U16s Phone Ban: Problem or Cure?
This article was written by one of our Young Reporters, a scheme that gives 14 to 18-year-old school students a chance to write for a real newspaper. Find out more at the Young Reporter website.
The Government is planning to cut off social media for under 16s here in the UK, this following Australia's ban in December of last year.
The intent is to keep young people safe when online, but is this the most effective choice?
The first lot of UK social media restrictions came when the Online Safety Act was passed, in 2023.
Despite the good intent of this bill, many companies do the bare minimum to adhere to these regulations, leaving many vulnerable to the mass amounts of brainwashing content.
Australia's example : What the UK intends to follow
In December 2025, Australia limited the online footprint of many children and teenagers.
The Ban limited access to many popular websites, such as TikTok™ and Instagram™.
Children had a set list of online platforms that they were limited to, this include WhatsApp™, Roblox™ and YouTube Kids™.
The UK government intends to have similar regulations set, 'helping' children across the UK.
Better options?
A complete ban may not be the best idea, considering that many kids lead their life online, connected to one another through chat functions on many popular sites.
If this isn't the best choice, what are the other options?
- For example, parents could set their own restrictions, tailored to their children.
-nThis could take place instead of the blanket - 'one-size-fits-all' - restriction.
- Parents could also take steps to limit the time they spend online.
- Restricting time could lower the amount of content that the children are exposed to.
- Additionally, many apps and websites offer age restrictions.
- Parents can restrict the amount of content that their children shouldn't be seeing, this would be the best option, if companies took it seriously.
- This is the problem in the first place, people manage to find bypasses to these restrictions and put children at risk.
Restrictions may seem like a good idea, but its not the only option.
The Government should at least take these other options into consideration, before blindly making a major decision like this.
The Australian Government had backlash from some children, especially aged 13-15, which companies allow online due to their maturity, should our government have to deal with this, especially with the planned phone ban in schools currently?
