- The United Kingdom proposes a curfew on social networks for 16 and 17 year olds
- Access would be blocked from midnight to 6am by default.
- However, teens will be able to change these settings if they wish.
Having announced plans to ban under-16s from using social media apps early next year, the UK government is now proposing a midnight social media curfew for 16- and 17-year-olds, although parents seem less impressed with the latter idea.
As reported by the BBC, the suggested curfew would apply between midnight and 6am, and would be combined with disabling certain “addictive” features on apps such as Instagram and TikTok at any time of the day. Those features would include infinite scrolling, for example, and autoplaying videos when they load.
The measures will be “crucial to helping young people get the sleep they need, focus on school and college, and spend more quality time with family and friends,” according to Technology Secretary Liz Kendall. They are also intended to provide a smoother “on-ramp” to these apps for children turning 16 who previously had no access.
Changes will also apply to AI chatbots, which will need to encourage regular breaks for under-18s and have safeguards in place to prevent “dangerous, misleading or unverified mental health advice” from appearing. The measures are taken after a pilot plan in which more than 300 adolescents and their families participated.
Teens can opt out
Keir Starmer to announce midnight social media curfew for teenagers
from r/ukpolitics
There are not many details in the government announcement, so questions about the mechanisms and timelines have not yet been answered. The expected date for this is likely to be the same as the under-16 social media ban: Spring (March, April, May) in the UK.
The difference with the social media ban is that curfew hours and removal of addictive features will be optional. While the government will instruct app developers to set these restrictions by default, teens will have the option to turn them off if they wish.
Reactions on Reddit suggest the measures will end up being “ineffective and useless”, with one poster comparing them to speed limit warnings for cars – something very easy to ignore. Commenters also note that this may require further age verification and that parental control tools already exist to block children from accessing social media at certain times.
“How is it the government’s business what time someone uses social media?” reads one post, while another questions the possibility of 16-year-olds joining the military but not being allowed to access social media after midnight.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
