PETITIONRejectedPetition · petition.parliament.uk
Introduce a legal minimum age for access to internet social media web sites.
Introduce a law which makes it illegal for young people under the age of 16 years to have unsupervised access to internet social media (or other harmful websites) using a smart phone or other smart device.
Last fetched 03 May 2026 · petition.parliament.uk
Signatures
6
signatures
Government response threshold (10,000) · 6/10,000
Debate threshold (100,000) · 6/100,000
Background
There is increasing evidence confirming that young people under the age of 16 are being exposed to harmful content on social media sites and are spending many hours of unsupervised access. The so called age restrictions on using these web sites do not seem to be working at all. There is also increasing evidence of significant negative impact on the well-being of young people who spend a lot of time on social media sites, impacting their behaviour, sleep patterns and education.