Built for families, not for the feed

The conversation about children and social media has reached a turning point in the UK. The government has confirmed plans to ban social media for under-16s, with the rules expected to come into force in spring 2027. It is one of the biggest changes to how children use the internet that we have seen, and it has a lot of parents thinking about where their family's photos and memories actually live.

We wanted to write about it plainly, because it sits right at the heart of why we built PocketTreasures.

What the ban actually covers

According to the government's announcement, legislation is expected to go before Parliament before Christmas 2026, with protections coming into force in spring 2027. The ban targets the large user-to-user platforms built around public posting and algorithmic feeds, including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X.

Some services are set to be exempt, including messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal, along with educational tools, e-commerce sites and music streaming. There are also wider measures on the table, such as a livestreaming ban for under-16s, blocking strangers from contacting children across platforms and games, and new limits on AI chatbots.

To make it work, platforms will be expected to bring in proper age checks. Ofcom has been asked to run a quick study into what counts as effective age assurance. The government says nine in ten parents back the change.

Why this matters for your family photos

For years, the default way to keep and share family moments has been to put them on a social platform. A first birthday goes up on Facebook. A muddy walk in the woods becomes an Instagram story. A child's face ends up on a feed that an algorithm decides who sees, on a server owned by a company whose business is built on attention and advertising.

The under-16 ban is a clear signal that the public square is not the right place for a childhood. If that is true for teenagers, it is just as true for the photos and stories of much younger children that parents post on their behalf.

This is the gap PocketTreasures was built to fill. You should be able to capture your family's adventures properly without handing them to a social network.

PocketTreasures is not social media

We want to be direct about this. PocketTreasures is a private family memory app. It is not a social network, and we have no plans to become one. That shapes every decision we make.

• No public feed and no profiles for strangers to find
• No followers, likes or comments to chase
• No algorithm deciding what you see or who sees you
• No infinite scroll and no advertising
• No open messaging that lets strangers reach your children

Instead, you get a calm, private place to log your family's adventures. Photos, notes, locations and milestones, organised into a memory book that belongs to you.

Private by default, on your device

Every photo, note and adventure you create stays on your device by default. Nothing is quietly uploaded to a feed, and we do not sell your data or share your memories with third parties. If you choose to create an account later, we only store the minimum needed for features such as backup and syncing.

When you do want to share, you stay in control of who sees what. You can sync privately with your partner through your own iCloud account, or send a self-contained Grandparent Family Link that opens in any browser, with no public profile and no sign-up for the people you send it to.

Giving childhood a safer home

The spring 2027 ban is about protecting children from platforms that were never built for them. We think the same thinking should apply to the way families keep their memories. Your children's first steps, their best days out and the small moments in between deserve somewhere private and lasting, not a timeline.

If you have been looking for a way to capture your family's story without putting it on social media, that is exactly what we are here for.

Sources: GOV.UK announcement, and reporting from HuffPost UK and Android Central. Details of the ban may change as the legislation and Ofcom's guidance are finalised.