{"id":694291,"date":"2026-07-16T05:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T05:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/694291\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T05:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T05:57:09","slug":"uk-proposes-voluntary-overnight-social-media-curfew-for-older-teens-social-media-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/694291\/","title":{"rendered":"UK proposes voluntary overnight social media curfew for older teens | Social Media News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest government measure aimed at curbing digital harm comes after an under-16 social media ban was announced last month.<\/p>\n

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Published On 16 Jul 202616 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom has proposed an overnight social media curfew for older teenagers as part of the government\u2019s latest push to protect minors from digital harm, though users will be permitted to bypass the restrictions.<\/p>\n

The Labour administration announced the plans on Wednesday, outlining a six-hour default lockout from midnight to 6am for 16- and 17-year-olds on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.<\/p>\n

Under the proposal, highly engaging mechanisms, such as autoplay videos and infinite scrolling, would also be deactivated by default for this age group to encourage better sleep and focus.<\/p>\n

The initiative follows a June announcement<\/a> by outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who unveiled a blanket ban on social media for children under 16 slated to take effect in 2027.<\/p>\n

While the younger cohort faces a strict prohibition on major networks, ministers chose a softer approach for older adolescents.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s restrictions reflect a rapidly growing global crackdown on young people\u2019s social media access. Australia made waves in December by enacting a world-first ban on social media for under-16s, which its government is already looking to tighten following studies showing that many teenagers easily bypass the restrictions.<\/p>\n

The ban, which came into force on December 10, made Australia a global test case<\/a> for countries trying to curb children\u2019s access to social media.<\/p>\n

\"AA teenager holds her smartphone displaying the Instagram logo in Brussels on July 7, 2026 [Nicolas Tucat\/AFP]<\/p>\n

Defending the voluntary nature of the curfew, UK Secretary for Online Safety Kanishka Narayan rejected criticism that teenagers would simply disable the restrictions. He told Sky News that the government wanted to avoid outright bans for older teenagers, aiming instead for a \u201csmooth slope\u201d into adulthood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to empower our teenagers,\u201d Narayan said, citing data from a pilot scheme and previous voluntary platform trials where more than 90 percent of teenagers kept the restrictive default settings active.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence base is clear, the motivation is very clear, and I wouldn\u2019t do the disservice to teenagers of saying they\u2019re all going to switch it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, political opponents and child safety advocates expressed scepticism about the policy\u2019s efficacy.<\/p>\n

Laura Trott, the education spokesperson for the opposition Conservative Party, dismissed the plans as illogical.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither they think 16- and 17-year-olds should be on social media or they don\u2019t, but curfews they can simply switch off won\u2019t achieve anything,\u201d Trott said, according to the Associated Press news agency.<\/p>\n

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a prominent UK children\u2019s nonprofit, welcomed the development, but warned that it was a temporary fix.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Chris Sherwood cautioned that unless the government implements \u201cfurther, stronger measures\u201d, the policy will act only as a \u201csticking plaster\u201d that fails to address the deeply addictive algorithms driving excessive screen time.<\/p>\n

The proposals must still be formally legislated. Because they represent some of the final legislative steps of Starmer\u2019s administration, the responsibility of implementing them is expected to fall to his anticipated successor, Andy Burnham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest government measure aimed at curbing digital harm comes after an under-16 social media ban was announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[591,59,57,58,50,224,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-694291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-europe","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-social-media","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694291","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=694291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}