The UK Government has confirmed that social media will be banned for children under 16 years of age. This makes perfect sense, coming from a government that seems increasingly out of touch with reality on the ground.
The Australian experiment
One trouble with this innovative idea is that it … isn’t. Australia has tried it since December 2025. The result? An initial study reported that 61% of under-16s found creative ways to bypass the law and still have full access to their accounts. News must travel slowly from down under.
Still, 26% of Australian teens did feel a significant effect of the ban. However, of those, 51% reported the ban had affected their engagement with news. No alternative news media for under-16s have been proposed to compensate for this issue. Good luck trying to teach civic duty and responsibility to these children now.
Teen psychology and rebellion
Anyone thinking that the way to keep a teenager away from something is to forbid them from using it has clearly forgotten what it was like to be an adolescent. The policymakers behind this scheme seem to know as little about technology as they know about the psychology of children. As any mother will tell you, making something off-limits to this age group is akin to waving a red flag to a bull.
What is the alternative?
Perhaps the plan is to distract teenagers from their cellphones, freeing up time for wholesome activities in community centres and other youth social venues. A fine idea, indeed! If only someone had remembered to increase funding for these venues and projects instead of cutting down the budget allocated for such initiatives.
Too young for Instagram, but old enough for criminal justice
Children as young as 10 years of age can be prosecuted for crimes in England and Wales – but they are not considered mature enough to manage social media safely. Consistency and coherence are overrated in the legal brains creating policy for youth.
What about the adults?
To be fair, social media’s effect on children’s mental health is a genuine concern. The awkward part we like to ignore is that many adults appear to be coping even worse, disappearing down algorithmic rabbit holes on Twitter and Facebook – rebranded X and Meta in the hope that a name change would make them appear cleaner than the hate-inciting platforms they are – and emerging convinced of a distorted reality. Age does not seem to be quite the safeguard against social media abuse that some people seem to think it is.
The solution policymakers ignore
There is an obvious alternative: regulate the platforms rather than the users. If social media companies can use algorithms to maximise engagement, their genius should be able to minimise the harm, not just for children, but for the public in general, irrespective of age.
Curious that this option rarely makes the shortlist.
Sadly, where billionaires and major corporate interests are considered, what is consistently missing is political will. Until our leaders find the courage to stand up for public safety on social media, policy will give priority to protecting tech giants instead of the children – and citizens of all ages – that it should be their duty to safeguard.
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