UK considering two-hour screen time limit for kids

The UK government is mulling over the idea of a two-hour screen time limit for children, the technology secretary told Sky News.

The UK’s technology minister, Peter Kyle, has a potential plan to curb screen time for under-16s in the country.

This plan, alongside potential night-time screen limits or school-time limits, comes after meetings with current and former employees from tech companies.

Kyle expressed concerns surrounding the amount of time children spend on apps and what kind of content they’re interacting with online.

While there is no definitive plan on curbing screen time for kids, Kyle told Sky News that he would be “making an announcement on these things in the near future.”

The technology secretary wants to tackle a number of issues attributed to device and app overuse, one of which is "compulsive behaviour.”

How it would work is that kids would be blocked from accessing certain apps popular among children, such as TikTok and Snapchat.

Instead of simply informing users of how long they’ve been scrolling, this new mechanism would block kids from accessing these apps once their time is up.

While a moderate amount of screentime could help curb compulsive behaviours in kids, Kyle also believes that children should have a healthier relationship with their screens.

The technology minister wants children to stop spending countless hours ingesting content that, although not necessarily illegal, is “unhealthy.”

"We talk a lot about a healthy childhood offline. We need to do the same online. I think sleep is very important, to be able to focus on studying is very important," Kyle told Sky News.

The kids aren’t alright, and governments know it

In other parts of the world, governments are also trying to limit the amount of time children spend on screens.

A proposal put forward by Greece and backed by France and Spain is gaining traction in Brussels as member states become increasingly concerned about the impact of unsupervised screentime on children.

If this proposal goes ahead, children would need to ask their parents for permission before they can use popular apps like TikTok and Instagram.

Unlike the UK’s plan to enforce screen-time curfews, the EU’s proposal relies on parental controls and cooperation with social media platforms.

In Australia, however, parliament has passed a bill banning social media use for children under 16 years-old.

The bill introduces some of the world's strictest social media controls and could take effect in a year’s time. It faced strong opposition from tech giants like Google, Meta, X, and TikTok, which will be impacted by the new rules.