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'A child cannot consent': UAE's new social media ban shifts liability to tech platforms
New law forces tech platforms to implement strict age verification or risk regulatory action and shutdown
- PUBLISHED: Mon 29 Jun 2026, 1:07 PM
The UAE is barring children under 15 from accessing social media; however, this is not just a ban, but a legal shift that forces tech platforms to take responsibility for children’s digital safety, legal experts say.
The new law gave platforms 12 months to detect, disable, and remove underage accounts, and moves the UAE from relying on parental supervision to enforcing platform accountability with real penalties.
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For UAE legal experts, the resolution marks a turning point in how the law views a child’s right to privacy, establishing that it is a right neither a tech company nor a parent can simply sign away.
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“The headlines call this a ban, but legally the real story is accountability,” said Byron James, a lawyer. “The child’s right to privacy already lived in Wadeema’s Law for years. What’s new is that the duty to protect it has now shifted onto the platforms themselves, with real penalties behind it.”
Parental consent cannot override law
The new law prohibits children under 15 from creating personal accounts, posting content, commenting, or accessing full interactive features on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and X. For 15- and 16-year-olds, platforms must implement enhanced protections, including restricted interactions and screen-time controls.
Crucially, the law explicitly states that parental consent cannot override these restrictions.
“The most striking line in the whole resolution is that parental consent won’t override it,” James noted. “The law is treating a child’s privacy as something neither the platform nor even the parent can simply sign away. A quiet but profound shift in who gets to speak for the child.”
The law is catching up to a single, powerful idea, he added: “A small child cannot consent to a life made public, permanent and searchable, and when the adults disagree, no one of them gets to make that call alone. We are moving from asking whether a parent meant well to asking whether the child ever had a say.”
While the resolution is aimed at major tech companies, the legal principles driving it are already reaching into family homes.
James pointed to a recent case he handled in Abu Dhabi, where a court intervened to stop parents from posting their children online.
“I recently acted in a matter where an Abu Dhabi court was prepared to tell both parents themselves to stop posting their children online, not just because the posts were commercial, but because the children’s privacy and welfare came first,” he said.
“The same principle that drives this law can reach the family living room, not just the influencer. The school sports-day photo and the paid post are closer cousins than most parents assume.”
More identity data to enforce social media ban
Enforcing the new rules will require platforms to implement robust age verification mechanisms, moving away from simple self-declaration. The resolution suggests methods such as government digital identity systems, biometric matching, or AI-based age estimation.
However, this creates a complex technical and legal challenge. “The hard problem now isn’t legal, it’s technical,” James explained. “To keep children off these platforms, you have to verify everyone’s age, which means collecting more identity data, not less. A child-protection law arrives with a data-protection problem built into it.”
Despite these hurdles, the law has “the teeth to actually bite,” he said, noting that regulators can block or close platforms that fail to comply within the 12-month grace period, regardless of where the company is headquartered.
Social media ban is in the best interest of the child
For many in the UAE legal and parental community, the decisive action is a welcome relief. The UAE is the first Arab country to implement such a comprehensive ban on underage social media use.
Mohammed Saleh Al Maisari, Director General of Al-Azm Legal Consultancy, said the decision reflects a deep understanding of the negative impacts these platforms have on young minds.“We rejoiced at hearing the Cabinet’s decision,” Al-Maisari said in a video commentary. “As parents, this decision warms our hearts because it is in the best interest of the child and protects their innocence, allowing them to live a normal childhood away from the influence of social media on their behaviour, habits, traditions, religion, and values.”
He noted that the government did not take this step lightly, but only after studying the adverse effects of these apps.“We thank the Cabinet, and we hope for more decisions that all serve the best interests of the child,” Al Maisari added.
Ruqayya Alqaydi is a Special Correspondent with an endless curiosity to learn. Like a journalist on a caffeine overdrive, she is fuelled by passion and on a mission to uncover every gem in the UAE.