UAE social media ban for under-15s: VPN bypass won't work, officials confirm

The UAE's social media ban for children under 15 will require strict age-verification systems, including government IDs and AI models, to estimate a user's age. Simply entering a false date of birth will no longer work. Officials acknowledge children may try to bypass the ban through VPNs or fake IDs, but say they have studied these loopholes to close gaps before implementation. Eng. Abdulrahman Al Marzouqi, Director of Policy and Programmes at the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), stated that VPN use does not exempt platforms from enforcement. Social media platforms are required to monitor warning signs of underage users attempting to bypass age verification. Following a 12-month transition period, no account may be operated by a user under 15. For child influencers and content creators, a parent or guardian may produce content and operate the account under the parent's name. The National Media Authority is also developing new content classification frameworks to improve media quality for children across all platforms.