Social Media Bans: Are We at a Global Turning Point? (Jonathan Haidt)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is at the forefront of the campaign to ban social media for under-16s and end what he calls “phone-based childhoods”.
His book, The Anxious Generation, sparked a global reckoning that has led countries like Australia and Spain to introduce laws restricting access to social media platforms.
He spoke to Amol ahead of a meeting with UK health secretary Wes Streeting about why he thinks we’re at a tipping point, whether technology is making us “stupider” and how parents can reduce their child’s smartphone use by organising local “play-bourhoods”.
A Meta spokesperson said: “We agree with Jonathan Haidt that keeping teens safe online is critical. That’s why we've made meaningful changes - like Teen Accounts - to limit who can contact teens, what they see, and their time on our apps. However, two recent independent, large-scale studies in the UK and Australia, including one from Oxford, show the complexity of teen mental health and that many factors beyond social media influence it. Any serious conversation should reflect all the evidence and social media's positive role for teens: friendship, skill-building and finding community."
Snapchat and TikTok were approached for comment.
TIMECODES
(00:03:45) Are we reaching a global turning point in how children interact with technology?
(00:05:58) Understanding why governments have been slow to respond
(00:10:23) How Meta has reacted to Jonathan Haidt’s research
(00:12:35) Exploring the claim that we are becoming ‘stupider’
(00:15:58) Phone-free schools
(00:19:13) The rise and impact of the loneliness epidemic
(00:24:38) Jonathan presents his evidence on the ‘correlation vs. causation’ debate
(00:34:09) How Jonathan addresses criticism of his work
(00:35:17) What the science shows about social media, smartphones and developing brains
(00:37:44) Why children benefit from facing adversity
(00:40:18) Jonathan Haidt’s message to children
(00:42:47) Jonathan Haidt’s message to parents
(00:49:48) Examining the argument that kids will always find ways around social media restrictions
(00:53:08) Meta’s response
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Dafydd Evans. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.5 | Now then, just before we hear from Professor Jonathan Haidt for this week's episode, |
| 0:10.4 | the next person I need your radical questions for is the former Master Chef winner |
| 0:15.4 | and founder of Wahaka restaurants, Tomasina Myers. |
| 0:19.3 | She is very concerned about what she calls hidden hunger, a lack of nutritious food in all of our |
| 0:26.3 | everyday diets. |
| 0:27.4 | She's got some very specific, very radical ideas about how to incentivise restaurants and |
| 0:32.2 | other food businesses to prioritise nutrition. |
| 0:35.3 | And she's going to explain that in our main episode. And we want your |
| 0:38.0 | questions for her about these issues for our bonus Q&A. It's called Your Radical Questions, |
| 0:42.8 | and we release it on Monday. So we're going to cover ultra-processed foods. We're going to talk about |
| 0:47.3 | the power of the big food lobby. We're going to talk about how to get families up and down |
| 0:52.1 | the country eating healthier food and also what we need to do to help our battered hospitality sector. You can send us your questions on WhatsApp. The number is 0-330-123-9-480, or you can email us on Radical at BBC.co.uk. |
| 1:18.3 | Hello, it's a mole here. |
| 1:23.1 | Welcome to radical conversations about the deep global trends changing our world and offering you some pretty radical ideas for the future. |
| 1:26.8 | Doing all of that with smart, influential people that have real power to shape our world. |
| 1:33.3 | And good as me, I guess today certainly does. |
| 1:35.0 | Look, for a while we've known there's a kind of growing counter-revolution against the idea |
| 1:40.4 | that children should have access to smartphones and social media. What began with concerned |
| 1:45.3 | parents, just simply stopping their kids using the technology in their bedrooms or maybe |
| 1:50.2 | saying, you know, sometimes organising into small groups to support one another has now led |
| 1:55.0 | into a big international movement and perhaps a big international moment. The man who is at the forefront of the movement from an academic or international movement and perhaps a big international moment. The man who is at the forefront of |
... |
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