Location: United Kingdom
The UK government has shared plans for ‘digital curfew’ measures for 16 and 17-year olds, meaning that their default settings will restrict social media use between midnight and 6.00am, although it is optional and can be switched off. It has also announced plans to turn addictive features off by default.
This follows the government’s publication of research into the impact of social media restriction pilots.
Here are our thoughts on the announcement:
"This measure, which will affect young people’s default safety settings, is a sensible step on the longer road to reforming the way social media companies operate.
Empowering users to look after their own mental health is one element of the change that is needed to improve young people’s mental health.
Ultimately, though, we need a much more assertive approach from the government. We need to move to a ‘safety by design’ approach, where products are only allowed on to the market when they are proven to be both safe and respectful of our mental health. At present, most social media platforms are simply unsafe products, and need to be re-designed from the ground up."
- Alexa Knight, Director of Policy and Influencing
