DUBAI : The United Arab Emirates announced a social media ban for children under 15 on Thursday, joining a growing group of countries including Australia, Britain and Canada to take similar measures.

Social media platforms will have to monitor and disable accounts created by under-15s or risk being blocked, a cabinet resolution said, giving them a 12-month transition period.

"The resolution sets the minimum age for social media use at 15 years," the official WAM news agency said, citing the cabinet resolution.

"Children below this age are prohibited from creating, using, or operating personal accounts on social media platforms."

They are also barred from "accessing the full features of such platforms, including social interaction, publishing, commenting, sharing, joining public groups, open channels, or any large-scale interactive spaces", it said.

After Australia began a world-first social media bar for under-16s in December, a number of countries have followed suit including Britain, which announced a ban this week.

The UAE's bodies controlling media and telecommunications have "authority to take all necessary measures (against social media platforms in the event of non-compliance", WAM said.

These include "warning or partial or full blocking of platforms or the imposition of applicable administrative penalties".