Government · UK · Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT)
76% of UK Parents Want a 16+ Social Media Age Limit
The UK government's biggest study yet on children and social media finds parents and children pulling in opposite directions. In the nationally representative panel, 76% of parents want a minimum access age of at least 16, but only 29% of children aged 10 to 21 support an under-16 ban.
Source published Summarised
Read the full report from Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT)
Key findings at a glance
- 97% of UK children and young people aged 10 to 21 have access to a smartphone, according to DSIT's nationally representative panel survey.
- 96% of the same group report using social media, making it near-universal among UK under-21s.
- 71% of children mainly use social media in the evening, between 6pm and 9pm.
- 37% of children say they spend 3 to 4 hours a day on social media.
- 12% of children say they spend seven or more hours a day on social media.
- 76% of parents agree social media should have a minimum access age of at least 16.
- 29% of children aged 10 to 21 support a ban on under-16s using social media, far below their parents.
- 40% support for an under-16 ban among older children aged 16 to 21, the highest of any youth age band.
- 48% of children prefer selective access, using some platforms but not others, over a blanket ban.
- 42% of children name endless scrolling as the feature that most makes them want to keep using social media.
- 84% of parents want minimum-age requirements applied to AI chatbots.
- 81% of parents support adults completing age checks more often if it keeps children safer online.
What the report covers
This is the UK government's final report on children's wellbeing online, published by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on 15 July 2026 and delivered by a research consortium led by Savanta. It was commissioned to build a robust evidence base on how children use social media and what parents, children and teachers make of possible restrictions, including a blanket under-16 ban.
The primary evidence comes from two nationally representative panel surveys: 5,010 parents and guardians, and 9,017 children and young people aged 10 to 21. These sit alongside a much larger open public consultation (39,116 parents and 5,112 children), a nationally representative survey of 2,234 teachers and youth practitioners, and seven in-person deliberative youth Hack events held across the UK. The panel surveys carry the statistical weight. The public consultation is self-selecting, skews harder towards restriction, and is used only for triangulation.
It follows an earlier reading of parent sentiment from the consultation stage. See our report on the DSIT finding that 89% of responding parents back a social media age cap. This final report adds children's own views at scale, and the gap between the two audiences is the real story.
What this means for UK marketers
The headline is a policy split, but the useful signals for marketers sit underneath the ban debate.
Start with reach. Social media is effectively universal among UK under-21s: 97% have a smartphone and 96% use social platforms. That audience is not going away, but the terms of access to it are tightening. Parents (76%), teachers (83%) and even a majority of children accept that some form of restriction is coming, so any youth-facing plan built on unrestricted feed access is now on borrowed time.
Next, persuasive design. The features children name as most compelling, endless scrolling (42%) and likes and comments (41%), are the exact mechanics that drive organic reach and cheap paid distribution. Around three quarters of both parents and children think restricting these features would make social media safer, and 89% of parents back time-based limits. If platforms are pushed to dial down infinite scroll, autoplay and notification loops for younger users, the organic surface for reaching under-18s shrinks with them.
Then age assurance. 81% of parents want more frequent age checks, and 84% want minimum ages on AI chatbots. Read this alongside our finding that 39% of children have already bypassed an online age check: the under-16 audience is about to become both harder to reach legitimately and less reliably measured. Plan for a smaller, verified addressable youth audience rather than assuming today's targeting holds.
The practical move is to shift youth-adjacent budget towards owned channels and parent-facing messaging. For family brands the anxious parent is the decision-maker, which favours trust-led content over feed virality. If you are rebalancing social spend around these constraints, that is the core of our Meta and social ads management and wider digital marketing work.
How they got the data
The research was commissioned by DSIT and delivered by a consortium led by Savanta, with UK Youth, Volunteering Matters and the #iWill Movement providing advisory and youth-participation support. The quantitative core is two online panel surveys recruited through Savanta's research panels: 5,010 parents and guardians of children aged 0 to 21, and 9,017 children and young people aged 10 to 21, both weighted to be nationally representative. A further nationally representative survey covered 2,234 teachers and youth practitioners. Statements of statistical significance refer to within-survey subgroup differences at the 95% confidence level.
Two additional strands add context rather than statistical weight. An open-link public consultation hosted on a government website drew 39,116 parent responses and 5,112 child responses; because it is self-selecting it leans towards support for restriction. Seven in-person deliberative youth Hack events across the UK supplied the qualitative layer. The study is framed explicitly against the child-safety duties of the Online Safety Act 2023.
Government · UK
Read the full report
From Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) · published 15/07/2026