In this photo illustration, a 13-year-old teenage boy looks at an iPhone screen displaying various social media apps on January 12, 2026 in Bath, England.
Matt Cardy | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The UK government is trialling a ban on social media for hundreds of teenagers after the country’s parliamentarians rejected a total ban on social media use for under-16s.
The UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announced on Wednesday that it would run a six-week pilot with 300 young people across the country, with bans ranging from curfews to time limits on certain apps.
The pilot is part of a wider digital wellbeing consultation launched this year, which has already received 30,000 responses from parents and children about the impact of social media on children’s wellbeing, and will end on 26 May.
It includes four types of interventions, including one set of parents instructing them to use parental controls to remove or disable selected apps. The second group imposes a one-hour per day limit on teens’ use of the most popular apps, including Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. The third set imposes a curfew from 9pm to 7am, and the last group does not restrict access to social media at all.
This comes after British MPs earlier this month voted against a proposal to include a social media ban for under-16s in existing legislation, the Child Welfare and Schools Bill.
Shortly after, Britain’s online safety organization Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office called on social media companies to ensure children are protected online through measures such as better use of age verification technology and preventing strangers from contacting teenagers.
Australia became the first country to ban social media for under-16s in December, and other countries have begun considering doing the same.
Spain became the first European country to ban social media for teenagers in February.
The French National Assembly also supported banning social media for under-15s. If passed by the Senate, it would take effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year in September.
A large-scale scientific trial is underway in the UK to analyze how reducing social media use affects young people’s wellbeing, from changes in sleep, stress, body image and other health factors.
The study will be co-led by University of Cambridge psychologist Professor Amy Oben and Bradford Health Research Institute and will involve around 4,000 students aged 12 to 15 from 10 schools.
metaThe company that is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads was found liable for nearly $400 million in damages by a New Mexico jury on Tuesday, concluding that it failed to protect children from predators on its platform.
A separate case in Los Angeles is considering whether Meta and YouTube intentionally designed addictive features on their platforms that allegedly caused emotional distress to the plaintiffs, who were using social media as minors. The jury is currently deliberating whether one or both companies should be held responsible for the damages.
