From next spring, 16- and 17-year-olds in the UK will find their social media apps automatically switching off at midnight – unless they change the settings. The government has announced a planned overnight curfew for older teenagers, aiming to improve sleep, focus and family life by making platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube unavailable by default between midnight and 6am. Addictive features such as autoplay and infinite scroll would also be disabled by default. However, the curfew is not mandatory: teenagers can opt out by changing their account settings, a flexibility that has drawn criticism from campaigners who say it weakens the policy.
The move follows the government's announcement in June that under-16s would be banned entirely from a range of social media platforms. Together, these measures form part of a broader effort to protect young people online, but they have created a complex patchwork of rules. For 16- and 17-year-olds, the curfew applies only to certain apps and can be overridden, meaning it relies on the teenager choosing not to switch it off. Online safety minister Kanishka Narayan defended the approach on BBC Breakfast, saying the combination of the curfew and limits on addictive features would help teenagers.
“The UK government's proposed overnight social media curfew for 16- and 17-year-olds explained.”
The government says the curfew targets concerns about the impact of social media on teenagers' sleep and wellbeing. Professor Lorna Woods, an internet law expert at Essex University, said the measure was designed to address apprehensions from parents and child safety groups. Research cited in the sources – a 2026 study in The Washington Post – links addictive social media use to rising ADHD symptoms in adolescent boys. In Australia, which introduced a nationwide social media ban for teens, around 70% of underage users continued to access apps because of ineffective age verification, according to a government report. Critics argue the UK curfew will face similar problems if teenagers can simply switch it off.
Baroness Kidron, a long-time campaigner for online safety, told BBC Breakfast that the focus should not be on banning children from tech but on “banning tech from putting toxic products in the hands of children”. She and others have called for age verification to be handled at the device level rather than by individual apps. Apple recently introduced such device-level age checks on iPhones and iPads, requiring users to verify their age. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has also said it wants device manufacturers to handle age verification. Ellen Roome, whose 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney died in 2022 in what she believes was an online challenge, called the opt-out curfew “not good enough”, comparing it to offering a 17-year-old a bottle of alcohol and moving it slightly out of reach.
Q: Can teenagers opt out of the social media curfew? Yes. The curfew is set to be switched on by default, but 16- and 17-year-olds can change their account settings to turn it off. This opt-out nature has been criticised by campaigners who say it renders the measure ineffective.
Q: What apps and features are affected? The curfew would apply to popular social media apps including Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Additionally, “addictive” features such as autoplay and infinite scroll would be disabled by default for this age group during the curfew hours.
Q: Why is the government introducing this curfew? The government says it aims to improve teenagers' sleep, focus and family life by reducing overnight social media use. It follows growing concerns about the impact of social media on young people's mental health and follows a separate ban for under-16s announced in June.
The curfew is due to be implemented from next spring, with further details on enforcement and age verification expected to be announced. The government continues to face pressure from campaigners who argue the opt-out option undermines the policy, while tech companies like Meta push for device-level age checks. The effectiveness of the measures may depend on whether teenagers choose to keep the curfew active.
