LAHORE: A resolution before the Punjab Assembly is calling on Pakistan’s federal government to bar children younger than 16 from creating or keeping social media accounts unless a parent or legal guardian consents through a verified age-check system, adding Pakistan to a widening list of countries and U.S. states debating limits on youth social media use.
The resolution recommends that the federal government enact legislation prohibiting children below the age of 16 from creating or maintaining social media accounts unless parental or legal guardian consent is obtained through a reliable age-verification mechanism.
It also calls on the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the country’s telecom regulator, to implement and enforce effective age-verification systems across all social media platforms operating in Pakistan to ensure compliance with the proposed restrictions.
The measure further seeks to hold social media companies responsible for meeting child protection standards, requiring them to promptly remove harmful content and provide a safer digital environment for minors.
The resolution does not carry the force of law on its own. Telecommunications and internet regulation fall under federal jurisdiction in Pakistan, so if adopted by the provincial assembly, it would stand only as a formal recommendation for Parliament to consider drafting nationwide legislation.
It is not Pakistan’s first attempt at such a measure. The Senate introduced the Social Media (Age Restriction for Users) Bill in July 2025, which proposed barring users under 16 from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and imposing fines on noncompliant platforms.
Separately, a petition filed by a 12-year-old prompted the Islamabad High Court to order regulators to report on progress toward age-verification systems. Neither effort has resulted in enacted federal law.
A Growing Global Debate
Pakistan’s proposal comes as governments worldwide weigh similar restrictions, driven largely by concerns over cyberbullying, online exploitation and the effects of heavy platform use on adolescent mental health.
Australia became the first country to enforce a nationwide minimum age for social media, requiring platforms including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, X, Reddit, Threads, Kick, Twitch and YouTube to take “reasonable steps” to remove and block accounts held by users under 16.
The law took effect Dec. 10, 2025, and carries fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars, or about $33 million, for platforms that fail to comply. Meta said it began deactivating roughly 500,000 accounts belonging to Australian users believed to be under 16 in the days before enforcement began.
Messaging apps, online gaming services and platforms built for education or health communication are exempt.
The European Union is examining EU-wide, age-based restrictions on social media access, while the United Kingdom has signaled it is considering a similar approach after tightening age checks on other online content. France requires parental consent for children under 15 to open social media accounts.
China limits users younger than 14 to 40 minutes a day on certain apps through built-in “youth mode” restrictions. Canada’s Parliament is weighing a bill, introduced in June 2026, that would bar anyone under 16 from regulated social media platforms nationwide, following Australia’s model; it has not yet passed.
In the United States, no federal law sets a minimum social media age, but a patchwork of state laws has emerged. Utah became the first state to regulate minors’ social media access in 2023, and Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Virginia and New York have since passed their own versions, generally requiring age verification, parental consent or default privacy protections for users younger than 16 or 18.
Many of these laws face active legal challenges from technology industry groups on free-speech grounds; courts have blocked or narrowed measures in Arkansas, Ohio, Mississippi and Utah, while some Texas and Florida provisions remain tied up in litigation. California’s Digital Age Assurance Act, which requires device-level age signals, is set to take effect in 2027.
What the Research Shows
The push for restrictions has been fueled in part by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s 2023 advisory warning of growing evidence that social media can harm young people’s mental health, along with research linking heavy or passive use to anxiety, poor sleep and body-image concerns, particularly among teenage girls.
But researchers say the picture is more mixed than headlines often suggest. A review of adolescent social media research found that most teens who use the platforms in a moderate, balanced way do not experience significant negative effects, with concerns arising more often when use becomes intense, emotionally driven or displaces sleep and offline relationships.
A National Academies of Sciences report identified potential benefits, including that teens commonly use social media for socializing, accessing information and creative expression, and that online connection can be especially valuable for young people who feel isolated offline, including those with rare diseases, disabilities or minority identities.
Surveys cited in Murthy’s advisory found most U.S. teens and parents said social media helped teens feel more accepted, gave them a place to express creativity and kept them connected to friends’ lives. Pew Research Center surveys have similarly found that while a growing share of teens believe social media is harmful to people their age generally, far fewer say it negatively affects them personally.
Researchers caution that much of the evidence linking social media to psychological harm is correlational rather than causal, and that outcomes vary widely depending on how, not just how much, teens use the platforms. Scientific and public health groups, including the American Psychological Association, have called for further longitudinal research while still recommending limits on certain features, such as algorithmic feeds and late-night notifications, for younger users.
What’s Next
If the Punjab Assembly adopts the resolution, it would be forwarded to the federal government as a recommendation. Any nationwide restriction on social media access would require legislation passed by Pakistan’s Parliament.
