Protesters have called on the government to take 'action which will really make social media safe for young people' as they urge ministers to look beyond a proposed ban for under-16s.
Demonstration Outside Government Offices
On Friday morning, demonstrators held a protest outside government offices, urging politicians to consider alternatives to barring young people from social media platforms. A consultation on whether to introduce such a ban is set to close next week, as lawmakers respond to mounting pressure to ensure UK law protects children online.
However, the group Mad Youth Organise argues that a ban 'isn’t the answer' and instead calls for stricter regulation of Big Tech.
Phones Installed with Messages from Young People
Protesters gathered outside the Department for Science, Technology, and Innovation, as well as Meta’s London headquarters, installing bright pink telephones. When lifted, these phones played prerecorded messages from young people sharing their vision for social media, including the ability to control their own algorithms, removal of addictive features like auto-scroll, and elimination of advertising.
Run by young people who claim 'addictive' and 'dangerous' social media algorithms have damaged their mental health, the movement advocates for an alternative approach to online safety.
Demands for a 'Misery Tax'
The group’s demands include a four per cent 'misery tax' on the UK revenue of tech corporations, with funds directed towards mental health services and community-led platforms.
Hannah, from Mad Youth Organise, stated: 'We’re outside the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology to tell the government they need to look beyond a ban to action which will really make social media safe for young people. The big tech billionaires have shown they don’t care about our wellbeing; for them, social media is just a tool to amass money and power. That’s why we’re telling the government the ban isn’t the answer. Taking social media away from the strangle of big tech corporations is!'
Campaign Group's Perspective
Diarmaid McDonald, director of Just Treatment, the campaign group behind Mad Youth Organise, told The Independent that the group aims to 'recognise the critical role social media is playing in undermining people’s health.'
'We think that every firm that is culpable for this youth mental health crisis across multiple industries should be paying a four per cent tax to finance a huge scale up in services,' he explained. 'It's about trying not to have a knee-jerk reaction to this really important problem and implementing a solution that isn’t going to fix it and is going to make other problems worse.'
Meta and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology have been contacted for comment.
