Private schools across the various emirates of the country have circulated the Cabinet decision regulating children's access to social media platforms and setting the minimum age of use at 15 to students and their guardians, calling on families to strengthen oversight of their children's digital accounts in the coming period and to monitor any attempts to circumvent the age requirements imposed by online platforms. The schools consider the decision will narrow the space for dangerous challenges to emerge among students within school premises, and will return oversight responsibility to the family.
The schools' move follows the Cabinet decision on regulating children's access to social media platforms and setting the minimum age of use at 15, which aims to provide a safer digital environment for children, strengthen their protection from harmful content, dangerous practices, and digital exploitation, and support the family's role in supervising children's digital activity during the childhood years.
Schools stressed in their awareness messages the importance of parents' role at this stage, particularly given that some children resort to entering false ages when creating online accounts in order to bypass age restrictions and access platforms before the permitted age. They affirmed that the success of the decision depends not only on technical measures but on a genuine partnership between the family and the school to protect children from growing digital risks.
Educators believe the decision represents a proactive step that places the child's best interests at the forefront of priorities and aligns with the UAE's drive to build a safe and responsible digital environment, so that children enter the world of social media with greater awareness, maturity, and capacity to protect themselves and make sound digital decisions. They also affirm that the decision's success requires integration among the family, the school, and relevant authorities, so that legal regulation is coupled with continuous awareness programmes that strengthen digital literacy among children and parents and help build a generation capable of engaging with technology consciously, responsibly, and safely.
Education expert Dr. Abdullatif Al Siyabi said the decision represents an important turning point in protecting children from the early influence of social media platforms, explaining that many of the dangerous challenges that spread among schoolchildren in recent years began with a video clip or a trend circulated on one of the platforms before being taken up by students inside school.
He added that children at this age do not possess sufficient maturity to assess the real risks of certain practices they see online, and that limiting their early access to platforms will gradually lead to a decline in the phenomenon of blindly imitating dangerous challenges, pranks, and negative behaviours aimed at attracting views and followers.
For her part, psychological consultant Amal Al Hammadi affirmed that the decision is not limited to behavioural protection alone but extends to protecting children's mental health, noting that the years before the age of 15 are among the most sensitive stages in the formation of personality, identity, and self-confidence.
She explained that children are more susceptible to digital comparisons, comments, likes, and the pursuit of social acceptance, which can lead to anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem, adding that delaying the use of platforms gives the child an opportunity for more balanced psychological and social development, away from the pressures imposed by open digital environments.
For her part, Dr. Ghadir Abushammat, principal of Khalij International School, said the decision restores to the family its pivotal role in guiding children during the childhood years, explaining that many children have come to receive their daily messages and values from influencers more than from the family or the school.
She added that alerting parents to monitor their children's digital accounts has become essential, especially given that some children use false ages to create accounts on certain platforms, stressing that the coming period requires greater awareness from families about the nature of the content their children follow and the parties they communicate with online.
Social specialist Shahinaz Abul Fotouh explained that the decision contributes to reducing a wide range of digital risks to which children are exposed, including cyberbullying, digital grooming, blackmail, and privacy violations.
She affirmed that many families had been finding it difficult to control their children's use of platforms or to convince them of the dangers of certain challenges circulating online, noting that a clear regulatory framework provides parents with additional support in the process of guidance and oversight. She added that the decision will help create a more stable school environment by limiting the transmission of dangerous trends and alien behaviours into schools.