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The UK just proposed a midnight social media curfew for teenagers, but it comes with a built-in escape hatch. According to the BBC, the UK government plans to restrict social media access for 16- and 17-year-olds between midnight and 6 AM, preventing them from using apps like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. But getting around it will take nothing more than a few taps.
A curfew teens can switch off
The curfew is the latest step in a much longer UK campaign against teen social media use. In June, the government floated a full ban on social media access for anyone under 16, and UK police later pushed for that ban directly, asking platforms to strip out features they consider high risk for kids.
This latest proposal targets older teens instead, and it leans on a much softer mechanism. Since there’s an easy way to opt out, the curfew will only work if teenagers choose to leave it alone. That gap has already drawn criticism, with a campaigner saying that the proposal doesn’t amount to a real restriction because of the easy workaround. Social media analyst Matt Navarra was more direct, telling the BBC that the policy amounts to little more than a mildly annoying settings prompt dressed up as a regulation.
The policy leaves VPNs untouched
The UK’s crackdown on teen social media use also stops short of restricting VPNs, which let users change their location and sidestep such restrictions entirely. That kind of workaround has already been used to undercut similar rules elsewhere. The UK government says its own research found limited VPN use among teens trying to bypass restrictions, and for now, it isn’t acting on that front.
The government plans to present the new rules in front of Parliament by the end of 2026, aiming to put them in effect alongside the under-16 ban next spring. Whether either policy meaningfully changes social media use among UK teens remains to be seen.
