Banning social media for under-16s will only increase loneliness

MPs recently voted against an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would have introduced a ban on social media use by under 16s. However, the debate is far from over. Ever since Australia led the way, political parties have been jumping on the bandwagon to support a ban, backed by a range of pressure groups and worried parents.  

There is doubtless some strength behind their argument. The algorithms that social media companies deploy are irresistibly powerful and draw young people all too easily into a world in which they can be exploited and manipulated. A ban may seem like an easy way to protect a generation from the actions of greedy corporations more interested in profit than the wellbeing of the young. 

But have we really explored the unintended consequences?   

Lost opportunities

The last three decades have seen the erosion of opportunities for young people. A narrowed down school curriculum has seen music, sport, dance and the arts squeezed to the margins. Many youth centres have been closed. A report from the University of Leeds described our most deprived communities as “youth work black holes”.  

Protective parents are increasingly unwilling to allow their young people to go out, depriving them of social contacts and experiences. Uniformed groups are struggling to recruit and retain volunteer leaders, especially those who want to work with teenagers. The result is growing loneliness, felt especially among the young.   

Against this background, many young people turn to social media as it is one of the few ways left for them to engage unsupervised on a regular basis with their peers. They scroll on their phones because there is so little else left for them to do. 

A simplistic ban, plonked onto the statute book by politicians keen to glean the adult vote, will surely compound this loneliness pandemic. Once again, adults imposing their will on young people without taking into account the broader context of their lives. This leaves me with two questions.  

Asking the right questions

First, why punish the victims for the sins of the perpetrators? Doomscrolling, online harassment, extremism and many of the iniquities of social media are not the invention of young people. Teenagers did not write the algorithms that now hold sway over them. That was done by social media companies whose excesses governments seem frightened of addressing.   

Surely, rather than banning social media, we need to make social media a safe space, where young people can engage with each other in a healthy environment. Outlawing technology will not help to prepare children for a world in which technology is all-prevailing.   

Secondly, if adults are going to restrict young people’s use of social media, what will those same adults put in place to replace it? A ban will only achieve the intended outcome if it is accompanied by a wholesale rethinking of the opportunities available to young people.  

Creating a better future

We need a new deal for the young. We need to recreate spaces where young people can mix and engage with each other. We need to reinvest in youth work and youth centres. We need to recover opportunities in sport and the arts, with all the richness and challenge they bring to young lives.  

We need to provide residential experiences for young people where they can meet other people in safe and appropriately challenging spaces. We need to rethink the school curriculum so that it develops the whole person rather than merely churning out economically productive units.  

In Lancashire, the Church of England is trying to step into this space. A significant grant from the national church is funding 30 youth workers, employed by local churches under a project titled ‘Ignite.’ But of course, even 30 trained professionals is a drop in the ocean when compared to the cutbacks in youth provision that have taken place in the past few decades.  

A social media ban may seem a tempting way to satisfy the ‘something must be done’ brigade. But it also risks making already denuded young lives even more miserable. Wouldn’t it be lovely instead to live in a nation where opportunities for young people are so rich and fulfilling that mobile phones seem boring?