Hundreds of UK teenagers to be banned from social media as part of pilot

The government is to trial social media bans and digital curfews in the homes of 300 teenagers in the UK.

The aim of the pilot is for the government to understand more closely how different social media restrictions might impact young people’s family life, sleep and schoolwork.

It comes four months after Australia banned under 16s from accessing social media apps, amid calls from some campaigners and politicians to implement similar measures in the UK.

Other countries to have made steps towards a ban include France, Spain and Denmark.

The pilot will run alongside the digital wellbeing consultation, which will close on May 26 this year, and see young people from across all four nations of the UK assigned to one of four pathways.

One group of teenagers will have their access to some social media apps taken away, effectively mimicking what a social media ban could look like for young people.

The parents of these participants will be instructed on how to use parental controls to to remove, or entirely disable access, to selected social media apps.

A second group will have a time restriction on the amount of time they can spend on the most popular social media apps for teenagers, such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.

Their usage will be capped at one hour each day.

Thirdly, one set of young people will have their access to social media blocked by their parents between the hours of 9pm to 7am, meaning they are only able to access these apps before and after school time.

Finally, a control group will also see no change to their usage, in order to compare their experiences.

The children and parents taking part in the experiment will be interviewed at the start and end of the scheme about the impact the social media restrictions have had on their lives.

As well as answering questions about school, family life and sleep, participants will also be asked about practical challenges, like how easy it was to set up parental controls and whether the teenagers may have found workarounds to bypass them.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: “We are determined to give young people the childhood they deserve and to prepare them for the future.

“This is why we are listening to parents, children and experts with our consultation, as well as 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.”

Data collected as part of the initiative will be assessed by government officials and academics, alongside the publics response to the consultation.