UK may ban social media for children under 16

英国拟禁止 16 岁以下儿童使用社交媒体

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is about to announce a ban on social media usage for children under the age of 16, according to multiple reports. While the government had previously revealed that it was studying options around a ban, both the Guardian and the Financial Times said that Starmer is now ready to unveil the policy in a speech on Monday. 据多家媒体报道，英国首相基尔·斯塔默（Keir Starmer）即将宣布禁止 16 岁以下儿童使用社交媒体。尽管政府此前曾透露正在研究相关禁令的方案，但《卫报》和《金融时报》均表示，斯塔默已准备好在周一的演讲中公布这一政策。

Government sources told the Guardian that the U.K. ban will cover a similar range of social platforms as Australia, where TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, X, Threads, Snapchat, Twitch, and Kick are all banned for users under 16. Other products, such as gaming apps, would not be banned outright, but for their younger users, they’d need to remove features like the ability to chat with strangers. 政府消息人士告诉《卫报》，英国的禁令将涵盖与澳大利亚类似的社交平台范围。在澳大利亚，TikTok、YouTube、Instagram、Reddit、Facebook、X、Threads、Snapchat、Twitch 和 Kick 等平台均禁止 16 岁以下用户使用。其他产品（如游戏应用）不会被直接封禁，但针对低龄用户，这些应用必须移除与陌生人聊天等功能。

The policy would also prohibit users under 18 from accessing romantic and sexual chatbots and seek to prevent late-night scrolling. The government can use its existing regulatory powers to enforce some aspects of a ban, but new legislation may also be required, the Guardian said. 该政策还将禁止 18 岁以下用户访问恋爱和性爱聊天机器人，并试图防止深夜刷屏行为。《卫报》称，政府可以利用现有的监管权力来执行禁令的某些方面，但也可能需要出台新的立法。

The U.K. is one of a number of countries following Australia’s lead by considering bans on social media use by children. The U.K. already passed an age verification law that was similarly touted as protecting the safety of children online. 英国是效仿澳大利亚、考虑禁止儿童使用社交媒体的多个国家之一。英国此前已通过了一项年龄验证法案，该法案同样被标榜为保护儿童的网络安全。

These bans come amidst growing discussion around the effect of social media usage on teens and children — for example, the mother of murdered teen Brianna Ghey has called for a teen social media ban in the U.K. and said her daughter’s eating order and self-harming behavior were “significantly exacerbated by the harmful content she was consuming online.” 这些禁令出台的背景是人们对社交媒体使用对青少年和儿童影响的讨论日益激烈。例如，被谋杀的少女布里安娜·盖伊（Brianna Ghey）的母亲曾呼吁英国禁止青少年使用社交媒体，并表示她女儿的饮食失调和自残行为“因她在网上接触到的有害内容而显著加剧”。

At the same time, these bans have been criticized for potentially violating user privacy and isolating children, while offering unproven benefits to their mental health. Age verification laws — which, unlike outright bans, have taken effect in multiple U.S. states — have also been criticized as threats to online privacy and anonymity. And the verification methods aren’t exactly foolproof. 与此同时，这些禁令也受到了批评，认为它们可能侵犯用户隐私并导致儿童孤立，且对心理健康的益处尚未得到证实。年龄验证法案（与全面禁令不同，已在美国多个州生效）也因威胁网络隐私和匿名性而受到批评。此外，这些验证方法也并非万无一失。