Most UK teens to opt out of planned social media curfew: poll
A recent poll indicates that 85 percent of UK teenagers would opt out of a proposed government-mandated social media curfew for 16 and 17-year-olds. The policy, intended to curb online harms, faces skepticism regarding its effectiveness due to the voluntary nature of the settings.
Why it matters
The findings highlight the challenges governments face in regulating digital behavior among youth and the potential gap between policy intent and user compliance.
Most teenagers would opt out of a UK government plan to impose social media curfews on older teenagers, according to a poll published Friday.
Plans to introduce an overnight social media curfew for children aged 16 and 17 were unveiled by the UK government in mid-July under Prime Minister Andy Burnham's predecessor, Keir Starmer.
The curfew would supplement a social media ban on under-16s announced by Starmer in June, covering sites including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
The time restriction would be enabled by default settings on social media accounts for children aged 16 and 17, preventing them from accessing social media sites between midnight and 6:00 am.
But the feature could be turned off, and a survey by consultants Censuswide found 85 percent of 16 to 18-year-olds said they would disable it.
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