{"id":493865,"date":"2026-03-25T04:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/493865\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T04:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:58:10","slug":"hundreds-of-teenagers-to-be-banned-from-using-social-media-for-trial-period-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/493865\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of teenagers to be banned from using social media for trial period | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of British teenagers are set to take part in a trial to find out how effective a ban or restrictions on social media would be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The six-week pilot will see 300 people aged 13 to 17 try out different restrictions &#8211; from time limits to curfews to an all-out ban.<\/p>\n<p>The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will measure the effects it has on their schoolwork, sleep and family life.<\/p>\n<p>It comes as the government&#8217;s consultation on a potential <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/australias-under-16s-social-media-ban-how-will-it-work-and-could-the-uk-bring-in-a-similar-law-13478719\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Australia-style social media ban<\/a> is set to conclude on 26 May.<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-tom-clarke-social-media-debate_7163715.jpg\"  class=\"ui-video-player-poster-image\" alt=\"\" data-testid=\"video-player-poster-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    Share<\/p>\n<p>\n                Social media ban: Have we reached a tipping point?\n            <\/p>\n<p>How trial will work<\/p>\n<p>Parents will be split into four groups and told how to implement social media limits on their children&#8217;s phones.<\/p>\n<p>One set of parents will be given instruction on how to use controls to remove or prevent access to selected social media apps, mirroring the effects of a social media ban.<\/p>\n<p>Another group will have a one-hour-per-day limit on the most popular social media apps, including TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>A third group will have social media access blocked between 9pm and 7am, and the final group will give teenagers the same access to social media as they have currently.<\/p>\n<p>Families taking part will be interviewed at the start and the end of the trial to see how the ban or limits imposed impacted them and any difficulties they faced.<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-social-media-ban-spain_7173932.jpg\"  class=\"ui-video-player-poster-image\" alt=\"\" data-testid=\"video-player-poster-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    Share<\/p>\n<p>\n                Sky News asks kids if they agree with a ban\n            <\/p>\n<p>Read more from Sky News:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/zutons-star-says-head-splitting-racist-attack-could-have-killed-him-13523821\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Star says racist attack could have killed him<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/mo-salah-to-leave-liverpool-at-end-of-season-club-say-13524001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Salah to leave Liverpool<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: &#8220;We are determined to give young people the childhood they deserve and to prepare them for the future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is why we are listening to parents, children and experts with our consultation, as well as testing different options in the real world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These pilots will give us the evidence we need to take the next steps.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/download-app\" target=\"blank\" data-tracking-label=\"ui-app-promo-download-link\" class=\"ui-app-promo sdc-article-widget\" data-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"ui-app-promo\" data-testid=\"app-promo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The consultation on social media, which opened at the beginning of March, has already received nearly 30,000 responses, the government has said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of British teenagers are set to take part in a trial to find out how effective a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-493865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}