Ofcom's guide for parents promises an under-16 social media ban from 2027. Its own 'last updated' stamp predates the announcement it describes, and the regulations that would deliver it do not exist yet.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In short. Ofcom's guide for parents says the Online Safety Act does not yet ban children from social media, but that the government "announced its plans" for an under-16 ban in June 2026 and that "we expect these new protections will come into place from 2027" [1]. The page itself displays "Last updated: 20 April 2026" [1], two months before the 15 June 2026 announcement it goes on to describe. The power behind the ban, inserted into the Online Safety Act 2023 by section 70 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, only lets the Secretary of State make regulations; it does not ban anything itself [2]. The government's own fact sheet on the same policy, last updated 18 September 2026, two months of its own, says plainly that "the first set of Regulations will be laid before the end of the year, and the changes should be implemented in Spring 2027" [3]. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
A parent who searches Ofcom's site for guidance on children and social media lands on a page called "How Ofcom is helping children to be safer online, a guide for parents." It asks the obvious question a worried parent would ask: "Does the Online Safety Act prevent children from using social media?" The answer is honest as far as it goes: "Not yet. The act currently doesn't ban children from social media, nor does it set a minimum age for them using it" [1]. What follows is where the page stops being quite as careful.
What the page tells parents to expect
The guide goes on to describe the government's plan to change that. The government, it says, announced in June 2026 that it would ban social media for under-16s, with default settings for 16 and 17 year olds and restrictions on livestreaming and contact from strangers. Then comes the forward-looking promise: "We expect these new protections will come into place from 2027" [1]. Nowhere on the page does it say that this is a policy announcement following a closed consultation, that no regulations exist yet even in draft, or that both Houses of Parliament still have to approve them before anything changes for a single child.
The page's own metadata gives away that something is off with its timeline. Directly under the headline it carries two dates: "Published: 24 April 2025" and "Last updated: 20 April 2026" [1]. The government did not announce the under-16 ban until 15 June 2026, almost two months after the date Ofcom's own page claims as its last edit. A page cannot describe, in the past tense, an announcement that had not happened yet on the date it says it was last touched. Either the paragraph about the June announcement was added after that date without the "Last updated" field being refreshed, or the field itself is simply wrong. Both are checkable failures in the one piece of information a reader has for judging whether a government guidance page reflects the current position, and this one does not hold up on its own terms.
A power to legislate, not a law
The legal basis for the 2027 date is section 70 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 and inserts a new section 214A into the Online Safety Act 2023. What it creates is a power, not a ban: "The Secretary of State may, for the purpose of protecting relevant children from a risk of harm... make provision by regulations requiring providers of specified internet services... to prevent access by relevant children to specified internet services" [2]. Section 70 itself came into force at Royal Assent, so the power has existed since 29 April 2026 [2]. The same section also places a duty on the Secretary of State to use that power following the "Growing up in the online world" consultation, which closed on 26 May 2026 [2]. But a duty to eventually make regulations, following a consultation that has already closed, is not the same thing as regulations that exist. No instrument has been laid under section 214A, and none appears anywhere on legislation.gov.uk's 2026 index of made or draft statutory instruments.
That gap is not something this site has had to infer. The government's own fact sheet on the policy, published by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, says it directly: "The first set of Regulations will be laid before the end of the year, and the changes should be implemented in Spring 2027" [3]. That fact sheet was first published on 15 June 2026, the day of the announcement, and last updated on 18 September 2026, which is itself a useful comparison: a document covering the same policy, from the same announcement date, managed to update its own timestamp two months after the event. Ofcom's guide for parents, covering the identical announcement, did not.
The claims, tested
| The guide's own words | What the record shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "We expect these new protections will come into place from 2027" [1] | Section 214A of the Online Safety Act 2023 is a power to make regulations, not a ban in force; no regulations have been laid, and the government's own fact sheet says the first set "will be laid before the end of the year" [2] [3] | The 2027 date is stated as an expectation with no caveat that no implementing regulations exist, or that Parliament still has to approve them |
| "Last updated: 20 April 2026" [1] | The same page describes, in the past tense, a government announcement dated 15 June 2026, almost two months after its own displayed update date [1] | The page's own freshness label cannot be reconciled with its own content |
Credit where due
The page does not pretend the ban already exists. Its headline answer to the social media question is a blunt "Not yet," not a hedge, and it is careful elsewhere to describe the existing Children's Codes measures, the ones genuinely in force since 25 July 2025, as current rules rather than folding them into the future ban. The tips it gives parents for right now, talking to children regularly, registering with a real age, knowing how to report content, are generic but not wrong. This is not a page inventing a protection that does not exist; it is a page that is honest about the present and overconfident about a future date it does not have the standing to promise.
Verdict
Four stars, from two documented mistakes. Ofcom correctly tells parents the ban is not yet real. It then tells them when to expect it without disclosing that the regulations that would make it real have not been laid, let alone passed, and its own "last updated" stamp is stale enough to predate the announcement the page is describing.
The star score counts two documented mistakes: the guide's statement that "we expect these new protections will come into place from 2027," given without noting that section 214A of the Online Safety Act 2023 is only a power to make regulations, that none have been laid, and that the government's own fact sheet describes the timeline as conditional on regulations still to come; and the page's own "Last updated: 20 April 2026" label, which predates the 15 June 2026 announcement the page describes in the past tense, a mismatch readers have no way to resolve from the page itself. Two mistakes in the 1-to-3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding that the under-16 ban will not happen, that Ofcom has acted in bad faith, or that the existing Children's Codes measures the page describes elsewhere are inaccurate. Checked directly against the live Ofcom page, legislation.gov.uk and the government's own fact sheet, 8 October 2026.
Sources
- How Ofcom is helping children to be safer online - a guide for parents, Ofcom, published 24 April 2025, last updated 20 April 2026, checked 8 October 2026
- Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, section 70, legislation.gov.uk, Royal Assent 29 April 2026
- Fact sheet: New rules to protect children online, GOV.UK, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, first published 15 June 2026, last updated 18 September 2026