The United Kingdom has expanded its sweeping new regulations targeting underage social media use, announcing a landmark overnight curfew for 16- and 17-year-olds just one month after rolling out a full ban for children under 16 on major platforms.
In an official statement released Tuesday, the UK government confirmed the new policy, which restricts 16- and 17-year-olds’ access to popular platforms including Instagram and Facebook between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. The regulatory package also includes a mandatory default setting that will disable widely criticized addictive design features such as infinite scrolling for this age group. Unlike the under-16 ban, these restrictions are not fully mandatory: users can manually override the settings if they choose. However, critics have already raised questions about the measures’ effectiveness, and details on how the government will enforce these changes remain undisclosed as of press time.
The under-16 ban, announced last month by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration, covers all of the world’s largest social media platforms: Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. That policy is scheduled to go into effect in early 2027, making the UK one of a growing number of nations implementing strict age-based restrictions on social media access for minors.
“Even as young people gain greater independence at 16, they should still be protected from the most addictive online features that can have a harmful impact on their wellbeing,” UK Technology Minister Liz Kendall said in the official announcement. “These measures will be crucial in helping young people get the sleep they need, focus on school and college, and spend more quality time with family and friends.”
Additional components of the new regulatory framework include mandatory break requirements for under-18 users of AI chatbot platforms, requiring providers to prompt minor users to take regular pauses from interaction.
Reaction to the new rules has been split across advocacy and public health circles. While some children’s welfare organizations have hailed the reforms as a long-overdue step to protect vulnerable young people from the well-documented harms of excessive social media use, other observers have warned that poorly enforced restrictions could push teens toward unregulated, less safe alternative platforms that lack even basic content moderation protections.
The UK’s policy shift comes amid a growing global trend of strict age-based social media regulation. Australia was the first country to implement a national under-16 social media ban in December 2024, a move that has so far produced mixed results in terms of compliance and enforcement. Canada and the United Arab Emirates have both announced similar under-16 bans in recent months, while Indonesia began enforcing its own under-16 social media restriction in March 2025.