Calls to Block Unsafe Platforms for Under-16s
UK police chiefs have urged that children be prevented from accessing social media, AI, and gaming applications that do not disable "high-risk" features such as private messaging. The National Crime Agency (NCA) and National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) emphasized that platforms failing to stop children from being contacted by strangers, recommending harmful content, or sharing nude photos should be banned for users under 16 years old.
This joint appeal responds to the UK government's consultation on potentially banning social media use for under-16s, amid commitments from platforms to enhance child safety measures.
The government stated that technology companies must protect children online and supports the regulator Ofcom "to act against those who fail to comply." A government spokesperson added,
"We are going further - consulting on options from age limits and app curfews to outright bans."
"We also remain committed to making it impossible for children in the UK to take, share or view nude images, and are working at pace to deliver this."
However, NCA director general Graeme Biggar expressed concern about the current online environment for children, stating,
"Our assessment is clear: the online environment in its current form is not safe for children."
"The industry response has been too slow, while the problem has been getting worse. Enough is enough."
Chief constable Gavin Stephens, chair of the NPCC, described the online space as "something of a wild west" where law and regulation have "failed to keep up with the pace of technology."
Biggar noted that both crime agencies would prefer children to participate online safely and benefit from its opportunities. He also clarified that their proposals do not advocate for an Australia-style ban on social media for under-16s.
The government recently pledged to introduce some form of social media restrictions for under-16s, even if it stops short of a full ban.
'Harm at-scale' Features Identified
The NCA and NPCC identified six platform features they believe enable "harm at-scale" and should not be present on apps or services used by children. Many of these features are already addressed in the Online Safety Act, which imposes rules and codes platforms must follow to operate in the UK.
Ofcom holds the authority to investigate and fine companies suspected of breaching these regulations. However, police argue that the government should legislate to prevent under-16s from accessing any platform or app offering features deemed "high-risk." They also advocate empowering Ofcom to enforce platforms' minimum age policies effectively and mandate device-level nudity controls to prevent under-18s from taking, sharing, or streaming nude images or videos.
Biggar revealed that in 2025, the NCA received 92,000 reports of potential child sexual abuse activity online from technology companies, with numbers increasing and offences becoming more severe.
"They involve younger and younger children and we are increasingly seeing children offending as well as being victims,"
he said.
He attributed the worsening issue to tech firms' failure to make child safety "a core design principle."
"This refusal to prioritise safety by design is boosting criminals' speed and reach,"
Stephens added.
Some platforms, including Instagram and Apple, have introduced technology aimed at combating a rise in sextortion by preventing children from seeing or sending nude images via messages.
Calls to strengthen measures preventing children from taking, viewing, or sharing nude images online are not new. Such proposals were part of the government's violence against women and girls strategy. However, former minister Jess Phillips recently criticized the government for slow progress in implementing these measures.
Meanwhile, some charities have voiced concerns about end-to-end encrypted messaging, arguing that making messages readable only by sender and receiver could hinder efforts to detect and combat child abuse and grooming. Instagram recently disabled end-to-end encryption for direct messages on its platform, while TikTok informed the BBC it has "no plans" to introduce it.
Conversely, some experts and campaigners maintain that private messaging is essential for preserving online privacy and data security.
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