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Scientists comment on Education Minister Olivia Bailey saying that the government would impose some form of social media restrictions for under-16s.
Dr Nick Ballou, Early Career Fellow, Digital Kaleidoscope Group Lead, Imperial College London, said:
“We currently know very little about the effects of introducing age restrictions, and even less about functionality restrictions. Banning under-16s from social media may well have benefits for early adolescents – but that evidence hasn’t arrived yet. Very early reports indicate that half of adolescents who previously had access to platforms like TikTok were still using them four months after the ban was introduced. 51% say the ban has had no impact on their online safety, whereas 35% say they feel safer.
“The UK has an enviable opportunity to watch how things go in Australia and use this evidence to inform decision-making, rather than rushing into legislation that risks replicating mistakes in Australia we will no doubt discover over the next 6–12 months.
“I’m deeply concerned about teens being pushed to even less-regulated alternative platforms, just like what happened during the 2-day TikTok shutdown in the US when users flooded to previously-unknown Chinese app RedNote. No government yet has a coherent definition of what social media is (is Yelp social media? Substack? GitHub?), leaving them likely to be stuck playing endless whack-a-mole with new platforms or borderline cases.
“However, banning minors also gives companies even less incentive to eliminate the most harmful aspects of their platforms, which are hurting older teens and adults just as much: misinformation, toxicity, extremism, AI slop, algorithms that ignore user’s specific instructions about content they don’t want to see, and more. I want the internet to be a place that supports the health of all users and of broader society, not a place we accept is dangerous and just put up a “you must be this tall to ride” sign.”
Dr Holly Bear, Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford; and Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Developmental Adversity and Resilience (CeDAR), University of Glasgow, said:
“The pressure to act to protect young people online is entirely understandable, and I share the concern that drives these proposals. But the evidence base for national and statutory restrictions on social media remains limited, and we are still learning about what the mental health impacts on young people might be. Whatever restrictions are introduced, rigorous evaluation must be built in from the outset. The debate has too often been framed as binary, harmful or not harmful, when the reality is far more complex. The effects of social media can vary enormously depending on who you are, how you use these spaces, the type of interactions you have online and the content you see. For many young people, social media can be a source of identity formation, peer connection, and community belonging. Restricting access without understanding those functions risks unintended consequences, including displacement to less regulated and potentially more harmful spaces. We need to understand not just average effects, but what happens to those on the margins of policy, the adolescents for whom online spaces serve functions that have no easy offline equivalent. We also cannot ignore the role of algorithmically driven content and platform design in shaping young people’s experiences. Responsibility cannot rest with young people alone. Yet young people themselves have been largely absent from these discussions, and we must include them in any evaluation.”
Declared interests
Dr Nick Ballou: NB has conducted research using data provided by Nintendo and Microsoft under data-sharing agreements, funded solely by government and charitable grants. NB has received no research funding or compensation from any industry source and declares no other potential conflicts of interest.
Dr Holly Bear: “I undertake consultancy work via Oxford University Innovation for Girl Effect, a charitable NGO, providing advisory input on youth mental health interventions. This work is not related to social media regulation or policy.”