The United Arab Emirates has become the first Arab nation to impose a comprehensive ban on social media access for children under 15, with a Cabinet resolution approved on June 18, 2026 prohibiting minors below that age from creating, using, or operating personal social media accounts on any platform available within the country, whether free or paid.
The ban restricts access to social interaction, publishing, commenting, sharing and joining public groups or open channels, and applies to all platforms within the UAE that use algorithmic systems to display or recommend content. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, chaired the cabinet that approved the resolution, which aims to establish an advanced model for child protection in the digital space, striking a balance between responsible technology use and child safety. The resolution also places responsibility on parents and caregivers to prevent children from accessing social media or bypassing age-verification systems.
The regulations permit social media access for teenagers aged 15 and 16, but platforms must provide additional protections, including controls designed for younger users, limits on interactions with unfamiliar individuals, tools to manage screen time, and features that enable parental oversight. Regulatory authorities overseeing media and telecommunications have been empowered to take enforcement action against non-compliant platforms, with possible measures including warnings, partial or complete platform bans, and administrative penalties. Social media platforms have been given 12 months to review and remove all accounts created by those under 15, or face a total ban, with the resolution setting the minimum age for social media use at 15 years.
The UAE also introduced one of the region’s most comprehensive child online safety laws this year, the Child Digital Safety Law, which covers global applications including TikTok, Twitch, and Roblox alongside e-commerce platforms, tightening rules around harmful content, addictive design, and children’s data collection. The move places the UAE alongside a rapidly growing list of countries tightening regulation around minors and social media. The United Kingdom announced a ban on June 15, 2026 prohibiting children under 16 from accessing major platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, and X, with messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal exempt. The UAE joins a growing group of countries including Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Turkey that have also cracked down on teen social media use, with Australia having become the first nation to introduce such a ban for children under 16 in December.
The policy is grounded in growing evidence linking excessive social media use among teens to higher rates of depression, anxiety, disturbed sleep patterns, and lower self-confidence, alongside a considerable rise in cyberbullying cases across many countries over the past decade. For technology platforms operating across the Gulf region, the UAE’s resolution adds a significant compliance obligation that will require robust age verification infrastructure, a technical challenge that has proven difficult to implement reliably even in markets that have had youth protection regulations in place for years, raising questions about how effectively platforms will be able to enforce the new age threshold within the 12-month compliance window.
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