Government’s pilot ban for under-16s accompanies consultation as peers vote on Australia-style restrictions
Hundreds of UK teenagers will trial social media bans, digital curfews and time limits on apps under a government pilot, which will run alongside a consultation to decide whether the UK should ban access to social media for the under-16s.
During the test, led by the UK government, a proportion of 300 teens across all four nations of the UK will have their social apps disabled, “mimicking the enforcement of a social media ban at home”.
Another group will have access blocked overnight, or capped to one hour’s use on the most popular social media apps for teenagers, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. Others will experience no restrictions, so the test group’s experiences can be compared. The pilots will last six weeks and test how different restrictions affect young people’s day-to-day lives.
The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, said it was about “testing different options in the real world”. “These pilots will give us the evidence we need to take the next steps, informed by the experiences of families themselves,” she said.
