UK Weighs Ban on Child-Stranger Chat in Games and Discord

The UK government is proposing rules that would prevent children from contacting strangers through in‑game text and voice chat and through stranger‑matching features on platforms including Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft and Discord. The measures are part of a wider review of online safety for young people.

Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan noted regulation of gaming platforms could be included in a broader strategy to reduce young people’s exposure to harmful online features. The proposals follow the Growing Up Online consultation, which ran from March 2 to May 26, 2026, and considered age limits for social media, gaming sites and AI chatbots, stronger age checks and ways to limit addictive design.

Officials are weighing two main options. One would set a full social media age limit of 16, modeled on Australia. The other would target specific features across services, banning or restricting functions such as infinite-scroll feeds, video autoplay, location sharing and personalized recommendation algorithms. Including gaming platforms would extend regulation beyond Australia, which mainly targets traditional social networks.

The government highlighted the risk of adults contacting children through “stranger-matching” functions, which officials say are common in online games. Narayan warned that direct contact tools inside games and voice chat systems can allow adults to reach minors.

Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza backed tighter limits on in-game interactions, noting many boys spend three to four hours a day in games rather than on conventional social platforms. De Souza argued, “These games often include features that allow a 55‑year‑old person in Arizona to join and talk to a nine‑year‑old child. I would not describe this as a ban on children; rather, it is a restriction on services and features that are inappropriate for anyone under 18.”

Some platforms already offer parental controls and safety settings to limit chat, voice communication and friend requests. Officials say those tools do not go far enough and want clearer baseline obligations for operators if the rules are extended to games.

No final regulatory decision has been made. Ministers are still considering which option to adopt and how any new rules would be enforced. The consultation also examined measures to address addictive design, including time-limiting features and constraints on recommendation algorithms for young users, and officials noted challenges in applying rules across global companies.