UK targets teen engagement with proposed midnight curfews and scrolling bans

This move signals a shift from regulating content to regulating platform architecture, directly impacting how TikTok and Meta optimize user retention. By framing infinite scroll as a harmful design choice, UK regulators are forcing a fundamental redesign of core engagement loops for a critical demographic. For the broader ecosystem, this creates a fragmentation risk where UK users experience a different product version than global peers. If these 'safety-by-design' mandates become a standard, streaming services and social video platforms will face rising CAPEX costs for age-gated infrastructure and potentially lower ad inventory due to reduced late-night engagement. Watch for whether these UK-specific features are voluntarily rolled out globally by platforms to simplify technical maintenance.

The proposed curfews follow the UK's Online Safety Act (2023), which task regulator Ofcom with enforcing digital safety. Per Ofcom (April 2025), the agency has already finalized over 40 child safety measures—set to take effect in July 2025—that require platforms to configure algorithms to filter harmful content and use highly effective age assurance. This regulatory trajectory aligns with the broader goals of Labor government ministers, who have recently discussed banning social media for children under 16 entirely by 2027, according to reporting from Pajhwok (July 2026).

Internationally, the UK is joining a wave of aggressive platform governance. Australia enacted the Online Safety Amendment in December 2024, which bans minors under 16 from holding accounts on services like Facebook and TikTok. Per the AP (June 2026), Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is already considering strengthening those laws following early evidence of non-compliance. Similarly, the European Commission announced in July 2026 that it intends to draft EU-wide age-based restrictions by the fall, following preliminary findings that TikTok's 'addictive design' violated the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Tech companies are navigating a patchwork of regional rules that impact bottom-line metrics. In July 2026, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) noted that pilot trials involving 300 UK families showed that 90% of teenagers would likely keep default restrictions active if implemented. However, the legal firm RPC noted via City A.M. (July 2026) that implementation details remain 'scant' and platforms warn of the immense practical hurdles in verifying the ages of millions of users without compromising data privacy.