Hundreds of UK teenagers to trial six-week social media curbs for major study

Hundreds of UK teenagers will trial social media bans, digital curfews and time limits on apps under a government pilot, which will run alongside a consultation to decide whether the UK should ban access to social media for the under-16s.

During the test, led by the UK government, a proportion of 300 teens across all four nations of the UK will have their social apps disabled, “mimicking the enforcement of a social media ban at home”.

Another group will have access blocked overnight, or capped to one hour’s use on the most popular social media apps for teenagers, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. Others will experience no restrictions, so the test group’s experiences can be compared. The pilots will last six weeks and test how different restrictions affect young people’s day-to-day lives.

The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, said it was about “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,” she said.

Nearly 30,000 parents and children have responded to the government’s digital wellbeing consultation, which closes on 26 May. Alongside the pilots and consultation, an independent study will become the world’s first major scientific trial of the impact of reducing social media use among adolescents.

The trial, funded by the Wellcome Trust and co-led by the Bradford Institute for Health Research and the University of Cambridge psychologist Prof Amy Orben, will examine changes in anxiety and sleep quality, time spent with friends and family, wellbeing, body image, social comparison, school absences and bullying. The study will involve about 4,000 students between the ages of 12 and 15 recruited from 10 Bradford secondary schools.

Ministers have come under increasing pressure to follow Australia’s move to ban access to social media sites for under-16s. France, Spain and Indonesia are also considering such a ban. In November, the European parliament passed a resolution on age restrictions. Although not legally binding, it raises pressure for European legislation amid growing alarm about the mental health risks to children of unfettered internet access.

Earlier this month, MPs rejected a proposed ban. On Wednesday, peers will vote on the ban as it is put forward again as an amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill tabled by the Conservative peer and former minister John Nash.

Reacting to the pilot, Lord Nash said: “These pilots are simply half measures that once again put the pressure on parents rather than holding big tech accountable and halting the horrific harms that social media is inflicting on a generation.”

Bereaved parents have written to parliamentarians urging them to support a ban and stating that they are “deeply concerned” about the consultation. They wrote: “It was announced at the 11th hour, in the days before your previous vote. It proposes an ‘expert panel’ of academics but leaves little or no space for those on the frontline, those who see the consequences every single day, such as GPs, police officers and others who are dealing with the reality of harm as it unfolds.”

They called on parliamentarians to act now, adding: “Right now, across the UK, parents are not waiting for consultations or future reviews. They are watching their children scroll, message and engage on platforms they know are not safe. They are trying to set boundaries without the support of the law. They are fearful, overwhelmed and doing their best to protect their children in a system that is not designed to help them.”

The NSPCC chief executive, Chris Sherwood, has said that if the government does not take action to combat “failing” tech companies, a social media ban would be better than the status quo. The charity has called for ministers to force tech companies to keep under-13s off social media, prevent firms from making their platforms highly addictive to teenagers, and use the law to ensure that tech companies keep children safe from taking and sharing illegal images.