UK eyes under-16 ban on resale apps after kids face sexualised DMs

Ministers are weighing a ban on under-16s using resale platforms including Depop, eBay and Facebook Marketplace, over fears their private messaging tools have become a frontline for child exploitation, according to the Sunday Times. The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, confirmed on Sunday that the government is "looking seriously" at widening its under-16 social media ban to cover online marketplaces. The regulations were sent for cabinet signoff this week, with Nandy expected to put them before parliament in December.

Vinted, which sets a minimum age of 18, would be pulled in too, required to gate access behind strict age verification. The company said minors can only use the site under the supervision of an adult account holder. Depop allows accounts from 13, with users needing to be over 18 for PayPal and its payment systems. Ofcom data shows 15% of eight- to 14-year-olds in the UK use Vinted every month, and separate reporting suggests some children slip past age checks entirely.

The push follows mounting reports of predatory behaviour in sellers' inboxes. Hannah* listed her seven-year-old daughter's pink swimming costume on Vinted for £1. A user with a male handle messaged asking whether the little girl had worn it, then: "Naked?" She blocked him and reported the exchange to Vinted, calling it "disgusting" and "disturbing".

Lucy*, who began reselling pre-loved clothes on Depop at 15, said a buyer once edited one of her listings from about £10 up to £30 and told her: "If you include your pants I'll pay more." She later found photos she had posted as a minor had been scraped from Depop and were circulating on Reddit, and that users on Discord had taken her old Vinted and Depop images and used AI to make deepfake nudes of her. "It's deplorable that people think it's acceptable to take people's images and make them into AI porn," she said. Now 25, she still finds sexualised images of herself online.

The Children's Society has warned that young users of resale sites are increasingly being asked for indecent photos in return for money or gifts, and that some images posted by minors have been turned into non-consensual AI nudes.

Not everyone backs a blanket ban. Karen Garland, head of policy at the Marie Collins Foundation, which supports victims of technology-assisted child sexual exploitation, said: "We need to make spaces for children and young people that are safer by design. And so, in some ways, extending a ban into other spaces may not be the best route overall." Lucy is torn too, noting some young sellers rely on the money, but accepts the risks of selling on Vinted can be "extremely dangerous". Vinted said it has "zero tolerance for harmful or explicit content", eBay pointed to policies encouraging users to keep chats on-platform, and Depop said sharing another user's images without consent violates its terms.