A ban on social media for under-16s is not the “right approach” and could push children towards more dangerous and unsupervised corners of the internet, Google’s UK boss has warned. Kate Alessi, managing director and vice-president of Google UK and Ireland, said the tech giant, which owns YouTube, is not supportive of “blanket bans” amid growing calls for governments to stop children having access to social media. A landmark court case in the US last week saw Facebook owner Meta and Google found liable for a woman’s childhood social media addiction through deliberately designing addictive products, and ordered to pay damages of $6m between them. Ms Alessi said Google does not agree with the verdict and plans to appeal. She said a social media ban is not the answer to children’s online wellbeing and cautioned if countries followed the lead of Australia, which introduced a world-first social media ban for under-16s in December, it could have unintended consequences.

Source: Irish Examiner March 31, 2026 12:37 UTC