The UK's online safety minister is concerned about 'stranger pairing' in games.
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Join the club for quick access. Enter your email below and we'll send confirmation, and sign you up to our newsletter. Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsSubscribe to our newsletter A possible social media ban for children in the UK could be expanded to games, the government's online safety minister has suggested.
) Kanishka Narayan said that a ban on social media for teenagers—which is being considered by the UK following a social media ban being implemented in Australia—could include restrictions for online video game platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, an area that Australia's social media ban does not extend to. Narayan didn't cite any specific games in his conversation with The Sunday Times, but he said that, following a recent visit to Australia, his primary concern regarding children's use of the Internet was over"stranger pairing", between children and adults they don't know.
Apparently, this issue was discussed,"mostly in the context of gaming platforms" rather than conventional social media like Tiktok, Instagram etc."That will weigh quite significantly in my mind as we think about how we stop some of the most egregious harms for young people," Narayan added.on Sky News by Rachel De Souza, the Children's Commissioner for England. Speaking on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, De Souza said that young boys in particular are vulnerable to being exploited on gaming platforms.
"Boys often aren't on social media," De Souza said. "They're often spending three or four hours a day gaming. And these games often have features that allow a 55-year-old in Arizona to come in and speak to a nine-year-old.
"Roblox in particular has been repeatedly called out for its failures to adequately protect its player-base—which is largely composed of children. The platform has been subject toKeep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors, but this month, the company will introduce new age-based account categories as it strives to"more closely align content access, communication settings and parental controls with a user's age.
" These are much-needed and long overdue features, though it's worth noting that this is onlythat the effectiveness of Australia's social media ban had been questioned, with the country's Internet regulator saying that social media companies were not doing enough to comply with it. In response, a spokesperson for Meta said that the company was"committed to complying" with the ban, while claiming that accurate age determination was"a challenge for the whole industry.
" Personally, I think a social media ban wrongly implies that children accessing social media is the problem, rather than vastly profitable tech giants failing to dedicate adequate resources to get their houses in order—an issue that affects adults as much as it does children in. Whether or not a UK social media ban will actually come into force, and what form it will ultimately take, remains to be seen.
Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website .
But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims. Best gaming laptop 2026: I've tested the best laptops for gaming of this generation and here are the ones I recommend.
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