A Kids Social Media Ban is Junk Politics

Banning under 16s from social media is not only a terrible idea - it’s a canary in the coalmine for the future of democracy. 

It would also be junk politics - feeling good in the moment but damaging us in the long run.  

We all know major technology and social media companies are extremely powerful but surely no companies should be so powerful that democratically elected politicians would prefer to lock children and young people out of the national conversation than force billionaires to play by stronger rules? 

Don’t get me wrong.

I completely relate to the instincts behind wanting a ban.

Social media is now the main space where we come together as humans to share and talk about our individual and collective lives. That we’ve allowed it to evolve in a way that is unsafe for young teenagers is a failure of government and regulation but a ban risks molly-coddling young people, failing to prepare them for the future and cutting off access to important communities - especially for minorities. 

Sure, a ban would conjure up the feeling of control and power over forces that feel increasingly unstoppable. There’s an attractive simplicity that will appeal to politicians fighting a populist foe. 

But there’s another fight to be had - and that’s to make the companies re-shaping how we see the world more transparent and more accountable. 

We've faced dangerous media before. Tabloids hacked phones, destroyed lives, and drove people to suicide. We didn't ban kids from newsagents — we pursued Leveson. We tried to raise standards for the product itself.

Social platforms face little meaningful regulation, possess dangerous monopolies over vast quantities of data and are able to shape the way we see the world on a scale never seen before. 

There’s not even evidence a ban is workable. Where would it start and stop? Snapchat? Roblox? WhatsApp? How would age verification work? And what about companies finding loopholes (rechargeable vapes anyone!?)  

Whilst most of our gut instincts say social media is bad for your mental health the actual evidence is mixed and probably always will be given corporate interests in muddying the water. 

Banning kids from social media won’t work, we will shoot ourselves in the foot, punishing them for the failures of trillion dollar businesses and doing nothing to fix bigger structural issues within the information environment.

Surely we owe the next generation better than that? And if you don’t want to take my word for it, maybe you’ll listen to a foundation set up in memory of Molly Russell who wake up and think about how to improve the online world for teenagers every day.  

And if we really do insist on it, any ban should be temporary whilst a better regulatory solution is developed. Anything less is a win for Elon and friends.