The newest authorities measure aimed toward curbing digital hurt comes after an under-16 social media ban was introduced final month.
Printed On 16 Jul 2026
The UK has proposed an in a single day social media curfew for older youngsters as a part of the federal government’s newest push to guard minors from digital hurt, although customers shall be permitted to bypass the restrictions.
The Labour administration introduced the plans on Wednesday, outlining a six-hour default lockout from midnight to 6am for 16- and 17-year-olds on platforms equivalent to Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Underneath the proposal, extremely participating mechanisms, equivalent to autoplay movies and infinite scrolling, would even be deactivated by default for this age group to encourage higher sleep and focus.
The initiative follows a June announcement by outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who unveiled a blanket ban on social media for kids below 16 slated to take impact in 2027.
Whereas the youthful cohort faces a strict prohibition on main networks, ministers selected a softer method for older adolescents.
The UK’s restrictions mirror a quickly rising world crackdown on younger individuals’s social media entry. Australia made waves in December by enacting a world-first ban on social media for under-16s, which its authorities is already trying to tighten following research exhibiting that many youngsters simply bypass the restrictions.
The ban, which got here into power on December 10, made Australia a global test case for international locations attempting to curb youngsters’s entry to social media.
Defending the voluntary nature of the curfew, UK Secretary for On-line Security Kanishka Narayan rejected criticism that youngsters would merely disable the restrictions. He advised Sky Information that the federal government wished to keep away from outright bans for older youngsters, aiming as a substitute for a “easy slope” into maturity.
“We need to empower our youngsters,” Narayan mentioned, citing information from a pilot scheme and former voluntary platform trials the place greater than 90 % of youngsters saved the restrictive default settings energetic.
“The proof base is evident, the motivation could be very clear, and I wouldn’t do the disservice to youngsters of claiming they’re all going to change it off.”
Nevertheless, political opponents and little one security advocates expressed scepticism concerning the coverage’s efficacy.
Laura Trott, the training spokesperson for the opposition Conservative Occasion, dismissed the plans as illogical.
“Both they suppose 16- and 17-year-olds must be on social media or they don’t, however curfews they’ll merely change off received’t obtain something,” Trott mentioned, in line with the Related Press information company.
The Nationwide Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Youngsters, a distinguished UK youngsters’s nonprofit, welcomed the event, however warned that it was a short lived repair.
Chief government Chris Sherwood cautioned that until the federal government implements “additional, stronger measures”, the coverage will act solely as a “sticking plaster” that fails to handle the deeply addictive algorithms driving extreme display screen time.
The proposals should nonetheless be formally legislated. As a result of they characterize among the closing legislative steps of Starmer’s administration, the accountability of implementing them is anticipated to fall to his anticipated successor, Andy Burnham.
