The Government has begun its rollout of various pilots aimed at trialling possible restrictions on children using social media.

The pilots were announced as part of the broader consultation on young people’s experiences online (discussed here), which seeks views on a range of possible interventions including: a total restriction on social media services by age (as implemented in Australia and recently announced in Greece); raising the age of digital consent; and restricting access to services based on certain features and functionalities that, for example, increase the risk of children being exposed to harmful content or are addictive.

According to the Government, the pilots will take place across the country in the homes of 300 teenagers who will be split into four groups. One group will act as a control with no restrictions, while the other three will experience one of the following restrictions, overseen by their parents, over a six week period:

• Parental controls will remove or entirely disable access to selected social media apps, mimicking the enforcement of a social media ban at home;

• A one-hour-per-day cap will be imposed on the most popular social media apps for teenagers, including Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat; and

• Social media will be blocked for children between 21:00 and 07:00.

The Government’s press release states that the data from the pilots will be “assessed by government officials and a panel of academics alongside the public’s responses to the consultation”, which already number over 30,000. As we have commented upon previously (here), the Government intends to act quickly on any of the consultation’s findings, having introduced powers so that it can act “within months”.

In the meantime – and demonstrating that online safety and restrictions for children are currently high on the agenda for policymakers – the Wellcome Trust is soon to embark on a study evaluating the mental health impact of online technology restrictions (see here), guidance has been published by the Government on screen time for under-5s (see here), and the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has launched an inquiry into ‘Neuroscience and digital childhood’ (see here).

To read more about the pilots, click here.