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Older British teenagers face a midnight curfew for accessing some social media apps and restrictions on addictive features, as the UK government increases the scope of its proposed ban on the services for younger kids.
The proposed overnight curfew will cut off access to apps between midnight and 6:00 a.m. for 16- and 17-year-olds. Features that can be addictive, such as videos auto-playing and personalized content, will be switched off by default for the age group, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announced on Wednesday.
The government also plans to put protections in place for children interacting with AI chatbots, including regular breaks and features to prevent the tools from issuing dangerous or misleading mental health advice.
With the new measures, the UK will bring in some of the strictest measures against social media and AI services globally. The curfew and chatbot restrictions follow Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement of a “full ban” on children under the age of 16 using social media last month.
The government intends to put the plans to British lawmakers by the end of this year and to enforce them by spring 2027, according to the statement.
Social media companies are under growing pressure globally to prevent children from spending the bulk of their time scrolling their services, as parents and politicians express alarm about harms such as cyberbullying, addictive behaviors and poor mental health. Australia was the first country to ban social media for under-16s last year. The EU is considering a similar move.
Exactly how the UK plans to enforce these changes remains an open question. It is likely to rely heavily on social media platforms implementing technical changes such as age verification. Social media companies will be required to make the changes or face “severe sanctions,” a DSIT spokesperson said.
Ofcom, the regulator tasked with enforcement, is currently assessing how effective social media platforms are at verifying users’ ages.
Children’s increasing use of AI chatbots is prompting lawmakers to include those services in social media bans.
An analysis of test accounts on Google’s AI features on search found the internet giant failed to detect suicide risks and provided instructions for creating sexually explicit fake content, according to a report from California-based Youth AI Safety Institute at Common Sense Media.
A spokesperson for Google said the analysis didn’t reflect how people normally use search, and that its AI tools had strong guardrails.
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