# 'What's the point?' Teenagers give their verdict on Britain's social media curfew

> 'What's the point?' Teenagers give their verdict on Britain's social media curfew. A news report — sourced from Guardian UK.

*Section: News — By Daily Junction Editorial Team (Newsroom) — Published July 16, 2026 — 2 min read*

Canonical URL: https://dailyjunction.org/news/what-s-the-point-teenagers-give-their-verdict-on-britain-s-social-media-curfew
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"What's the point?" That is the verdict of the teenagers who will be most affected by the government's proposed midnight social media curfew, and their scepticism should give policymakers pause.

We spoke to two dozen 16- and 17-year-olds about the proposal, which would require social media platforms to restrict access for their age group between midnight and 6am unless a parent opts out. Their responses were not dismissive so much as wearily familiar — the reaction of a generation that has been the subject of adult anxiety since the day it was born and that has learned to tune it out.

"Every time there's a new thing, they try to ban it or restrict it or tell us it's bad for us," said Maya, 16, from Birmingham. "And then five years later, everyone's using it and nobody cares. It happened with TV, it happened with video games, it's happening with social media. It's just the same thing again."

The teenagers we spoke to were more thoughtful than the caricature of screen-addicted zombies would suggest. Several acknowledged that they spent too much time on their phones and that late-night scrolling affected their sleep. But they were sceptical that a curfew was the solution. "If you ban it, people will just find a way around it," said Josh, 17, from Manchester. "VPNs, fake accounts, using their parents' phones. It's not going to stop anyone who actually wants to be on there."

The more constructive suggestion, offered by several of the teenagers unprompted, was that the government should focus on education rather than restriction. "Teach people how to use it properly instead of just telling them it's bad," said Aisha, 17, from London. "That's what would actually make a difference."

The challenge for policymakers is that the teenagers are probably right — a curfew is unlikely to work in practice — but that education alone is unlikely to be sufficient either. The debate over teenagers and social media is, at its heart, a debate about how society manages a technology that has arrived faster than its institutions can adapt. The teenagers are the subjects of that debate. Their voices should be part of it.

## Sources

- [Guardian UK](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jul/15/teenagers-verdic-britain-social-media-curfew-ban-whats-the-point)

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