The UK government is considering whether its under-16 social media ban should reach beyond conventional networking sites and cover resale marketplaces such as Vinted and eBay, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said.
Nandy told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that ministers were examining the option seriously with child protection in mind. Her comments followed a Sunday Times report that the scope of the ban, due to take effect in March, was being widened to include popular second-hand shopping platforms.
Why marketplaces are in the frame
The concern centres on direct messaging tools. According to the newspaper report, the messaging functions on resale platforms are feared to give strangers a route to groom children. The report also suggested that Depop and Facebook Marketplace could appear on the list of restricted sites.
The government has not published a complete list of the platforms that will fall under the ban. It has said the measures will cover services whose purpose is to enable social interaction and which let users post material. That description brings in sites with livestreaming or features that could let strangers contact children, including gaming services. Roblox, for instance, will not be blocked outright for under-16s, but some features such as its chat function will be limited.
YouTube will be covered by the under-16 restriction, while YouTube Kids, the child-focused version of the video service, will not.
How the companies responded
eBay said it was waiting to learn more about the proposed legislation and would keep working with the government. Vinted said it welcomed open discussion with ministers and the regulator.
A Vinted spokesperson said messaging is integral to how the platform operates, but stressed that the company has no tolerance for harmful or explicit content. The spokesperson pointed to moderation teams and tools designed to detect and remove rule-breaking activity, adding that the company acts when it finds inappropriate behaviour, including through permanent bans or reports to the authorities.
An eBay spokesperson said the company is focused on giving its customers a trusted and safe marketplace experience.
Both platforms already set age expectations. eBay states that members must be over 18 because listings involve entering into a contract. Vinted is aimed at over-18s, though its terms allow parents or guardians to set up accounts for their children, to be used under supervision. Vinted has grown quickly in the UK and now reaches 17 million users there.
Enforcement questions
The government first announced in June that it would bar under-16s from social media, preventing children from accessing 10 of the largest platforms, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. The UK has said it intends to take a stricter approach than Australia, which introduced a similar ban last year and where many children have found ways around it.
Attention has shifted to how the rules will be enforced. Last month, the communications regulator Ofcom set out recommendations on the most effective ways to establish which of the UK’s millions of social media users are over 16.
Rani Govender, head of online child safety at the NSPCC, said the key question was how the government would make age checks work. She added that effective age checks are only one part of the solution and that technology companies should also be required to build child safety into every platform, device and AI tool, so that children are protected from harmful and illegal content and can access only age-appropriate services.
Matthew Sinclair, a senior director at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which represents tech companies, warned against the rules expanding beyond their intended scope. He said restricting messaging for under-16s would not stop at social media and would affect services families rely on to stay in touch, and he urged the government to make any new restrictions proportionate and effective.
