- Japan’s Ministry of Communications has proposed tighter age limits on social media
- Unlike Australia’s under-16 ban, the draft measures do not propose a single age limit or total ban on people under a certain age
- The report is expected to be completed in the summer of 2026, with the possibility of later changes
Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has proposed that the country adopt stricter age restrictions for social media users.
The proposal is part of a new draft of measures to combat addiction to social media in children and young people.
The measures were announced on June 2 by a panel of experts convened by the ministry and notably do not propose a blanket ban on social media use or even a single age limit for all social media platforms.
Instead, the committee’s draft measures suggest that the Japanese government work with stakeholders such as social media platforms and mobile phone companies to find solutions for age verification. The Japan Times reports that the measures propose to cooperate on “age verification methods based on feasible technologies and systems.”
This makes Japan something of an outlier in the growing group of countries considering restrictions on social media. The trend follows Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s, which, as TechRadar reported at the time, came into effect in December 2025.
Japan’s Ministry of Communications has said that adopting a blanket age restriction would be difficult due to the differences between each social media platform and the widespread use of social media as a form of communication.
If the draft proposal is adopted, we could see Japan implement an age limit for TikTok and another for, say, Instagram.
The proposed measures also ask social media providers to take more responsibility when it comes to age verification.
As The Asahi Shimbun reports, under the new proposals, social media companies will be mandated by law to assess their own services and platforms for risks and implement stricter identity checks.
Currently, age verification on social media in Japan generally relies on self-reported information, which is easier to circumvent for those willing to lie about their age.
The committee’s proposal suggests that age data already held by mobile networks could be used to provide stronger age verification for social media.
The proposal has some way to go before it is passed into law – it will only enter a public comment period before being finalized in the summer of 2026, after which other ministries will be able to offer counterpoints, changes and additions.
As Kyodo News reports, Japan’s existing social media controls are mostly limited to mobile carriers filtering harmful websites, as well as parental controls.
As mentioned, Japan is far from the first country to see government officials or elected lawmakers propose stricter controls on social media.
Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia have implemented bans on social media for under-16s, while France, Greece and Denmark have all announced general age limits with varying timeframes for compliance.
And at the end of May, digital ministers from the G7 countries met to agree on a set of common principles for online child safety (via UNICEF).
There has been relatively little from the US when it comes to the prospect of restricting social media, although in March 2026 a Los Angeles court found that Google and Meta had knowingly built addictive platforms in what many considered a landmark case (via BBC News).
In the UK, however, the concept of banning social media for under-16s has caught on nationally. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in May 2026 that he would take “decisive” action against the impact of social media on children, although he did not comment on what this would look like.
But getting bans or age restrictions in place is only the first step – the real challenge is likely to be enforcement.
VPNs can be used to change the perceived location of a device and therefore can be used to try to bypass a local ban on social media.
Australia tackled this problem head on by requiring social media platforms to block underage VPN users. Japan appears to be taking a softer approach, perhaps in response to concerns that outright banning young people from social platforms could have negative consequences.
Calls for social media bans and age limits have been met with mixed reactions across the globe.
A report by Family First (via the Global Teacher Prize) published before the publication of the new draft measures found that 38% of parents and 28% of Gen Z in Japan support banning social media for under-16s.
This is low compared to other countries – the same report found that 77% of parents in Malaysia and 73% of Gen Z in India supported an under-16 ban, while other ‘Western’ countries saw lower levels of support.
It is not yet clear whether restrictions on social media are effective in improving young people’s well-being. In 2024, Amnesty International called on Australian lawmakers to regulate, rather than restrict, social media for young people, suggesting that outright bans would not keep children as safe as good regulation. And research from the Molly Rose Foundation from April 2026 suggests that 60% of Australian children still manage to access social media after the ban.
With relatively low support in Japan, the milder proposed measures could either be an effort to avoid backlash or a response to the successes and limitations of other countries’ initiatives.
