The UK government has announced plans to make social media unavailable to 16- and 17-year-olds from midnight to 6 a.m. by default, and will also disable infinite scroll and autoplay. A separate planned package would interrupt extended AI chatbot sessions for users under 18. Teenagers will be able to change their social media settings, so the proposal preserves their freedom to stay online. The first regulations are expected to take effect in spring 2027.
The new plan relies on friction (instead of prohibition), which sounds super weak until you look at it through the lens of behavioral science. Infinite scroll removes the friction of choosing to continue. What happens when you put that little bit of friction back? Early tests show that overnight limits may help teenagers self-regulate (even though they remain free to override the defaults).
The government’s consultation found that 65 percent of respondents aged 16 to 21 favored restricting at least some features designed to prolong engagement for children under 16, and 53 percent favored restrictions on infinite scroll. A separate month-long qualitative pilot involving 309 families reportedly reduced overnight use and improved sleep and concentration. The study used interviews before and after the pilot, so it cannot establish a causal health benefit.
Recommendation systems, notifications, streaks, and social pressure can reproduce compulsive behavior after infinite scroll is turned off. That is one of the limits of feature-level regulation, but it also highlights the significance of this proposal. Once regulators classify one attention mechanism as a safety risk, they gain a framework for examining the next one.
Engagement is a key metric for every social platform. Regulators and plaintiffs, including U.S. state attorneys general, are starting to ask how it is achieved and whether the product design is harmful.
The midnight curfew will attract attention because it sounds like a ban. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Is social media the next “big tobacco?”
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Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.