labor prime minister made clear his political will to lock down the legislation by next Christmasso as to make the provision effective in the first months of 2027, or by spring at the latest. The measure, radical and unprecedented in Europe, will obscure giants such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube and instant messaging services such as WhatsApp.
I am simply not prepared to be a bystander when the safety and happiness of our children are at stake.
We will ban social media access for under 16s, and give children their childhoods back.
Read more about it here: https://t.co/oqX7ufHB4R pic.twitter.com/3ZxmVFG0OY
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 15, 2026
The reasons for the squeeze and the international axis with Australia
The decision was not taken lightly, but responds to a pressing public health emergency linked to adolescent mental disorders, the addiction generated by algorithmic flows and the pitfalls of cyberbullying. Starmer, drawing on his personal experience as a father of two boys, underlined the need to protect the psychological development of young people from manipulative dynamics like the infinite scrolling of the screens.
London’s plan will not travel in isolation: Great Britain has in fact followed Australia’s legislative trailwhich inaugurated this severe prohibitionist doctrine late last year. The initiative received immediate applause from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who underlined the importance of a united political front to force the giants of Silicon Valley to answer for their actions beyond national borders.
The wrath of Big Tech and the domino effect in Europe and Canada
The announcement immediately sparked protests reaction of technological multinationals. A YouTube spokesperson expressed strong concern, highlighting how general bans risk distancing children from controlled and supervised digital spaces, paradoxically pushing them towards clandestine, anonymous and decidedly less safe meanders of the web.
Despite industrial resistance, the British move – which coincided with the opening of the G7 summit in France – is accelerating a domino effect on a global scale. Canada is preparing to discuss the Safe Social Media Actwhile the European Union evaluates the introduction of an encrypted application for tracking users’ details within national digital wallets.
The situation in Italy
Even in Italy the parliamentary debate is emerging from a long phase of stasis. After months of postponements at Palazzo Chigi caused by the ineffectiveness of real checks on the age of navigators, this week the resumption of the process of the bipartisan Mennuni-Madia bill for the protection of minors in the digital dimension, supported by a parallel proposal aimed at securing personal data verification systems.
Future perspectives on online restrictions
In the meantime, the political agenda of the London government already looks beyond the sixteen-year threshold: in fact, the plans of the Starmer cabinet include further restrictions for under 18sdesigned to place severe commercial limits on live streaming platforms and the complex structural systems of online gambling.
By July, in fact, the government intends to announce the introduction of a kind of “night curfew” for social media after 8.30pm for those under 18 and a system of pauses to the platforms that have an infinite scroll function. It also imposed a minimum age limit of 18 for the use of chatbots that simulate a romantic or erotic relationship, both on specialized platforms and on ChatGPT.
