UAE Bans Social Media Accounts for Children Under 15 in Strict New Digital Law

According to a cabinet resolution reported by the official WAM news agency, social media platforms will be required to identify and disable accounts belonging to under-15s or risk being blocked in the country, with a 12-month transition period provided for compliance.

Under the new rules, children below the minimum age are prohibited from creating, operating, or using personal social media accounts, and are also barred from accessing core platform features such as commenting, sharing, joining public groups, or participating in large-scale interactive spaces.

The move follows Australia’s world-first restriction on social media access for under-16s, introduced in December, a policy that has since prompted several other countries to adopt comparable measures, with Britain announcing its own ban earlier this week.

The UAE’s media and telecommunications regulatory bodies have been granted authority to take necessary enforcement action against non-compliant platforms, including issuing warnings, imposing partial or full blocks, or applying other administrative penalties as deemed appropriate.