UAE bans under-15 social media accounts with parental controls for 15–16 year-olds — platforms have 12 months to comply

The UAE's new social media age rule is a digital safety regime that explains how platforms must verify age, design feeds, restrict risky features, handle children's data and target ads, while laying out responsibilities for parents, social media platforms and regulators.

Cabinet Resolution No. 106 of 2026 makes clear that parental consent will not override the restriction, date-of-birth declarations will not be enough, underage accounts must be detected and disabled, and 15-year-olds will only be allowed online with extra protections built into their accounts.

The resolution gives regulators powers to warn, penalise, block or close platforms that fail to comply, while giving companies 12 months to bring their systems in line with the new rules.

Children who have turned 15 but have not yet turned 16 may access social media platforms, but only under special restrictions and protections suited to their age group. Platforms must apply effective mechanisms to classify and restrict the types of content this age group can view or share, limit public sharing functions and interactions with users unknown to the child and caregiver, and provide tools to regulate or specify when access to the platform is allowed.

The law specifically mentions unrestricted private messaging, open live streaming and intensive algorithmic recommendation systems as features that may involve elevated risks for children aged 15 to 16. Platforms must restrict or disable such features, or provide protection tools and safe-design measures to reduce the risks.

Platforms must implement approved age verification systems through digital government identity, scanning official identity documents, or using official documents with biometric matching, and also AI-based age-estimation technologies.