A psychiatrist has welcomed the proposed social media ban for under-16s as a positive step for public health, but a teenager argues it unfairly blames young people for living in an online world they were born into.
Psychiatrist: Ban is long overdue
Dr Rory Conn, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist in Exeter, says hearing Keir Starmer's announcement proposing a ban on social media for under-16s gave him optimism he has not felt for years regarding young people's mental health. He has spent over a decade witnessing the impact of online exposure, including self-harm, suicidality, eating disorders, pervasive bullying, and the normalisation of misogyny and racism. He notes that children are increasingly turning to artificial substitutes for connection, such as chatbots, and that many young people now live almost entirely online, with sleep, physical activity and family relationships deteriorating. He compares the platforms to gambling, engineered to maximise engagement, and argues that decisive action is overdue, similar to past measures on cycle safety and smoking bans.
Teenager: Ban is scolding, not saving
Clara O'Grady, 16, from York, says the ban is not setting foundations for a screen-free utopia but scolding teens for living in the online world they were born into. She acknowledges that phones are bad but argues that social media is not an isolated part of their lives that can easily be removed. Heavy usage is a habit born out of a lack of alternatives, and social media provides positives such as revision resources, tutorials and fandoms. She criticises lawmakers and parents for not asking young people how social media has affected them and for treating them as a monolith obsessed with vaping and phones. She says she wants social media to go away too, but the attempt to 'save the children' seems childish itself.
Other readers propose alternatives
Dr Peter Jarrett from London suggests that rather than a ban, social media companies should be obliged to alter their algorithms. He references Cory Doctorow's concept of 'interoperability', where users could move contacts between platforms, making it easier to switch to less harmful ones. Tony Side from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, says the government has the diagnosis correct but the remedy wrong. He argues that bans don't work and incentivise tech-savvy generations to find workarounds. He calls for firm regulation of app developers instead of punishing users, comparing it to hygiene rules for food production.
