Sixteen and 17-year-olds will face a voluntary overnight social media curfew, the shut-down of infinite scrolling and breaks in AI chatbot use under plans announced by Technology Secretary Liz Kendall.
The changes, part of the government’s wider restrictions on social media for children, will see default settings prevent access for older teenagers between midnight and 6am.
Features that keep users hooked, such as never-ending video reels and algorithmic feeds, will be automatically turned off.
However, critics questioned the effectiveness of the measures given teenagers aged 16 and 17 will be able to switch off these default settings.
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