UK moving towards banning chat in games for under 16s

5 Nov 2026 at 8:11 am UTC | Last updated: 5 Nov 2026 at 10:12 am UTC
By Liam Squires-Hand

The UK Online Safety Act expands next year to ban social media for under 16s, but the government plans to expand it even further to target video game chat too.

As pointed out by GamersVoice, the UK arm of Stop Killing Games, there was a UK parliament debate on the social media ban where Online Safety Minister Ian Murray said:

"My hon. and learned Friend talked rightly about the risky parts of gaming. We are bringing gaming into our approach, through features and functions. We will pass the under-16s social media ban this side of the new year, and it will come into effect in the spring of next year; we will then bring forward a host of regulations on features and functions, including stranger communications, which is the biggest problem with Roblox and some of the other issues that hon. Members have raised. That will allow gamers to continue to have the functionality of stranger pairing, but without the ability to talk to strangers in a gaming context. That should resolve some of these issues. A lot of the harms are where vulnerable people are taken from the gaming environment to other platforms, in order for grooming and exploitation to continue. That is a commitment of the features and functions part of this, which overlays the social media ban."

Emphasis ours.

Part of the issue here and with these age restrictions overall is that it's not just about protecting children. It also forces everyone who wants to access these services to have to prove their age somehow. Are you 20 years old? 40? 80? Prove it, or no access for you.

Most of the time this means handing over some form of ID, scanning your face, or entering in a Credit Card (not a Debit Card) that's only available to over 18s in the UK. When doing that, we have no idea of the security involved and there's lots of different companies doing it. We've already seen multiple companies lose this data to attacks, it's just another loss for privacy and another attack vector for your personal data.

For video games especially it's complicated. Does your little £5 "friendslop" online co-op indie game have a chat box? It will most likely need the checks. They can end up expensive, so what happens? No chat for the UK. It's just easier and cheaper to put a block in.

I grew up on the internet in the days of screaming 56k modems, I think I'm well versed enough in the pros and cons of the internet by now. But there has to be a better way than just restricting one thing after another.

What about legacy games? Open source games made by volunteers? There's so many angles to this that will cause issues. Despite clear issues, these types of regulations end up getting forced through and we all have to deal with it.

🌐 External Sources: gamersvoice.org, hansard.parliament.uk Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com. Tags: Editorial, Misc, Online Multiplayer 13 Likes Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:RimWorld switching from Unity to their own Waylith Engine and a new game was teasedPimax to improve Linux VR support, announces Crystal Pro headset and their own Steam MachineAnother set of 15 demos to try in Steam Next Fest - October 2026 editionSteam Next Fest Oct 2026 is live with thousands of demos All posts need to follow our rules. Please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Readers can also email us for any issues or concerns.