Banning Social Media for Under-16s: An Important Step, But Not the Whole Solution
The debate around banning social media for under-16s raises an important question: are we trying to keep children away from the digital world, or are we trying to make the digital world safer for children? As a child rights advocate, I believe we need to focus on the latter. Children deserve protection from harm, but they also deserve the knowledge, skills, and support needed to navigate an increasingly digital society. That is why the UK Government’s proposal has generated such important discussion.
The evidence is impossible to ignore.
Children’s mental health is under increasing pressure. We continue to see cases where young people experience serious harm online, including exploitation, grooming, cyberbullying, exposure to harmful content, and, in some tragic circumstances, the loss of life. These harms are not theoretical; they are happening every day and require a coordinated response from governments, regulators, technology companies, educators, parents, and wider society.
Recent findings from Childlight - Global Child Safety Institute highlight the scale of the challenge. Their research found that children experience online sexual exploitation and abuse at a rate equivalent to around ten victims every second globally. In Western Europe, more than one in three children experience unwanted or pressured sexual interactions online. These figures are deeply concerning and reinforce the need for urgent action.
While data and evidence are critical, so too are the voices of children themselves. Across my work, young people consistently tell us they want to be safe online, but they also want to be heard, respected, and equipped with the skills to navigate digital spaces. Any solution must balance protection with participation and recognise children as active stakeholders in shaping the digital world they are growing up in.
I therefore understand why policymakers are considering stronger interventions, including age-based restrictions on social media. The status quo is not working for too many children, and we should be open to exploring measures that strengthen their safety and wellbeing online.
Restrictions are part of the answer, not all of it
However, while restrictions may form part of the solution, they should not be viewed as the solution.
We are already seeing this in practice. I have recently been involved in conversations with several organisations in Australia regarding the implementation of social media restrictions for young people. One of the consistent themes emerging from those discussions is that many children continue to find ways around restrictions and remain active online. When speaking directly with young people, it becomes clear that access barriers alone rarely address the underlying issues.
Protecting children online has never been about a single intervention. The challenges children face online are part of a much wider ecosystem that includes platform design, safeguarding measures, digital literacy, parental support, education, regulation, and accountability across the technology sector.
For too long, much of the responsibility for staying safe online has fallen on children, families, and schools. At the same time, many of the platforms shaping children’s digital experiences continue to be designed around engagement and growth, often without sufficient consideration for children’s rights, safety, and wellbeing.
As we move forward, technology companies must be recognised as part of both the problem and the solution. The responsibility for keeping children safe online cannot rest solely with families, schools, and governments. Platforms must be expected to proactively identify risks, design safer products, and demonstrate greater transparency and accountability for the impact their services have on children.
What interests me most is what comes alongside any proposed restrictions:
- How will we strengthen accountability across the technology sector?
- How will we ensure platforms are designed with children’s rights and wellbeing at their core?
- What further investment will be made in digital literacy, online safety education, and support for parents, carers, educators, and communities?
- How will we ensure that children’s voices and experiences help shape the policies that affect them?
These questions are just as important as the debate around access itself.
Education and awareness must remain central to any long-term solution. As those conversations in Australia underlined, restricting access without equipping children with the skills to recognise risks, understand healthy online relationships, navigate digital spaces responsibly, critically assess content, and seek help when needed is unlikely to deliver the lasting change we all want to see.
Children need protection, but they also need preparation
The reality is that today’s children are growing up in an increasingly digital world. Our responsibility is not only to protect them from harm but also to empower them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to engage safely, critically, and positively online.
Children’s rights do not stop in the digital world. The rights to protection, participation, development, and access to information must all be considered when designing policies that affect children’s online lives. A child-rights approach requires us to look beyond simple solutions and consider the full range of factors that influence children’s experiences online.
The debate should therefore extend beyond whether children should have access to social media. It should focus on the kind of digital environment we are creating for them. It should focus on stronger safeguarding, child-centred design, meaningful regulation, improved digital literacy, and greater accountability from the companies that shape online experiences every day.
As the UK continues to strengthen its approach to protecting children online, there is a real opportunity to take a comprehensive, rights-based approach that places children’s safety, wellbeing, participation, and development at the centre of digital policy. This requires governments, regulators, educators, parents, communities, researchers, and technology companies to work together towards a shared goal.
Online safety is a collective responsibility
Most importantly, we need to recognise that children’s online safety is a collective responsibility.
Children deserve more than restrictions. They deserve digital spaces that are safe by design, supported by education, underpinned by accountability, and built with their rights and wellbeing at the centre. The goal should not simply be to keep children away from digital spaces; it should be to create a digital world where they can learn, connect, participate, and thrive safely.