{"id":23588,"date":"2026-06-19T14:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/19\/the-uks-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-has-just-empowered-big-tech-taylor-lorenz\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T14:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:37:18","slug":"the-uks-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-has-just-empowered-big-tech-taylor-lorenz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/19\/the-uks-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-has-just-empowered-big-tech-taylor-lorenz\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s social media ban for under-16s has just empowered big tech | Taylor Lorenz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Age verification means that the sector\u2019s biggest players will now have access to information that will only make them richer and more powerful<\/p>\n

This week, the UK announced a wide-ranging ban on social media<\/a> that will soon block users from communicating or accessing information on apps such as X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and <\/strong>Snapchat unless they prove that they\u2019re over the age of 16.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, called the policy \u201ca line in the sand<\/a>\u201d. \u201cTech giants had their chance and failed,\u201d he said<\/a>, \u201cbut we\u2019re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations.\u201d All internet users, especially children, should be protected from exploitative systems online, but this new law will only foster more harm and help the largest and most powerful tech companies consolidate power and influence over everyone\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Taylor Lorenz is a technology journalist who writes the newsletter User Mag<\/a> and is the author of the bestselling book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet<\/a><\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nAge verification means that the sector\u2019s biggest players will now have access to information that will only make them richer and more powerful
\nThis week, the UK announced a wide-ranging ban on social media that will soon block users from communicating or accessing information on apps such as X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat unless they prove that they\u2019re over the age of 16.
\nThe prime minister, Keir Starmer, called the policy \u201ca line in the sand\u201d. \u201cTech giants had their chance and failed,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we\u2019re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations.\u201d All internet users, especially children, should be protected from exploitative systems online, but this new law will only foster more harm and help the largest and most powerful tech companies consolidate power and influence over everyone\u2019s lives.
\nTaylor Lorenz is a technology journalist who writes the newsletter User Mag and is the author of the bestselling book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Age verification means that the sector\u2019s biggest players will now have access to information that will only make them richer and more powerful This week, the UK announced a wide-ranging ban on social media that will soon block users from communicating or accessing information on apps such as X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat …<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s social media ban for under-16s has just empowered big tech | Taylor Lorenz<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":23589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23588"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}