UAE Announces Nationwide Ban on Social Media for Children Under 15, Sets Deadline for Tech Companies

• The United Arab Emirates has announced a social media ban for children under 15, joining Australia, Britain, and Canada in taking similar steps
• Social media platforms must monitor and disable accounts belonging to under-15s or face being blocked in the country
• Platforms have been given a 12-month transition period to comply with the new cabinet resolution

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The United Arab Emirates has announced a ban on social media use for children under the age of 15, with platforms required to monitor and disable accounts created by underage users or risk being blocked in the country.

Channels TV reports that the UAE’s official WAM news agency announced the measure, citing a cabinet resolution that sets 15 as the minimum age for social media use.

What the Ban Covers: Accounts, Comments and Public Groups

Children below 15 are prohibited from creating, using, or operating personal accounts on social media platforms under the new rules. They are also barred from accessing key features of such platforms.

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The WAM news agency stated that prohibited features include social interaction, publishing and commenting, sharing content, joining public groups, open channels, or large-scale interactive spaces.

Penalties for Non-Compliance: Warnings to Full Platform Blocking

The UAE’s bodies controlling media and telecommunications have authority to act against platforms that fail to comply with the resolution.

Measures available to authorities include warnings, partial or full blocking of platforms, imposition of applicable administrative penalties.

Global Trend: Australia Led the Way in December

The UAE joins a growing list of countries that have moved to restrict children’s access to social media. Australia became the first country in the world to implement such a ban, introducing restrictions for under-16s in December 2025.

Britain announced a similar ban this same week, with Canada also among the countries to have taken comparable measures. Platforms operating in the UAE have been given 12 months to bring their systems into compliance with the new resolution

UK bans social media for kids

Earlier in a similar report, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that children under 16 will soon be banned from using social media, a move he said is necessary to protect young people from harm and unhappiness.

The announcement was made on Monday, June 15, through videos posted on his X and Instagram accounts, where he explained that platforms are exposing children to addictive and dangerous content.