{"id":500676,"date":"2026-06-15T12:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500676\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T12:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:09:08","slug":"have-your-say-should-ireland-follow-the-uks-move-and-ban-social-media-access-for-children-under-16s-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500676\/","title":{"rendered":"Have your say: Should Ireland follow the UK\u2019s move and ban social media access for children under-16s? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

British prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a> has said under-16s will be banned from accessing social media apps such as TikTok<\/a>, Instagram <\/a>and X <\/a>in sweeping restrictions described as \u201cAustralia plus\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA full ban is the right choice,\u201d Starmer said, adding \u201cthis is not something I do lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer announced that teenagers will be banned from all the main social platforms. Online products that are not covered by the ban \u2013 such as gaming apps \u2013 will face new restrictions such as having the option to chat to strangers removed.<\/p>\n

Australia<\/a> became the world\u2019s first country to implement a nationwide social media ban for children under 16 in December 2025.<\/p>\n

Children are restricted from 10 big platforms \u2013 TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, X, Threads, Snapchat, Twitch and Kick \u2013 and UK government sources indicated that its ban on big platforms would apply to a similar range of apps.<\/p>\n

Do you think Ireland should follow suit and ban under-16s from accessing social media? The Irish Times would like to hear what you think. Do you think a blanket ban will work here? What is your general experience with children under 16 using social media?<\/p>\n

You can let us know what you think using the form below. Please limit your submissions to 400 words or less. Please include a phone number for verification purposes only. We will keep your contact details confidential. If you would prefer to remain anonymous in any published articles, please indicate this in your submission.<\/p>\n

We will curate a selection of submissions for an article but please note we may not publish every submission we receive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British prime minister Keir Starmer has said under-16s will be banned from accessing social media apps such as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[66376,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-500676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-have-your-say","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}