Older teenagers in the UK will face an overnight social media curfew from next spring, the government has announced – but they will be able to switch the block off by changing their account settings.
The measure means apps such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube being set to be unavailable by default to 16 and 17-year-olds between midnight and 06:00. The government also wants “addictive” features such as auto-play and infinite scroll to be disabled, saying the combination will improve teenagers’ focus, sleep quality and family life.
“UK teens aged 16-17 face midnight social media curfew but can opt out, drawing criticism as ineffective.”
But campaigners and young people themselves have roundly criticised the plans as too weak. Ellen Roome, who believes her 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney died in an online challenge gone wrong in 2022, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I just think it’s not good enough really just to have a product you can switch off, it’s a bit like offering a 17-year-old a bottle of alcohol and then moving it slightly out of arms reach, they can just drag it back in, I really wish they could go stronger and harder on these things.”
Harvey, a 16-year-old from the south-east, told the Guardian: “I wasn’t expecting [the curfew] to be opt-out, and having it as an opt-out renders the whole thing meaningless, because if someone is addicted to Instagram and there’s a curfew but they can turn it off, they will turn it off.” He spends one or two hours a day on social media, mainly Instagram, X, YouTube and Snapchat, and said age verification was a concern: “Having to verify your age … removes this idea of an anonymous internet, which I know is both a good and a bad thing.”
Lorna Woods, professor of internet law at Essex University, told the BBC the measure was designed to target apprehensions from parents and child safety groups. “There have been concerns about the way services keep children and young people engaged on their phones for long periods, and that this can impact their sleep, amongst other effects,” she said.
Baroness Kidron, a longtime campaigner for safety measures, was critical of the government’s approach, saying on BBC Breakfast it should not be about “banning children from tech” but “banning tech from putting toxic products in the hands of children”. The plans follow the announcement in June that under-16s in the UK would be banned entirely from a range of platforms, adding to a complex mix of policies and measures from the government and tech firms.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has previously said it wants age verification to be handled by device manufacturers. Apple recently introduced “device level” age checks on iPhones and iPads. Online safety minister Kanishka Narayan defended the action, but with teenagers able to override the curfew with a few taps, the question remains how much difference it will really make.