Governments around the world want to keep under-16s off YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Australia has introduced a ban and now the UK is doing the same. Stephen Byrne and Chris Stokel-Walker report
Keir Starmer announced on Monday that he wanted to ban under-16s from social media. Parents were calling out for more controls he said. But their children … well, their children have other ideas.
“Snapchat, for example, is one of the best things that’s happened to me,” a 13-year-old tells Helen Pidd. “I don’t think adults understand, that is how we talk to our friends and fit in.”
Guardian Australia’s executive producer, Stephen Byrne, says the ban there has had mixed results but many parents are still in favour of it. As a former YouTube star himself he says he understands why children feel they will lose a valuable community if a ban is enacted in the UK. But he says he also thinks something needs to be done to protect children.
The technology reporter Chris Stokel-Walker thinks the ban is ill-advised and a political move. He says the government is not waiting for the evidence of its own study that would have shown what action would best protect children. “I just think it’s a really poorly thought through solution,” he says.
