UK to impose overnight social media curfew for 16- and 17-year-olds

The UK government will make a midnight-to-6am social media curfew the default for 16- and 17-year-olds, while giving teenagers the option to switch it off in account settings. The same default-off approach will apply to addictive features such as infinite scrolling and personalised feeds as ministers widen their push to curb online harms.

The curfew sits inside a broader package that will ban social media for under-16s, with the first regulations due before the end of 2026 and implementation expected in spring 2027. The under-16 ban is set to cover Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, but not messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal. For 16- and 17-year-olds, the government is also moving to switch off livestreaming and stranger-to-child communication by default on some platforms.

The plan was informed by a March-to-May 2026 consultation that drew nearly 30,000 responses. Nine in 10 parents backed a ban on social media for under-16s, and two-thirds of young people agreed that under-16s should not be allowed to use at least some social platforms. Earlier this year, government pilots tested social media bans, one-hour daily limits and digital curfews in 300 teenage homes across the UK. Those trials included a 9pm to 7am block and a one-hour-per-day cap on apps such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

Campaigners have criticised the curfew and related rules as piecemeal, and the opt-out design could leave the measure easy to defeat because teenagers can simply turn it off. The default settings are meant to protect sleep, concentration and wellbeing, while avoiding a cliff-edge in online harms when young people reach 16. The UK model follows Australia, and ministers plan to set out more detail on overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under-18s later in July.