Sam wrote in a VIP post earlier on Monday that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the government was banning social media access to children under 16. "We’re giving children their childhoods back," he said. As Sam noted, however, the ban didn't apply to all social media sites; conspicuously exempt was liberal utopia Bluesky.
In case you missed it, here's Starmer's announcement again:
We are banning social media access for under 16s.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 15, 2026
These days kids must find their feet in a world where technology intrudes into every area of their life.
I just can’t let that go on anymore. So we’re giving children their childhoods back. pic.twitter.com/jn7iQrcwk8
In case it doesn't show up above, Starmer was hit with a Community Note:
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The UK Government's 'careful review' of the research found a small correlation between children's use of social media and wellbeing, but no evidence of a causal effect:
Is this really about giving children their childhoods back? What does that mean, exactly?
There are a couple of schools of thought going around. End Wokeness dug up this clip of Member of Parliament Max Wilkinson saying last year that social media was "a massive problem" because you could set up an X account and spread "nativist" content about how immigration is the thing that's tearing the country apart.
MP Max Wilkinson: X is a problem due to the ability for citizens to "get their voice against immigration heard"
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 15, 2026
This is why the UK is cracking down pic.twitter.com/NG8HzvC9ti
Others think there's more behind the push, and it has nothing to do with children. It's about having to verify your identity. In September 2025, Starmer announced plans for a mandatory digital ID in the form of an app. The government rolled back the mandatory aspect this January after massive pushback.
Here's Rupert Lowe of Restore Britain:
Any attempt to impose mandatory Digital ID will be fully repealed, scrapped and eradicated by a Restore Britain Government.
— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) June 15, 2026
The thing is, if you're going to restrict people under 16 from social media, you're going to need those over 16 to verify their identity on every social media site. Politics UK reports that Meta, home of Facebook and Instagram, would prefer a scenario where age checks would be made at a device level, so people wouldn't have to age-verify on every social media site.
🚨 NEW: Facebook and Instagram owner Meta has called for device-level age checks in response to the UK's social media ban for children
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 15, 2026
"People shouldn't be asked to hand over ID to dozens of individual services to prove their age"
I don't trust Polymarket as a news site, but it did report this:
JUST IN: UK Government clarifies adults will still be able to use social media by verifying their identities with digital IDs, facial recognition, passports and credit cards.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) June 15, 2026
Facial recognition and credit cards to open an X account? Yeah, how about no.
81% chance Starmer is out by the end of the year. https://t.co/zNovPtu4NA
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) June 15, 2026
the purpose is not to remove young people from the internet. the purpose is to remove anonymity from the internet in a country where the government routinely punishes dissent with jail. the british caliphate is no longer free.
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) Jun 15, 2026
Yep. pic.twitter.com/qnJBZMdqTa
— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) June 15, 2026
They want everyone online named, tagged, and traceable in a country that already arrests people for wrongthink. Once your face, bank card, and address are tied to every post, you start censoring yourself for them. That is the point.
— Dan Holbrook (@DanHolbrook) June 15, 2026
Verify your identity to speak is just a polite way to build the list of who to come for first. The kids thing was always the trojan horse, the ID was the cargo. Britain larping as China with worse weather.
— Vision33X ♘ (@Vision33X) June 15, 2026
It is also to "educate" the children under their control
— Peter Mackey (@PeterMackey4) June 15, 2026
Starmer doesn't like social media because of the "anti-migrant sentiment" and the fact that he gets ratioed every time he posts.
Everyone knows this is just about ending anonymity online, for everyone
— Mary Harrington (@moveincircles) June 15, 2026
Stop pretending you care about kids, if you did you'd roll up the gang networks that have captured multiple Labour cities and are pimping our children up and down the country
Little British girls are being raped and men decapitated in your streets by foreign invaders—and this is your priority
— Priya Patel (@priyaee) June 15, 2026
Labour whipped their MPs to vote against a rape gang inquiry, after thousands of British children got raped by foreign gangs over the last decade.
— Ben Graham (@BenGrahamUK) June 15, 2026
You don't care about child safety, it's about controlling the British public.
Hey dipsht... How about protecting kids from the invaders?
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) June 15, 2026
Imagine facial recognition, a passport, or a credit card to sign up for an X account so you can post "nativist" content. The British people didn't fall for the wonder that was mandatory digital ID, so as so many have said above, this is just a Trojan horse.
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