June 16, 2026

How will we know if these new social media restrictions work?

On Monday 15^th June, the UK Government announced that a social media ban for under 16’s would come into play in Spring 2027. They have also announced that measures will also be introduced around restricting engaging with strangers, livestreaming, and certain functions of AI chatbots.

Given that globally there remains limited evidence for how effective bans and other restrictions are on improving the mental health and wellbeing on young people at a population level, this announcement marks a key opportunity for the research community in the UK to carry out robust assessments of these new policies. Journalists came to hear from researchers and a key funder in this space about how they plan to ensure we use this opportunity to gather good quality data and evidence to help inform both UK and global policies.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-landmark-government-move-to-givekids-their-childhood-back

Speakers included:

Dr Catherine Sebastian, Head of Evidence for Mental Health, Wellcome

Prof Amy Orben, Research Professor and Programme Leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge and Co-lead of the Born in Bradford IRL study

Prof Mina Fazel, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and lead of the OxWell Student Survey, University of Oxford

Dr Holly Bear, Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford