UK Police Chiefs Call for Blocking Under-16s from Platforms Lacking Safety Features

The National Crime Agency and National Police Chiefs' Council said children under 16 should be blocked from accessing social, AI and gaming apps that do not disable high-risk features such as private messaging. The agencies said sites that do not prevent children from being contacted by strangers, that recommend harmful content or that allow sharing of nude photos should be banned for under-16s.

The joint call responds to the government's consultation on whether to ban social media for under-16s.

NPCC identified six features they believe enable harm at scale and should not be present on apps or services used by children. These are mass discoverability of children, unrestricted contact from unknown adults, private or encrypted messaging, algorithms that promote harmful and illegal content, nude image sharing or streaming, and weak age checks.

NCA director general Graeme Biggar said the online environment in its current form is not safe for children. He said the industry response has been too slow while the problem has been getting worse. Chief constable Gavin Stephens, chair of the NPCC, said the online sphere had become something of a wild west in which law and regulation had failed to keep up with the pace of technology.

The government said tech firms must protect children online and it backs regulator Ofcom to act against those who fail to comply. It is consulting on options from age limits and app curfews to outright bans. The government also said it remains committed to making it impossible for children in the UK to take, share or view nude images.

The agencies said their proposals fall short of an Australia-style ban on social media for the under-16s. They prefer children to be able to participate online safely. Biggar said that in 2025 the NCA saw 92,000 reports of potential child sexual abuse activity online from tech companies, and the number was growing.

The agencies want Ofcom to be given the power to enforce platforms' minimum age policies effectively and to mandate device-level nudity controls so that under-18s cannot take, share or stream nude images or videos.