The United Arab Emirates has imposed a ban on social media access for children under the age of 15, giving platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and X a twelve-month deadline to implement robust age-verification systems or face administrative penalties. Under Cabinet Resolution No. 106 of 2026, companies must use government-issued digital IDs, biometric matching, AI-based age estimation or licensed third-party services; self-declaration of date of birth is no longer accepted. The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) is empowered to audit compliance, and the Child Digital Safety Council may issue additional standards.

The UAE move is the latest in a cascade of legislative and regulatory actions across multiple continents. In the United States, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled on Thursday that Ohio can enforce a 2023 law requiring parental consent before children under 16 use platforms such as Instagram, overturning a lower-court injunction. Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s took effect in December 2025. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation already imposes strict limits on processing children’s data, while the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act obliges platforms to shield minors from harmful content. France is drafting legislation to prohibit under-15s from using social media without parental approval, and South Korea has long restricted nighttime online gaming for minors. In Ghana, the NGO Child Rights International has called for a ban for under-17s, citing a study that found 80 per cent of children spend two to seven hours daily on screens, often encountering sexual content and exploitation risks.

Proponents frame the restrictions as a necessary defence of adolescent mental health and development. Australia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Wilson, wrote that research consistently links excessive social media use to heightened anxiety, depression and low self-esteem, and that platforms can amplify bullying and peer pressure. The UAE’s decision, described in local commentary as a ‘social and moral protection policy’, explicitly places the child’s wellbeing above corporate interests. In the Ohio case, the appeals court found the law narrowly tailored to the state’s compelling interest in protecting children from platforms that ‘take advantage of and harm them’. The tech industry, however, argues such laws violate constitutional rights. NetChoice, the trade group that challenged the Ohio statute, said the ruling threatens online privacy and free speech, and vowed to continue its legal fight. In Lebanon, where a lawmaker has proposed a similar ban for under-14s, telecommunications expert Jibran Khoury noted that enforcement would require compelling global platforms to comply through fines, as Australia does, while acknowledging that children could circumvent restrictions using virtual private networks.

The UAE’s social media restriction also reflects a broader official emphasis on digital sovereignty and national narrative control, articulated repeatedly at the Emirati Media Forum held in Dubai on Monday. Officials stressed that the country’s security and identity are ‘red lines’ and that Emiratis must lead in telling the nation’s story. The forum, which convened as the ban was announced, underscored the government’s view that regulating digital spaces is integral to preserving social cohesion. With the UAE’s twelve-month compliance window now open, attention will turn to how platforms engineer age-verification tools that satisfy the TDRA’s requirements without alienating users or violating data-protection laws. In Ohio, the law is expected to face further appeals, while Lebanon’s proposed legislation remains at the committee stage.