UK government proposes social media curfew for teenagers
The British government announced plans on Wednesday for 16 and 17-year-olds to face a voluntary overnight social media curfew, its latest attempt to reduce online harm for children, reports BritPanorama.
The initiative includes measures to automatically disable features that encourage extended use, such as auto-playing videos, for this age group. Critics, however, have raised concerns about the real effectiveness of the proposed changes, as teenagers will still have the option to switch these settings back on.
This announcement follows a recent government initiative banning social media access for under-16s, impacting platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X, although messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal remain exempt. The changes are slated to take effect from next spring.
The proposed restrictions are among the last significant acts of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, and his likely successor, Andy Burnham, is expected to maintain support for these plans.
Kanishka Narayan, the UK’s online safety minister, emphasized that understating teenagers’ willingness to adhere to the curfews is a “disservice.” He referenced a pilot program involving over 300 teenagers and their parents, which reported a significant drop in social media usage alongside improvements in sleep and concentration.
“In October, for example, some platforms introduced these defaults of this sort — 90%-plus teenagers said to us that they’ve maintained those defaults as well,” he noted during an interview with Sky News. He expressed confidence in teenagers’ ability to retain these settings rather than disable them.
The NSPCC, the UK’s leading children’s charity, acknowledged that while the proposals could enhance young people’s social media experiences, they might not go far enough to tackle the underlying issues of high screen time driven by addictive platform designs. Chris Sherwood, NSPCC’s chief executive, warned that without additional, more rigorous measures, these steps could merely serve as temporary solutions.
Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, viewed the announcement as a “positive step,” noting that many young people wish to reduce social media usage but struggle to do so. She expressed interest in understanding how these policies will be implemented and will closely monitor their effectiveness.
The proposed curfews reflect ongoing efforts in the UK to balance digital freedoms with the need for safeguarding young users in an increasingly connected world.
