Sir Sadiq Khan backs Roblox ban for under-16s in London
Sir Sadiq Khan will back a ban on roblox-style social media access for under-16s when he speaks in London on Tuesday. The London Mayor says a ban is the only way to stem the harms he says children are facing online, putting him ahead of Sir Keir Starmer on the question of whether restrictions should go as far as an outright age cut-off.
Tuesday in London
Khan will tell engineers, founders and investors that social media firms should have to prove their products are safe before children use them. In his speech, he will say: "From food to pharmaceuticals, almost every company has to prove that its products are safe before they're sold. I see no reason why social media firms shouldn't do the same".
He will also say: "Until they can prove that their platforms are safe for kids, a ban is the only way to stem the harms we know are happening right now." That puts the focus on the companies, not just the people using them, and it makes the policy argument much sharper than a generic call for better parental controls.
Consultation after 2 March
The government launched its consultation on children's online experiences on 2 March and closed it last week. It sought views on app curfews, limits on addictive features, a possible under-16 ban, tighter age checks and whether to raise the digital age of consent. Ministers will use the response to decide their next steps under new powers in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.
Khan's intervention matters because it lands while the government is still deciding how far to go. A ban would sit at the hardest end of the policy range the consultation opened up, while curfews, age checks and limits on infinite scrolling and autoplay would leave the platforms with more room to keep under-16s inside their systems.
£1m for boys
Khan will pair the ban call with a £1m package for boys and young men, including support for vulnerable pupils, a fathers' programme and community football mentors. He will warn that the growing influence of the manosphere risks creating "a lost generation of young men" and describe the people pushing online misogyny as "snake oil salesmen".
Ian Russell, chair of the Molly Rose Foundation, argues that bans "treat the symptoms, not the problem" and says they "let social media platforms off the hook by weakening the requirement for them to offer safe and high-quality experiences as a precondition for operating in the UK." His position is the awkward counterweight here: even strong-sounding age rules do nothing if the platforms themselves are not forced to change how they work.
For ministers, the real choice is now clear. Khan is not just asking for tougher language; he is pushing for a line that would force social media firms to prove safety before under-16s are allowed in.
