UK 16- and 17-year-olds to be encouraged to follow midnight social media curfew

The government is to launch a public awareness campaign encouraging 16- and 17-year-olds to observe a voluntary midnight social media curfew, a softer approach than the mandatory restriction that had been proposed but one that critics say will be ignored by the very people it is intended to reach.

The campaign, which will run across social media platforms, in schools and through youth organisations, will encourage teenagers to put their phones away between midnight and 6am and will provide information about the effects of late-night screen use on sleep, mental health and academic performance. It will not be backed by any enforcement mechanism, and participation will be entirely voluntary.

The shift from a mandatory curfew to a voluntary campaign reflects the practical and legal difficulties that the government encountered when it examined the proposal in detail. Age verification at scale remains technically challenging, and the government was warned that a mandatory curfew would be challenged in the courts on privacy and human rights grounds.

The campaign has been welcomed by children's charities and mental health organisations, who argue that education and persuasion are more effective than prohibition and that a voluntary approach respects the autonomy of young people while still providing them with the information they need to make informed choices. But critics argue that a campaign without enforcement is unlikely to change behaviour and that the government has retreated from a serious proposal in the face of predictable opposition.

The debate over teenagers and social media is not going away, and the government has indicated that it will continue to explore regulatory options, including the possibility of requiring platforms to implement default protections for younger users. For now, the message to teenagers is simple: the government would like you to put your phone down at midnight. Whether you do is up to you.