UAE Did It - Will India do it for its future...

Children under the age of 15 are now banned from creating personal accounts on social media platforms in the United Arab Emirates, following a cabinet resolution issued this week. The decision makes the UAE the first Arab nation to introduce such ban, as governments across the world step up efforts to strengthen online safety measures for children.

हिंदी में पढ़ें: UAE ने लगाया बैन- क्या अब भारत की बारी है

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, chaired the cabinet that approved the resolution, which the government said aims to "establish an advanced model for child protection in the digital space," striking a balance between responsible technology use and child safety.

What are the New Rules

The ban restricts access to social interaction, publishing, commenting, sharing, and joining public groups or open channels, and applies to all platforms available within the UAE, whether free or paid, that use algorithmic systems to display or recommend content. This means platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are all covered by the ban.

Children between the ages of 15 and 16 are permitted to use social media, but only with enhanced protective measures applied to their accounts, including age-appropriate content classification, the disabling of high-risk features such as interaction with unknown users, regulation of usage time, and parental control tools to ensure a digital environment appropriate to their age.Critically, children given consent by their parents to set up accounts will not be exempt from the prohibitions or restrictions set out in the resolution. The cabinet mandate further states that self-declaration of age will not be accepted as a valid method of verification. Platforms will instead be required to implement robust age-verification measures, including digital identity checks and artificial-intelligence-supported technologies.

Data Protection

Platforms are also barred from using or processing children's personal data for commercial purposes based on tracking their digital activities, while caregivers will be responsible for actively supervising their child's permitted digital activity.

Enforcement and the Compliance Timeline

Regulatory authorities overseeing media and telecommunications have been empowered to take enforcement action against platforms that fail to comply, including issuing warnings, imposing partial or complete platform bans, and applying administrative penalties. Social media providers are required to ensure their verification mechanisms achieve a high degree of accuracy, and immediate action is to be taken to suspend or disable non-compliant accounts.

The resolution allows social media platforms to progressively implement the new standards through a transitional period of up to 12 months, in coordination with relevant authorities, to ensure technical and regulatory readiness.

The decision marks one of the toughest social media restrictions introduced anywhere in the Middle East, and adds pressure on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and X to strengthen their age-verification systems, as governments increasingly move from recommending online safety measures to mandating them by law.

Part of a Rapidly Expanding Global Trend

Australia was the first country in the world to introduce a nationwide social media ban for children under 16, requiring major platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s from holding accounts or face fines of up to 49.5 million dollars. The UAE's threshold of 15 is a year younger than the 16-and-up benchmark established by Australia and the United Kingdom.

Indonesia became the first non-Western country to enforce age-based digital restrictions, with its under-16 ban taking effect on March 28, 2026. Malaysia's ban came into force on June 1, 2026, requiring major platforms to restrict registrations for under-16s and implement age verification using government-issued identity documents.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the UK would implement a full ban on children's use of social media within a year. France passed a bill banning under-15s from social media starting September 2026, while Greece has announced a similar ban beginning January 1, 2027. Denmark, Spain, Norway, Poland, and Slovenia are all at various stages of drafting comparable restrictions.

Many parents in the UAE have welcomed the decision, citing concerns over screen addiction, cyberbullying, and mental health, with global studies cited in regional reporting indicating that nearly 70 percent of parents worry about their children's online safety.

India, home to the UAE's largest expatriate community, has seen parallel movement domestically. India's chief economic adviser proposed age-based limits on social media access earlier this year, describing the platforms as "predatory" in their approach to keeping users engaged, particularly among those between the ages of 15 and 24. Separately, Karnataka, home to the technology hub of Bengaluru, signalled its own intent to ban social media for under-16s, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announcing the move during the state's budget speech, though without detailing enforcement mechanisms.

12 month transition window

With the resolution now formally approved, platforms operating in the UAE have until the end of the 12 month transition window to bring their systems into compliance, placing the burden squarely on technology companies to deploy verification systems precise enough to meet the government's stated requirements that self-declared age will not be accepted as proof of eligibility.