The UK government has initiated a significant three-month consultation process, spearheaded by Liz Kendall, to explore the potential implementation of an Australian-style prohibition on social media access for individuals under the age of 16. This move is primarily driven by escalating concerns regarding the detrimental impact of social media platforms on the mental wellbeing of young people and their exposure to a wide array of harmful content.
Why Experts Are Raising Concerns
However, a growing chorus of experts and researchers are voicing substantial reservations about this proposed blanket ban. They argue that such a simplistic, technological prohibition fundamentally misdiagnoses the core issues at play. The harms experienced by young people online are frequently not isolated phenomena created solely by social media platforms themselves.
The Offline Connection
Instead, these online dangers are often direct extensions and reflections of pre-existing offline problems, including pervasive bullying, entrenched sexism, and other forms of social conflict. By focusing exclusively on platform access, the government risks overlooking the deeper societal and relational roots of these issues.
Practical Enforcement Challenges
Beyond the conceptual flaws, experts highlight severe practical difficulties in enforcing a universal social media ban for an entire age cohort. There is a genuine fear that such a prohibition would not eliminate online activity but rather push it underground. Young people, determined to maintain social connections and digital presence, would likely seek out unmonitored spaces or use age-verification workarounds.
This clandestine shift would make it significantly harder for parents, educators, and support services to identify vulnerable individuals who are struggling, thereby potentially exacerbating risks rather than mitigating them.
What Young People Actually Want
Critically, the voices of young people themselves offer a crucial perspective. While many are acutely aware of and critical towards the negative aspects of social media, their desired solution is not outright exclusion. There is a clear and expressed appetite for more robust, high-quality digital education, honest intergenerational conversations about online life, and practical guidance on navigating the complexities of the digital world safely and healthily.
A Call for Comprehensive Solutions
Effective and sustainable solutions, therefore, demand a more nuanced and multi-faceted approach than a simple ban. Experts advocate for a strategy that includes substantial investment in comprehensive digital literacy programmes within schools and communities. There is also a strong call for stricter regulation of platform design features that exploit user attention and for holding social media companies legally accountable for the safety of their younger users.
Furthermore, rebuilding and strengthening offline community services, youth clubs, and mental health support is seen as an essential component. This holistic method aims to address the root causes of vulnerability and build resilience, rather than relying on a largely unenforceable digital barrier. The consultation period will now be a critical time to weigh these expert warnings against the government's stated aims of protecting young people in the digital age.
