Under-16 social media ban consultation: Education lawyer comment

The UK Government will consider a social media ban for under-16s after launching a consultation.

This will examine evidence from other countries that have implemented such policies, including Australia, to understand whether a ban would be effective and how to make it work.

Other options to be explored include raising the digital age of consent, implementing phone curfews to avoid excessive use, and restricting potentially addictive design features such as ‘streaks’ and ‘infinite scrolling’.

As part of a broader plan to protect children’s wellbeing online, it will also ask Ofsted to check every school’s mobile phone policy during inspections.

Schools are “expected to be phone-free by default”, with pupils denied access to their devices during lessons, break times or between lessons.

Commenting on the consultation, Dai Durbridge, Partner and Head of Safeguarding in the education team at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, said: “Banning social media for under-16s would be almost impossible to implement practically – instead, government should be ramping up education for children on how they interact with online platforms.

“While it’s correct to engage with other countries’ experiences in this field, we can also learn from the many historic examples of bans being imposed on the general public across the world – from popular literature to alcohol – to only grow in popularity as a result.

“Most recently, there is plenty of evidence illustrating how easy it has been for people to circumvent websites blocked by the Online Safety Act using virtual private networks (VPNs) since the legislation was implemented in July.

“The horse has already bolted on social media use among young people and there are benefits alongside the well-publicised downsides. For example, social media can provide peer support – especially for marginalised or isolated teenagers – creative outlets, and access to educational content and communities.

“A blanket ban would remove both beneficial and harmful uses of social media. From a digital literacy perspective, delayed exposure to these platforms can make later use riskier rather than safer.

“Practically speaking, there would also be enforcement challenges such as age verification without invasive data collection, and children potentially bypassing bans using fake images, VPNs and older friends’ accounts, similar to what we’ve seen with the Online Safety Act.

“However, we know there are numerous safeguarding risks associated with exposure to many social media websites and apps that can’t be ignored. This is why educating pupils about how to behave correctly and spot signs of danger on these platforms is the best way forward.”