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

The UK is encouraging sixteen and seventeen-year-olds to follow a midnight social media curfew, part of the government's push to protect young people from online harms and sleep disruption caused by night-time scrolling. The Guardian reports that the default will switch off access to apps like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, and X from midnight to six in the morning—but users can override it. Rolling out next spring, the policy extends Labour's under-sixteen social media ban announced last month. While voluntary and not mandatory, the default-enabled approach is designed to encourage Britain's older teens to protect their sleep.

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