Parliamentary briefing – social media bans are the wrong approach for children

Recent weeks have seen growing momentum behind a social ban for under 16s in the UK, following the introduction of similar measures in Australia.

The intention behind calls for a ban is entirely legitimate. Parents across the country are profoundly concerned about the growing scale and complexity of online risks, with the awful reality that we lose one young person to suicide every week where technology plays a role.

But social media bans are not the answer. Though well-intentioned and appealing in their simplicity, they are a blunt measure that risk doing more harm than good, and that penalises children for tech firms and successive Governments’ failures to act. Bans will not deliver the long-term and fundamental improvements in safety that parents, children and parliamentarians want.