UAE Becomes First Arab Country to Set Minimum Social Media Age at 15

ABU DHABI — The UAE Cabinet approved a new framework Thursday barring children under 15 from using social media, a move officials are calling one of the most far-reaching digital safety reforms in the region.

It makes the UAE the first Arab country to set a nationwide minimum age for social media use. Officials said the rule is meant to cut down on children's exposure to harmful content, privacy violations and risky interactions online.

Social media companies won't be able to rely on a simple birthdate field anymore. The new rules require platforms to verify users' ages through more rigorous methods and flag accounts belonging to children under 15.

Once the rules take effect, accounts run by users below that age are expected to be shut down. Platforms will also have to close loopholes that let kids re-register under different details to dodge the checks.

Fifteen and sixteen-year-olds can keep using social media, but with more oversight built in — parental controls, screen-time limits, and other protections tailored to younger teens.

The announcement lands as governments elsewhere wrestle with the same question: how much platforms should be doing to protect young users. Lawmakers have zeroed in on everything from exploitation and bullying to how much data apps quietly collect from minors.

Other countries have already gone down this road. Australia enforced its own age limits earlier. Malaysia rolled out restrictions targeting underage access. A handful of European governments are still hashing out how strict their own verification rules should get.

Platforms have up to a year to bring their systems in line with the new requirements — the Cabinet stopped short of demanding immediate changes.

Whether other governments in the region follow the UAE's lead, or wait to see how enforcement plays out first, remains an open question.