The British government announced Wednesday it will trial social media bans, overnight curfews, and daily usage caps on 300 teenagers across the United Kingdom, as ministers gather evidence ahead of a potential nationwide prohibition on social media access for children under 16.
The six-week pilot, led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, will divide participants aged 13 to 17 into four groups, each assigned a different level of platform access. One cohort will have selected social media applications blocked entirely through parental controls, effectively replicating the conditions of a full ban. A second group will be restricted to one hour per day on the most widely used platforms among British teenagers, including TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. A third group will face an overnight curfew, with access cut off between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. A fourth group, serving as the control, will retain unrestricted access throughout the trial period.
Researchers will interview participants and their parents at the outset and conclusion of the study to assess the effects of each restriction on academic performance, sleep quality, and family relationships. The government has said it also intends to collect information from families about the practical difficulties encountered when setting up parental controls and on any workarounds teenagers may develop to bypass restrictions.
Data from the pilots will be assessed by government officials alongside a panel of academics and cross-referenced with public responses to the consultation.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the government was committed to ensuring children had a healthier digital upbringing.
“We are determined to give young people the childhood they deserve and to prepare them for the future,” she said in a statement. “These pilots will give us the evidence we need to take the next steps, informed by the experiences of families themselves.”
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The pilot runs alongside a formal public consultation on children’s digital wellbeing that opened on March 2 and is scheduled to close on May 26. The consultation has already drawn nearly 30,000 responses from parents and children. Among the questions it poses is whether platforms should be compelled to disable features widely linked to compulsive use, including infinite scrolling and autoplay.
A separate, larger study led by Professor Amy Orben, a psychologist at the University of Cambridge, and the Bradford Institute for Health Research, will recruit approximately 4,000 pupils aged 12 to 15 from ten Bradford schools to examine how reducing social media time affects wellbeing, body image, anxiety, school attendance, and sleep quality.
The British effort reflects a wider international debate that gained momentum when Australia enacted the world’s first blanket prohibition on social media for under-16s in December 2024. Other countries taking steps in a similar direction include France, Spain, and Denmark. In France, lawmakers passed legislation in January this year that would ban social media use by children under 15, though the measure still requires final legislative approval.
The UK government’s decision to pilot restrictions before committing to legislation stands in contrast to calls from some quarters for immediate action. Earlier this month, the House of Commons voted down an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, originally backed by the House of Lords, that would have introduced an outright ban on social media for under-16s. The government has said it opposes that clause, but has signaled it would introduce enabling powers to allow future restrictions on children’s access through internet service providers.
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Lord Nash, the Conservative peer who originally introduced the Australia-style ban in the upper chamber, described the measures being evaluated in the pilot as “simply half measures” that “put the pressure on parents rather than holding big tech accountable.” Separately, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Digital Creators announced it would launch an inquiry Wednesday urging the government not to overlook the benefits of social media for young people. Some content creators and educators have argued that a ban would sever young people from legitimate educational content and study communities hosted on the same platforms.
Critics of restrictions more broadly have warned that age-based prohibitions are readily circumvented through virtual private networks, secondary devices, and falsified age information. Some digital rights advocates, including a Labour Party internal network, have raised concerns about the government acquiring sweeping powers over internet access, citing implications for freedom of expression.
On Wednesday, peers in the House of Lords were to be asked whether they would continue to press Lord Nash’s original ban amendment or align with the Commons position, which removed it. The public consultation remains open until May 26, after which the government has said it will publish its conclusions and outline next steps for policy.