2026-06-16 from cbc.ca

With an increasing number of countries implementing social media bans for young users, there's a growing sense that these restrictions are becoming more common and that social platforms could face a reckoning.

On Monday, Britain joined those countries, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing legislation to ban British children under 16 from a range of social media apps, with multimillion-dollar fines for platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to bar accounts for these young users. Starmer aims to bring the legislation into force by spring 2027.

While each nation exploring these bans and restrictions are taking varied approaches and are at at different stages, there's a sense among some experts that this could represent a turning point for social media platforms. One U.S. expert suggested they could be facing a reckoning similar to what cigarette companies experienced in the 1990s.

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