‘We need social media to survive’ – No you don’t. If you can’t live without it then you have a problem. Likely get downvoted for this, but they’re too young to realize that they’re not mature enough to really understand the impact it has on their developing brains.
No-Assumption-1738 on
There will be adults commenting agreeing with them or commenting like it’s an impossible task to do the most basic parenting.
Why aren’t phone companies selling reduced rate contracts for parents/teens specifically, my iPhone blocks adult content but I don’t have to verify age to access any type of social media.
swampman23512 on
Definitely not vital. Although the way that the ban is being carried out at the moment, whereby it’s sort of a half-measure and a barely shrouded biometric data capture exercise, is abhorrent.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
spicesucker on
It’s beyond aggravating how much BBC News has just devolved to asking school children / Joe Bloggs on the street how they think X bad thing will affect them
IneffableParadise on
… Yeah. I can’t lie. The teens are making salient points here. Some parts of the issues *are* the platforms themselves and with how interconnected and reliant we are on these things, including social media apps for connectivity and networking, it really doesn’t seem like the ideal solution to just blanket ban.
Some of the issues are parents, companies and the teens themselves. One of the teens put that rightly and, yeah, it will just get pushed underground. The ID verification idiocy is being constantly gamed and the hardline stance just doesn’t reflect brain maturation being individual and variable.
Why not take the RSE approach and have people equipped with the knowledge to teach reasonable and regulated usage? Banning will push it “underground”, just like it happened with drugs and alcohol.
What about the teens who use these items to anonymously and safely express and explore themselves? Some familial and social environments carry heavy social penalties for showing themselves as they are and these things let them *be*. There is this angle to consider, too.
A blanket ban could definitely harm teens.
Ambitious-Sink2725 on
Why does everyone in this country have such a zero-sum mentality, something can be bad without being illegal
volerei on
If social media is a problem then it’s a problem for young and old. The idea that kids will go outside and play or read books is silly. They communicate with each other through these apps and in many cases the kids will feel more isolated.
The companies running the apps should have looked after the users from the start but it’s about making money and keeping engagement. Unfortunately they now need regulating but how and by who is a problem.
shiggyhisdiggy on
Sorry but teens don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. They literally can’t imagine life without social media, how can they have a say in this decision?
noopdles on
Nah, you don’t need modern social media to enjoy the internet. When I was 12 I had forums, game sites, hobby communities and bizarre little message boards. I also saw my first beheading video on one of them.
Edit: My point here is that social media or not, algorithm or not, a bored teenager with enough time and curiosity is eventually going to find weird shit online. Modern platforms have just industrialised and streamlined the delivery mechanism. And I have yet to see someone being beheaded on TikTok to be honest.
Subject-Ad2357 on
the problem isn’t social media. it’s what’s in them.
Reels, shorts, tiktok nowadays all people want in social media is to bed rot and scroll all day long whether they’re eating, before bed, outside. it’s an addiction and has ruined attention spans of everyone. to the point where sitting in class or even watching a movie gets really difficult.
All the government needs to do is try and restrict thresholds for young people so they don’t waste their time on 10 sec videos.
glytxh on
It’s not the kids being brainwashed into nationalism and voting for shit like Reform tho
cooky561 on
The solution is to ban the algorithms and feeds, Facebook was very handy 20 years ago when it only showed me a timeline of what my friends were doing,
Ban the notifications, reels, and feeds and restore the “friends only ” timeline and it might be useful.
NatureUnique1277 on
I managed to make it through my teenage years and early twenties without social media and still managed to integrate into socitey.
If you think that’s wild my Dad has never used social media and actually has quite a busy social life!
throwaway_ArBe on
It is vital for plenty of kids. It was vital for me back when it was new, and I did not face quite the levels of isolation that older queer people did. It’s vital for my disabled kid now who can barely leave the house. They actually have friends. The years between being stuck at home and getting social media accounts they only had me and my friends to talk to. And from what I hear from the kids now it’s still vital to queer youth, to abused kids, to other disabled kids, to anyone who faces barriers with socialising the old fashioned way.
phillhb on
No its not. People have lived and live without it.
Its linked to your social construct of happiness, but its not ‘vital’ to your survival.
Living_Board_9169 on
Ugh and this is how it passes
First the media control the narrative it’s needed because of the social media organised crime sprees, cyber bullying incidents, and psychological damage
Then reasonable minds say, okay but surely this doesn’t require a government mandated ID verification that prevents all anonymity
And the media instead represents dissenting opinion as “ugh what do teenagers need to learn to read books instead now?”
Another defence of liberties whitewashed into a joke by the media for later eradication by the government
MJ-Franklin on
I managed my early years without the internet entirely just fine.
Solsbeary on
Oh no, how did teenagers possibly survive before social media?! Shows how much of a firm grasp these networks have
Old_Housing3989 on
Only we we ban Facebook and next door for the over 60s too. Can’t have them “over stimulated”. It affects their voting habits.
pathsofglorylogotter on
I’m torn on this issue, as a Millenial that grew up with the transition, I would say social media as a social function isn’t required. The **bigger** problem with 2026, is that social media holds most of the important information for many aspects of life, instead of unique websites…
Reddit holds a good portion of useful education/hobby/interests information, as does platforms like Discord…. if you take that away from kids, they have access to less useful information than we did when the internet first came around.
They are no longer just “social media” in the vain sense, they both hold the worst and best information. Even if social media was banned, the phone is still there, the screen addiction will still be there, and more diverse yet as-addictive websites not classed as “social media” will emerge and replace.
BlueRayman on
Personally I think the ban is the wrong approach, teens will just start using website based services hosted in regulation free parts of the world that have less safeguard than existing social media services.
I think the solution is to massively regulate existing social media companies and demand a version is a positive influence on teens.
They could but they choose to make it a toxic dump.
Tangie_ape on
Putting myself in their shoes, would I think the world was ending if you got rid of MSN, MySpace or Bebo when I was a kid? probably, and I was always an “outdoors” kid really so I get it. All that will happen is they’ll find ways around the ban, or probably end up in some darker corners – Schoolkids these days will be better on computers than the people thinking of these ideas I’d hazard a guess.
The issue itself though isn’t social media, or the kids – it’s parents, who yet again can’t discipline their children and are expecting the Government to do it instead. Go into any school and you’ll see the same story across almost any issue, parents don’t want to do anything other than be their child’s friend and just pass any form of responsibility onto anyone else they can. That’s the real issue IMO
Dapper_Otters on
To those saying it would harm minorities I have some sympathy as it’s probably the strongest argument against a total ban.
On the other hand, it’s not a ban on internet access in its entirety. It may feel like it to teenagers who equate social media *with* the internet, but there are still millions of sites, anonymous forums and resources out there.
Mccobsta on
Back before phones had Internet fast enough to load a Web page in less than 30 seconds we did this thing called texting and arranging to see our friends over the phone
It was a better time we didn’t have garbage algorithms pushing shit to keep us engaged
Silent-Tea4500 on
It’s not vital at all
If kids coudln’t get on social media they wouldn’t stop talking to eachother online
They would start websites, forums, and use email like how people used the internet before billionaire’s wanted everyone angry and addicted
plasma7602 on
It’s more vital to go out in person and be social in person
ColdShadowKaz on
Theres dangers and theres good in social media. I don’t think it should be banned but I think there should be a lot more education. My housemate thinks there should be a ban on kids having social media.
She had a friend who ended up hooking up with an older guy and getting groomed and worse for years. I got to know there was a world outside my family. And I have known countless people who have found out their families have been doing the abusing and the grooming all because of social media.
We also have to think about how much freedom children have outside of social media. Can they go see their school friends in real life? Do they even have school friends in real life? How will kids learn to be adults if they don’t have the freedom to interact with their own peer groups without adults directing the subjects they talk about? School lessons can’t be all children have for interacting with people their own age.
And lastly people keep asking where the parents are when something goes wrong and kids end up getting into something on social media thats dangerous. Ban social media and those exact parents will be the only influence those children have.
JudasShuffle on
Politicians who need to drink at work lecture kids on what’s bad for them.
JackStrawWitchita on
Remember: dozens of child welfare charities are *against* banning social media outright as it could lead to social isolation and pushing kids into logging in as adults where they have recourse to asking for help.
No_Shock9905 on
“Crack is vital”, say Welsh crack heads arguing against a ban
MinaZata on
Yeah no wonder they’re saying that, they’ve been getting dopamine hits for half their lives more likely on soemthing nearly as addictive as cocaine
32 Comments
‘We need social media to survive’ – No you don’t. If you can’t live without it then you have a problem. Likely get downvoted for this, but they’re too young to realize that they’re not mature enough to really understand the impact it has on their developing brains.
There will be adults commenting agreeing with them or commenting like it’s an impossible task to do the most basic parenting.
Why aren’t phone companies selling reduced rate contracts for parents/teens specifically, my iPhone blocks adult content but I don’t have to verify age to access any type of social media.
Definitely not vital. Although the way that the ban is being carried out at the moment, whereby it’s sort of a half-measure and a barely shrouded biometric data capture exercise, is abhorrent.
[deleted]
It’s beyond aggravating how much BBC News has just devolved to asking school children / Joe Bloggs on the street how they think X bad thing will affect them
… Yeah. I can’t lie. The teens are making salient points here. Some parts of the issues *are* the platforms themselves and with how interconnected and reliant we are on these things, including social media apps for connectivity and networking, it really doesn’t seem like the ideal solution to just blanket ban.
Some of the issues are parents, companies and the teens themselves. One of the teens put that rightly and, yeah, it will just get pushed underground. The ID verification idiocy is being constantly gamed and the hardline stance just doesn’t reflect brain maturation being individual and variable.
Why not take the RSE approach and have people equipped with the knowledge to teach reasonable and regulated usage? Banning will push it “underground”, just like it happened with drugs and alcohol.
What about the teens who use these items to anonymously and safely express and explore themselves? Some familial and social environments carry heavy social penalties for showing themselves as they are and these things let them *be*. There is this angle to consider, too.
A blanket ban could definitely harm teens.
Why does everyone in this country have such a zero-sum mentality, something can be bad without being illegal
If social media is a problem then it’s a problem for young and old. The idea that kids will go outside and play or read books is silly. They communicate with each other through these apps and in many cases the kids will feel more isolated.
The companies running the apps should have looked after the users from the start but it’s about making money and keeping engagement. Unfortunately they now need regulating but how and by who is a problem.
Sorry but teens don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. They literally can’t imagine life without social media, how can they have a say in this decision?
Nah, you don’t need modern social media to enjoy the internet. When I was 12 I had forums, game sites, hobby communities and bizarre little message boards. I also saw my first beheading video on one of them.
Edit: My point here is that social media or not, algorithm or not, a bored teenager with enough time and curiosity is eventually going to find weird shit online. Modern platforms have just industrialised and streamlined the delivery mechanism. And I have yet to see someone being beheaded on TikTok to be honest.
the problem isn’t social media. it’s what’s in them.
Reels, shorts, tiktok nowadays all people want in social media is to bed rot and scroll all day long whether they’re eating, before bed, outside. it’s an addiction and has ruined attention spans of everyone. to the point where sitting in class or even watching a movie gets really difficult.
All the government needs to do is try and restrict thresholds for young people so they don’t waste their time on 10 sec videos.
It’s not the kids being brainwashed into nationalism and voting for shit like Reform tho
The solution is to ban the algorithms and feeds, Facebook was very handy 20 years ago when it only showed me a timeline of what my friends were doing,
Ban the notifications, reels, and feeds and restore the “friends only ” timeline and it might be useful.
I managed to make it through my teenage years and early twenties without social media and still managed to integrate into socitey.
If you think that’s wild my Dad has never used social media and actually has quite a busy social life!
It is vital for plenty of kids. It was vital for me back when it was new, and I did not face quite the levels of isolation that older queer people did. It’s vital for my disabled kid now who can barely leave the house. They actually have friends. The years between being stuck at home and getting social media accounts they only had me and my friends to talk to. And from what I hear from the kids now it’s still vital to queer youth, to abused kids, to other disabled kids, to anyone who faces barriers with socialising the old fashioned way.
No its not. People have lived and live without it.
Its linked to your social construct of happiness, but its not ‘vital’ to your survival.
Ugh and this is how it passes
First the media control the narrative it’s needed because of the social media organised crime sprees, cyber bullying incidents, and psychological damage
Then reasonable minds say, okay but surely this doesn’t require a government mandated ID verification that prevents all anonymity
And the media instead represents dissenting opinion as “ugh what do teenagers need to learn to read books instead now?”
Another defence of liberties whitewashed into a joke by the media for later eradication by the government
I managed my early years without the internet entirely just fine.
Oh no, how did teenagers possibly survive before social media?! Shows how much of a firm grasp these networks have
Only we we ban Facebook and next door for the over 60s too. Can’t have them “over stimulated”. It affects their voting habits.
I’m torn on this issue, as a Millenial that grew up with the transition, I would say social media as a social function isn’t required. The **bigger** problem with 2026, is that social media holds most of the important information for many aspects of life, instead of unique websites…
Reddit holds a good portion of useful education/hobby/interests information, as does platforms like Discord…. if you take that away from kids, they have access to less useful information than we did when the internet first came around.
They are no longer just “social media” in the vain sense, they both hold the worst and best information. Even if social media was banned, the phone is still there, the screen addiction will still be there, and more diverse yet as-addictive websites not classed as “social media” will emerge and replace.
Personally I think the ban is the wrong approach, teens will just start using website based services hosted in regulation free parts of the world that have less safeguard than existing social media services.
I think the solution is to massively regulate existing social media companies and demand a version is a positive influence on teens.
They could but they choose to make it a toxic dump.
Putting myself in their shoes, would I think the world was ending if you got rid of MSN, MySpace or Bebo when I was a kid? probably, and I was always an “outdoors” kid really so I get it. All that will happen is they’ll find ways around the ban, or probably end up in some darker corners – Schoolkids these days will be better on computers than the people thinking of these ideas I’d hazard a guess.
The issue itself though isn’t social media, or the kids – it’s parents, who yet again can’t discipline their children and are expecting the Government to do it instead. Go into any school and you’ll see the same story across almost any issue, parents don’t want to do anything other than be their child’s friend and just pass any form of responsibility onto anyone else they can. That’s the real issue IMO
To those saying it would harm minorities I have some sympathy as it’s probably the strongest argument against a total ban.
On the other hand, it’s not a ban on internet access in its entirety. It may feel like it to teenagers who equate social media *with* the internet, but there are still millions of sites, anonymous forums and resources out there.
Back before phones had Internet fast enough to load a Web page in less than 30 seconds we did this thing called texting and arranging to see our friends over the phone
It was a better time we didn’t have garbage algorithms pushing shit to keep us engaged
It’s not vital at all
If kids coudln’t get on social media they wouldn’t stop talking to eachother online
They would start websites, forums, and use email like how people used the internet before billionaire’s wanted everyone angry and addicted
It’s more vital to go out in person and be social in person
Theres dangers and theres good in social media. I don’t think it should be banned but I think there should be a lot more education. My housemate thinks there should be a ban on kids having social media.
She had a friend who ended up hooking up with an older guy and getting groomed and worse for years. I got to know there was a world outside my family. And I have known countless people who have found out their families have been doing the abusing and the grooming all because of social media.
We also have to think about how much freedom children have outside of social media. Can they go see their school friends in real life? Do they even have school friends in real life? How will kids learn to be adults if they don’t have the freedom to interact with their own peer groups without adults directing the subjects they talk about? School lessons can’t be all children have for interacting with people their own age.
And lastly people keep asking where the parents are when something goes wrong and kids end up getting into something on social media thats dangerous. Ban social media and those exact parents will be the only influence those children have.
Politicians who need to drink at work lecture kids on what’s bad for them.
Remember: dozens of child welfare charities are *against* banning social media outright as it could lead to social isolation and pushing kids into logging in as adults where they have recourse to asking for help.
“Crack is vital”, say Welsh crack heads arguing against a ban
Yeah no wonder they’re saying that, they’ve been getting dopamine hits for half their lives more likely on soemthing nearly as addictive as cocaine