blackmail<\/strong> and more, all happening on social media platforms.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s reached the point where people impacted by these nightmare circumstances have had enough; if these companies can\u2019t be trusted to look after our children, they say, we need to take them off the platforms.<\/p>\n
But this isn\u2019t a cut-and-dried case. There are a lot of people worried about the impact of social media on children who argue a ban isn\u2019t the right idea.<\/p>\n
Take Professor Sander van der Linden, a Cambridge psychology researcher who has studied the impact of social media for years.<\/p>\n
He said there is \u201czero empirical evidence\u201d to support a ban, and recently wrote a piece in the science journal Nature arguing against it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlindly instituting wholesale bans for teens takes the \u2018evidence\u2019 out of evidence-based policy,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
But he isn\u2019t saying that things should just stay the same.<\/p>\n
In fact, he wants children as young as four to begin digital literacy education to protect them in the future and, crucially, wants social media companies to be held more responsible for building safe platforms in the first place<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I was repeatedly told when researching the case against a social media ban.<\/p>\n
Girl Guides, protesters, the chief executive of the NSPCC \u2013 they all believed that social media companies should be forced to change their platforms rather than young people being forced to come off them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese issues don\u2019t [just] affect teenagers,\u201d 15-year-old Imogen said. She\u2019s a Girl Guiding advocate, one of three speaking to me after a Girl Guiding poll suggested just 15% of teenagers support a ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone in their 30s isn\u2019t going to want to see the violent content that teenagers are seeing, so it\u2019s not solving the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we put a ban [in place], then that\u2019s just saying we\u2019re the problem,\u201d said 16-year-old Freya. \u201cIt\u2019s our fault when actually it\u2019s their algorithms, it\u2019s the way that they\u2019ve made their platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
One protester, Hannah from Mad Youth Organise, told us her group wants companies to pay a 4% \u201cmisery tax\u201d to fund mental health services and mitigate the damage they say the companies have caused.<\/p>\n
But the other argument against a ban isn\u2019t about changing how the companies work, it\u2019s about the impact on young people themselves.<\/p>\n
Prof van der Linden said the impact of social media varies between different groups of young people. Those with pre-existing mental health issues are more likely to be harmed by algorithms than those without.<\/p>\n
People who use social media to compare themselves negatively to others or \u201cdoomscroll\u201d are more likely to suffer consequences than those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
In fact, using social media to connect with others or engage in social issues could have a positive impact on mental health.<\/p>\n
He says it\u2019s more nuanced than arguments against alcohol or tobacco, where the impacts are only negative.<\/p>\n
And for certain groups, social media has become a lifeline.<\/p>\n
LGBT+ teenagers, for example, face higher levels of loneliness, bullying and isolation, and when community can be hard to find in person, they now often turn to social media, according to Simon Blake, chief executive of Stonewall UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a place that they meet other people, it\u2019s a place that they see people like them that they can aspire to, to see others and to ask questions and to get support in a world where they may not be able to get it from other places,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s concern from organisations like Stonewall and the NSPCC that young people will simply migrate to other, less regulated platforms where they could see even more harmful content.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t block the whole internet,\u201d pointed out Kashuf, a 19-year-old Girl Guiding advocate.<\/p>\n
No matter where the UK lands in the government\u2019s consultation, campaigners on both sides agree something must change \u2013 the argument now is what that change should be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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