Nearly 85% of older teens say they will switch the overnight curfew off
The first number to test the government's case for making the midnight lockout a default rather than a rule.
A poll of 1,000 teenagers published on 7 August 2026 found that 84.6% of 16- to 18-year-olds would turn off the overnight social media curfew the government plans to switch on by default. The research was carried out by Censuswide for the Online Responsibility Network.
The curfew, announced on 15 July, locks social media apps between midnight and 6am for 16- and 17-year-olds, with autoplay and personalised feeds also off as standard. None of it is compulsory. The government's case for that rested on defaults being sticky. Ministers pointed to earlier trials in which more than 90% of teenagers left restrictive settings alone. This is the first published figure pointing the other way.
Asked why they would switch it off, 45.2% said they wanted to talk to friends or family and 37.2% said they wanted to watch content. More than 18% said they were already using social media until 1am or later.
Two caveats are worth holding on to. The poll measures what teenagers say about a setting that does not exist yet, which is not the same as what they will do when it arrives on their phone. And the government's own polling found 64% of 16- to 21-year-olds supported restricting app access at night, a friendlier answer to a differently worded question.
It matters because the voluntary element is not settled. The government has said the default could change if too many teenagers switch it off, so a number this large reads as an argument for a firmer rule rather than proof the plan has failed. The under-16 ban timeline is unaffected: regulations before Christmas, enforcement from spring 2027.
If your teenager is 16 or 17, plan on the curfew being something they can undo on the first night. A phone that charges outside the bedroom achieves the same thing and doesn't depend on a setting that survives contact with a group chat.