Updated on 25 Jun 2026

From Spring 2027, under-16s in the UK won't be able to use Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or X. This news has sparked a lot of conversation among parents and guardians, kids, teachers, and news sites. Everyone has an opinion. And rightly so.

But luckily, the UK isn’t the first country to implement this ruling. Australia was the first to do this last year, followed by Canada and Denmark with slightly different takes on the law. Many other countries are set to take on similar laws, so we can all learn from those who’ve started ahead of us.

The aim is to reduce young people’s exposure to negative media, cyberbullying, and the pressures that come with being a child online.

We're a hosting company, not a children's charity, so we'll leave the safeguarding arguments to people who know that work better than we do. But there's one question in all this that lands squarely in our world. If a whole generation gets pushed off the apps where they currently spend their time, where do they go?

Where do the kids go now?

The ban doesn’t include messaging apps, like WhatsApp, Discord, and Signal. A lot of kids' social life will move sideways into spaces the law doesn't reach.

This causes concerns in its own way. Critics of the ban have flagged that restrictions can push young people into less regulated spaces rather than safer ones. Cyberbullying still happens on messaging apps – the ban doesn’t stop it. If anything, it cordons it off into a smaller pool of media. And it’s a completely fair concern. A private server with no moderation may even be worse than a public forum. At least the social media apps have dedicated safety/safeguarding teams.

Why this matters to us

Creating safe spaces where kids can chat, be creative and express themselves – without feeling restricted or watched – is more important than ever. 

So, we’ve been thinking. Fasthosts started as an A-level project back in 1998. We’re not by any means suggesting teenagers start their own hosting companies, but the idea behind building a corner of the online world where they can hang out does solve a few problems.

Here, we keep our data centres, support teams and headquarters in the UK because we think where your data lives matters. The whole company is built on one idea – that you should own and control your space on the web.

For over 20 years, the deal online has been simple. You get a free service, and in return you are the product. Your attention gets sold. Your data gets harvested. The feed decides what you see, and the feed is built to keep you scrolling – not to serve you.

A ban doesn't fix that, but it does crack the door open on a different idea. One a lot of parents might actually want.

What if you owned the space instead of renting it from a company whose business model depends on keeping you hooked?

What that actually looks like

When the government announced the ban, it noted that platforms have a clear opportunity to build spaces designed for children that prioritise safe content. That's an invitation – and it doesn't only apply to the big platforms and companies.

This could be:

  • A personal website
  • Blog
  • Forum for a friend group, club, or school project
  • A game server you run yourself, with rules you set
  • A space that belongs to you, with no algorithm deciding your mood and no stranger able to slide into your messages.

We’re not trying to sell you on our servers, or direct you towards a particular product. The idea is that you, as a parent, teacher, or guardian, can own an online space that your kids and their friends and peers can use safely, without fear of strangers contacting them online, or exposing them to the wild west of the internet.

This isn't nostalgia. The tools are far better than they were in 2003. You can set up a site without writing a single line of code. You can spin up a server in minutes. Our single most popular YouTube video – by a long way – is a guide to making a Minecraft server. This is something anyone can feasibly do themselves, with no prior knowledge of coding or web development.

A generation that builds things

A generation that grows up renting space from US platforms learns one set of habits. A generation that grows up building and owning its own space learns a very different one.

We know which we'd rather see.

The ban creates a gap. Something fills every gap. The question worth asking between now and Spring 2027 is whether this moment nudges a generation back towards owning their space online, or whether we just watch them scatter somewhere darker.

We'd rather it's the first one. And we're ready to help anyone who wants to build something that's actually theirs.