Author: Professor Andy Miah, Chair in Science Comms and Future Media, University of Salford

Banning social media for under 16s is the worst possible reaction to concerns about harmful and unhealthy habits online. We’ve spent 20 years ignoring the risk; schools and parents haven’t known what to do, and this is a policy born out of desperation arising from the failure to be bold in guiding young people towards healthier and empowering habits during their time at school.

We absolutely need more evidence to understand the impact of a ban but, in the absence of clear evidence, we need proactive interventions that support healthy online behaviour. What happens when a child turns 16? Are they just turned out into the Wild West of the internet and expected to protect themselves? I fear this ban is simply kicking the risk down the road and I’ve heard nothing about positively empowering young people to become more resilient to the risks. This should be the policy focus.

I don’t think we know enough about the impact of the policy, but we can be sure that the consequence is both impractical to enforce and stifling of open conversation. Habits of using digital platforms will go underground and, as such, we’ll know less about how children are using social media.

Also, the policy doesn’t get to grips with what social media is and this is a fundamental problem. For example, we know that young people are using AI like social media now and there’s even less known about that.

Obvious examples of risk arising from a ban include the young people who, currently, have their social network through their digital worlds. Not everyone has a supportive friendship group in person and, while that may seem sad, removing social media access for such people means social isolation. So, we’ll likely see a number of mental health concerns arise as a result of this ban.

Perhaps the biggest loss from this ban is the positive conversation we could be having about the remarkable technology that everyone has in their hands now. These powerful devices could be used to change the world and we’ve not had that conversation ever with children. It’s just been completely neglected.