The UK government launched a pilot scheme yesterday that will test the possible impact of banning under-sixteens from using social media. That experiment got underway as the possibility of following Australia’s lead in instigating a social media ban for younger teens was discussed in the UK Parliament, with representatives from both TikTok and X saying they are “neutral” on the proposed ban.
300 UK teens will take part in the pilot. They will be split into four groups - group one will have no access to social media; group two will only have one hour’s access per day; group three will be blocked from social media from 9pm to 7am; and group four will be able to access social media whenever they want. Researchers will then talk to participants and their parents about the impact.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall says, “We are determined to give young people the childhood they deserve and to prepare them for the future. This is why we are listening to parents, children and experts, as well as testing different options in the real world. These pilots will give us the evidence we need to take the next steps, informed by the experiences of families themselves”.
Australia’s social media ban for the under-sixteens went into effect at the end of last year, with politicians arguing it was necessary to protect young people from the “harms” social media can cause. Opinion is divided on the success of the Australian ban, but governments in multiple other countries are nevertheless considering doing something similar.
Members of the UK’s House Of Lords want a ban to be included in the Children’s Wellbeing And Schools Bill that is currently at the final stages of being debated in Parliament, voting in favour of that proposal again just yesterday.
However, the government says that further work is required to figure out the best ways to protect young people from online harms, which includes the pilot scheme launched yesterday and an ongoing public consultation. It proposes that the Children’s Wellbeing And Schools Bill should give Kendall the power to instigate a ban in the future if the consultation reckons that’s the best approach.
The Science, Innovation & Technology Select Committee in Parliament held a session on Tuesday where they asked representatives from TikTok, X, Meta and Google for their opinions on the proposed ban.
According to Politico, TikTok’s Director Of Public Policy for Northern Europe, Alistair Law, said it was “for policymakers to decide” on whether or not younger teens should be banned from using social media, confirming that TikTok was “neutral” on this issue.
Wifredo Fernandez, Director Of Global Government Affairs at X, said his employer has a similar stance. X is “sort of neutral at the moment", not least because “we have no business in kids”, which means “we don’t have a major dog in this fight”.
However, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta opposes the ban. Its UK Director Of Public Policy, Rebecca Stimson, said - perhaps somewhat predictably - she didn’t believe banning younger teens from accessing the company’s apps would “solve the problems that the government is trying to solve”.
Stimson was keen to stress that, in part because of existing advertising regulations, children are “not a revenue-generator” for Meta. Though social media apps would presumably like to hook young consumers in sooner rather than later, even if they can’t immediately push ads to those users.
That said, commercially speaking, it may be creators and performers, including musicians, who target a teen demographic who have the most to lose from any social media bans for younger teens. That’s something already being tracked in Australia, although it’s too soon to say with certainty what the long-term impact will be.