Gulf countries to consider restricting social media access for teens

Khaleej Times

13-03-2025

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are discussing with technology companies how to monitor and restrict social media usage for teens.
"Governments in the GCC are looking to regulate social media access for teenagers. There are discussions now in the region that we need to regulate social media usage for people under 16 or 18. Similar to the ongoing debate in Egypt about the age,' said Ashraf Koheil, regional sales director for Meta, at a conference in Dubai.
While speaking on the sidelines of the launch of Group-IB's latest High-Tech Crime Trends Report 2025, Koheil said he would visit Australia to share information related to the topic. He stressed that there are solutions to monitor and restrict teenagers from social media usage with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and other identity management solutions.
Many countries have introduced social media restrictions on young people as smartphones become ubiquitous and teenagers spend hours online, surfing social media platforms, which exposes them to cybercriminals.
In November 2024, Australia approved a social media ban for children aged under 16. Similarly, France and some US states have passed laws to restrict access for minors without a parent's permission
The European Union also forbade technology giants from targeting children with personalised advertisements and asked them to send reminders to teenagers to take breaks and turn off autoplay.
China also rolled out its Cybersecurity Law and Minor Protection Law, putting restrictions on what can be shown to kids online and imposes time limits on daily usage of online services.
Netherlands has also put a ban on smart devices — mobile phones, smartwatches and tablets — in primary and secondary schools as these gadgets cause 'distractions' and hinder academic performances of students.
Public schools in the UAE don't allow students to bring mobile phones to school to protect their safety and privacy. In a directive issued in November last year, the Ministry of Education warned that repeated instances of being caught with phones in school would result in the devices being confiscated for a month.
Private schools across the country have either banned the use of phones in school or strongly regulated their use. Some schools allow senior students to carry mobile phones but under strict conditions. School networks typically have filters that block access to social media sites.
UAE residents, on average, have more than one social media account. The average daily time spent on social media by people of all age groups is nearly three hours a day, according to Global Media Insights. It said a large percentage of Instagram's 6.67 million users in the UAE are young, especially teenagers.
In the GCC, over 50 per cent of the local youth population is under the age of 25.
UAE leads
The High-Tech Crime Trends Report 2025 revealed that internet services were the most frequently targeted sector for phishing in the Middle East and Africa.
Telecommunications and financial services followed closely, with professional services and logistics also facing notable threats amid the region's expanding digital system, said Dmitry Volkov, CEO and co-founder of Group-IB.
Craig Jones, former director of cybercrime at Interpol, said the UAE is a regional leader when it comes to cybersecurity.
'The UAE is pretty good in what it is doing. There's a good reporting mechanism in place. There's an online reporting portal now for victims of cybercrime to report that to the police. There's very good cooperation between the government entities as well,' said Jones. 'The UAE is seen as one of the leaders regionally. For example, the UAE is part of the counter-ransomware initiative. The UAE is part of the solution in trying to solve that problem and already recognises that information sharing is important to combat cybercrimes.