The United Kingdom has proposed a new overnight social media curfew for 16- and 17-year-olds as part of efforts to improve young people’s mental health, sleep quality and online safety. Under the proposal, social media apps would be set to block access between midnight and 6:00 a.m. by default, although teenagers would be able to opt out by changing their settings.
The plan would also require platforms to disable features such as infinite scrolling and autoplay by default for older teenagers, reducing the addictive nature of social media use. The proposal follows an earlier government plan to ban social media access for children under 16 and forms part of a broader push to tackle the impact of excessive screen time on young people.
UK ministers say the measures are intended to encourage healthier digital habits while placing greater responsibility on technology companies to protect children online. However, critics argue that because the curfew can be switched off, many teenagers may simply bypass it, raising questions about how effective the policy will be.
