This online curfew is a PR stunt. Internet users don’t need to be regulated – internet platforms do

Last week we saw yet another performative policy announcement that will do little to address the harms young people and children face online.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which is responsible for the Online Safety Act and more recently the nationwide consultation on social media, has announced a midnight-6am curfew for young people aged between 16 and 17.

Given that the department has not even clarified which platforms will be affected by this curfew, the announcement seems like a rushed PR stunt before Andy Burnham names his cabinet tomorrow. Would I be a cynic to think some are scrambling to announce something that will help them keep their jobs?

The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, believes this will make Britain the safest place for teenagers to be online. That was the promise of the Online Safety Act, which took almost a decade to write, and we’ve seen social media giants continue to amass record profits in the meantime, so you’ll have to forgive me for having my doubts.

In what sounds like something pulled straight from a social media shitpost, the government has yet again revealed a total misunderstanding of the problem. This isn’t an issue of undisciplined teens who simply cannot resist the lure of the screen in the corner of their bedroom when they should be focused on their sleep quality – this is a matter of an unregulated industry designed to be addictive for all.

It seems this government has been set on announcing policies that are not enforceable and put the onus on social media users to keep ourselves safe, rather than holding social media platforms to account through legal accountability, fines and business disruption measures. Similar to the social media ban announced last month, this intervention will be easily circumvented, because teens can switch it off from their devices with a couple of clicks. One could argue that this hardly makes it a “curfew” at all.

If the government actually consulted young people they would know that they are already regulating their own screentime. It is the job of politicians to regulate the industry responsible for hacking attention and profiting from vulnerabilities in the first place. We need addictive algorithms turned off by default. We need a ban on the extraction of children’s sensitive data by Silicon Valley giants.

So why is the government wasting time announcing interventions that can be implemented at any time by heading to a phone’s settings? Because they have consistently demonstrated a lack of political willpower and the courage to take big tech on headfirst – and this government has had a concerningly close relationship with the tech lobby.

I’ve seen first-hand how the failings of this government to take bold action against online harm has cost young people their lives. Just last week, along with other bereaved families, I met with three government ministers, including Kendall, to call for swift action against those who encourage suicide online, including against the website associated with 164 deaths in the UK. Kendall told us that the social media ban for under-16s – which will not impact this particular website – was a step in the right direction. Our loved ones were all 16 and above. MP Angela Eagle told us we were only now learning about the harms of the internet, which was quite frankly insulting to a room of bereaved parents who have been sounding the alarm about this site since 2019.

With Andy Burnham set to be our new prime minister from tomorrow, this is an opportunity to reset the relationship the government has with social media companies and take a clear stand against their exploitative business model. Online safety and the wellbeing of the next generation of young people is a political choice that demands our leaders stand up to the most powerful industry of our time. Any politician who lacks that courage is not fit for the job.

Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World by Adele Zeynep Walton is published by Trapeze

Photograph by Denis Borisov/Getty Images