Should the Government ban social media for young people?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pressure is building in the UK for a ban on social media use for young people as countries across the world watch Australia, which introduced its own ban for under 16s last December. Meanwhile, the government here is launching a public consultation on children’s use of social media which will look at a range of options, including a ban. It also said this week that it wants to create new legal powers so it can take action quickly. David Aaronovitch asks what the evidence so far tells us about social media and harm to young people and what else could be done about it short of an outright ban.
Guests: Katy Watson, Sydney Correspondent Luke Tryl, Director More in Common Professor Amy Orben, Programme Leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge Professor Sonia Livingstone, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics Pete Etchells, Professor of Psychology and Science Communication, Bath Spa University
Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Caroline Bayley and Kirsteen Knight Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound engineer: James Beard Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.9 | Last December, the Australians brought in a ban on under 16s being able to access social media. |
| 0:16.8 | It's a move lots of other governments are considering, including ours. |
| 0:21.1 | Here we're about to launch a public consultation on children's use of social media, |
| 0:25.1 | and this week, even before the consultation, |
| 0:28.1 | the government said it wants to create new legal powers so it can take action quickly. |
| 0:32.9 | But what does the evidence currently available tell us about whether |
| 0:36.4 | and how young people are harmed by social media? |
| 0:39.7 | What might any ban look like? And would it work? |
| 0:43.7 | Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 0:49.6 | First, let's look at what's happening with that social media ban for under 16s in Australia. |
| 0:55.0 | I'm joined by the BBC's Australia correspondent, Katie Watson. |
| 0:58.8 | Katie Watson, can you describe the pressure that led up to this ban? |
| 1:03.1 | It wasn't initially about the pressure. |
| 1:04.8 | I think it's a funny story, actually, because the South Australia Premier, Peter Malinouskas, he is actually credited with kick-starting |
| 1:14.6 | this band. His wife was reading a book called The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haight, which |
| 1:20.1 | looks at the mental health issues among the smartphone generation. And she put the book down, |
| 1:27.0 | finished it and told her husband to read it, and then told him to do something about generation. And she put the book down, finished it and told a husband to read it, |
| 1:29.0 | and then told him to do something about it. And then it snowballed. So he got other states interested. |
| 1:35.3 | He got the federal government interested. Then there were also national campaigns, like media campaigns, |
| 1:40.9 | encouraging people to back a ban. So it kind of, the momentum grew. But as for the pressure, |
| 1:47.5 | I think it was more that there was a lack of opposition. It was an easy ride. So that's why it |
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