The UK Is Planning a Social Media Curfew for 16- and 17-Year-Olds
The UK Is Planning a Social Media Curfew for 16- and 17-Year-Olds
英国计划为 16 和 17 岁青少年设立社交媒体“宵禁”
The United Kingdom will require social media companies to implement a default block for adolescent users aged 16 and 17 at certain hours, the country’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology revealed on Tuesday evening. 英国科学、创新与技术部（DSIT）周二晚间透露，英国将要求社交媒体公司在特定时段对 16 和 17 岁的青少年用户实施默认封锁。
This automatic new curfew would theoretically lock older teens out of social platforms between the hours of midnight and 6 am—though the feature can be turned off. The nonmandatory restriction is to be imposed along with a looming total ban on these services for children under 16, expected to come into force in spring 2027. Both measures come after the Online Safety Act, a controversial set of laws that requires platforms hosting pornography and other material considered potentially harmful to children to verify that their users are 18 or older. 这项新的自动“宵禁”理论上会在午夜至凌晨 6 点之间将大龄青少年挡在社交平台之外，不过该功能可以手动关闭。这项非强制性限制将与针对 16 岁以下儿童的全面禁令同步实施，该禁令预计于 2027 年春季生效。这两项措施均源于《在线安全法案》（Online Safety Act），这是一套颇具争议的法律，要求托管色情内容及其他被认为对儿童有潜在危害内容的平台必须核实用户是否年满 18 岁。
Young Brits will also see a “crackdown” on “addictive” features of social apps, the DSIT said in a news release, including “videos that automatically play one after another and feeds that continually serve up personalized content.” These mechanisms will “be switched off by default for older teenagers,” according to a statement from the department. However, people will also be able to override those. DSIT 在新闻稿中表示，英国青少年还将看到针对社交应用“成瘾性”功能的“打击”，包括“自动连续播放的视频”和“持续推送个性化内容的动态信息流”。根据该部门的声明，这些机制将“对大龄青少年默认关闭”。不过，用户同样可以选择覆盖这些设置。
The first full set of social media regulations will be put to Parliament later this year before taking effect in 2027. 首套完整的社交媒体法规将于今年晚些时候提交议会，并于 2027 年生效。
The DSIT said the latest set of proposed regulations are meant to “help ensure there is no cliff edge in protections as young people move into their later teenage years,” as future youths will hypothetically have no experience with social media before that age, thanks to the constraints imposed on apps and websites by the Online Safety Act. DSIT 表示，最新提出的法规旨在“确保青少年在进入青春期后期时，保护措施不会出现断层”。因为得益于《在线安全法案》对应用程序和网站的限制，未来的青少年在达到该年龄之前，理论上将不会有使用社交媒体的经验。
“These measures will be crucial in helping young people get the sleep they need, focus on school and college, and spend more quality time with family and friends, all of which are fundamental to building a happy, healthy, and fulfilling adult life,” said UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall in a statement about the new measures. 英国技术大臣莉兹·肯德尔（Liz Kendall）在关于新措施的声明中表示：“这些措施对于帮助年轻人获得充足睡眠、专注于学校和大学学业，以及与家人朋友共度高质量时光至关重要，而这一切都是构建幸福、健康和充实成年生活的基础。”
“We want young people to enjoy the benefits of technology while having the tools to make the online world a place where they can thrive,” Kendall said. 肯德尔说：“我们希望年轻人在享受科技带来的益处的同时，也能拥有相应的工具，使网络世界成为他们能够茁壮成长的地方。”
The DSIT further signaled that Kendall aims to bring forth additional protections around artificial intelligence, including mandated chatbot breaks for children under 18, who are already set to be blocked from AI platforms that can imitate romantic conversations. Regulators will be charged with reining in services that provide “dangerous, misleading, or unverified mental health advice,” with the department warning that chatbots found to “pose a serious threat” to UK youths may be banned altogether. DSIT 进一步表示，肯德尔旨在围绕人工智能推出额外的保护措施，包括强制 18 岁以下儿童在使用聊天机器人时进行休息；这些儿童已被禁止使用能够模仿浪漫对话的 AI 平台。监管机构将负责约束那些提供“危险、误导性或未经证实的心理健康建议”的服务，该部门警告称，被发现对英国青少年“构成严重威胁”的聊天机器人可能会被彻底封禁。
Finally, the government is seeking to bolster children’s media literacy with updated school curricula covering AI, technological bias, and mis- and disinformation, as well as strategies for identifying violent and misogynist content. 最后，政府正寻求通过更新学校课程来加强儿童的媒介素养，内容涵盖人工智能、技术偏见、错误和虚假信息，以及识别暴力和厌女内容的策略。
In recent years, as tech giants faced a wave of major lawsuits and alarming research related to the potential negative effects of social media on younger users, advocates mobilized worldwide to push for broad age limits on these platforms, with parents and politicians often concurring on the need for such protections. The UK government, for example, has found that about 9 in 10 parents there “support a legal requirement for social media services to have a minimum age of access.” A Pew Research Center survey published this month found that 56 percent of American adults would likewise back a ban on social media for those under 16. 近年来，随着科技巨头面临一波重大诉讼，以及关于社交媒体对年轻用户潜在负面影响的惊人研究不断涌现，全球各地的倡导者纷纷行动起来，推动对这些平台实施广泛的年龄限制，家长和政界人士往往在需要此类保护的问题上达成共识。例如，英国政府发现，约 90% 的家长“支持通过法律要求社交媒体服务设定最低准入年龄”。皮尤研究中心本月发布的一项调查显示，56% 的美国成年人同样支持禁止 16 岁以下人群使用社交媒体。
But groups including the Electronic Freedom Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and GLAAD have sharply criticized this type of “age-gating,” arguing that it’s an oversimplified solution that curtails the rights to open information and free speech. They point out that lawmakers can use these restrictions to censor sex education and LGBTQ resources that are of critical value to teens. 但包括电子前沿基金会（EFF）、美国公民自由联盟（ACLU）、国际特赦组织和 GLAAD 在内的团体严厉批评了这种“年龄门槛”做法，认为这是一种过度简化的解决方案，削弱了获取开放信息和言论自由的权利。他们指出，立法者可能会利用这些限制来审查对青少年至关重要的性教育和 LGBTQ 资源。
Then there’s the question of whether this regulation even works. In Australia, which in December became the first nation to ban children under 16 from a slew of popular social media apps, leading to the removal of some 5 million accounts within a month, early research has shown that around 75 percent of 14- to 15-year-olds are circumventing the age limit. The country’s government is investigating the alleged noncompliance of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube as it struggles to enforce the law, and it now plans to double the fines for platforms in violation, though it has yet to collect any. 此外，还有一个问题是这种监管是否真的有效。澳大利亚在去年 12 月成为首个禁止 16 岁以下儿童使用一系列热门社交媒体应用的国家，导致一个月内约 500 万个账户被删除。但早期研究显示，约 75% 的 14 至 15 岁青少年正在绕过这一年龄限制。澳大利亚政府目前正在调查 Facebook、Instagram、Snapchat、TikTok 和 YouTube 是否存在违规行为，并在执法过程中面临困难。该国现在计划将违规平台的罚款金额翻倍，尽管目前尚未收到任何罚款。
For the UK, which has been quite explicit about adopting the “same model” as Australia to keep kids off social media, similar problems may lie ahead. 对于明确表示要采取与澳大利亚“相同模式”来限制儿童使用社交媒体的英国来说，未来可能也会面临类似的问题。