To ban or not to ban? Social media and children’s online safety in the spotlight.

25th October 2024 00:03

Article by Helen Menzies, Research Director and Children and Young People Specialist.

Smartphone bans in schools, the Online Safety Act, new teen accounts on social media and the daily battle to keep kids safe online… there’s a lot going on right now for families in the UK. The Head of our Children and Young People research team, Helen Menzies, takes a closer look at the topic of online safety and how parents are feeling.

The new Online Safety Act comes into force in 2025 and media regulator Ofcom has warned social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp they will face punishments for failing to keep children safe online. Ofcom has made it clear that online safety is the responsibility of these platforms and it should not be left to the parents or children to protect themselves.

Parents are increasingly worried about what their children see online. According to Ofcom, only about a quarter of parents of 3-17 year olds (27%) believe that the benefits to their child of using social media, messaging and video-sharing apps or sites outweigh the risks. Concerns among these parents include:

Children being exposed to inappropriate content for their age group (77% of parents were either very or fairly concerned about this)
Children seeing adult/sexual content (75% of parents)
Children being bullied online (70%)
Children seeing content which encourages them to hurt or harm themselves (68%)
The possibility of their child being influenced by extreme views online (59%)
The pressure on their child to spend money online (51%).

Such concerns are of course not just an issue in the UK, as countries around the world are exploring how best to keep children safe online. The Australian government is keen to place a ban on children using social media and is currently in a consultation phase to determine the minimum age and how this could be enforced. In 2023, France passed a law for social media sites to obtain parental consent for those under 15 years but enforcing this is easier said than done.

We wanted to find out what parents on our in-house panel Opinion Exchange thought about this topic, so we sent out a poll and quickly received over 500 responses. Just over three quarters (79%) feel that social media is harmful to children and young people. Their worries include bullying, fake news, pressure to behave in a certain way, negative impact on self-esteem and exposure to inappropriate content:

“It can be really beneficial and a source of social support and useful information, but it can also be a source of bullying and misinformation and attacks on self-esteem, and adults don't know how to manage it so aren't good at guiding our children.”

“I think it can be easy for young people to get caught up with things they see on social media, especially trends which can be worrying. Namely the lip-filler/surgery sphere. It can make young people feel not good enough and that’s a worry.”

“It’s too addictive for young children. There’s not enough regulations and standards to prevent minors from viewing inappropriate and frankly dangerous media”

“Not good for children’s mental health - comparing unrealistic lifestyles to their own. Puts them at risk of online bullying.”

Overall, and reflecting the much larger Ofcom study, only around a quarter (22%) feel the benefits of social media outweigh the risks for children and young people:

_{Base 527 Parents}

We also asked parents on our panel to consider if the UK Government decided to put a ban on Social Media for children and young people, what age group (if any) do they think that ban should apply to? Almost all felt there should be a ban, with most feeling it should apply at some point before age 16:

_{Base 529 parents}

Some parents on our panel don’t want social media in their kids’ lives at all whilst others saw benefits (especially for over 13s) and argue that better education is needed rather than a blanket ban:

“Social media shouldn’t be in kids’ lives at all. Let them be kids, play in the streets, not worry about latest trends or latest game console or who's got and not got the most expensive trainers, jeans or designer stuff”

“Under 13 should have a ban but I think social media can be good for 13 plus as it’s a way of finding out about things they might not ask, seeing the world, communicating with friends. I know it has its negatives and there has to be some restrictions and monitoring especially for under 16s.”

“Whilst I appreciate the flaws and dangers of social media, we can't keep 'banning' things and shadowing today's youth from everything... Educate young people on how to be safe online, don't ban it.”

“I think that at under the age of 13, children are emotionally vulnerable and may not know how to stay safe online. They are impressionable and easily influenced. However, after the age of 13, children have greater independence, maturity and resilience to begin to navigate the online world. They understand more about keeping safe and social media is a popular vehicle for communicating with their friends and peers.”

In September, Instagram introduced Teen Accounts, which they say will ‘reassure parents that teens are having safe experiences with built-in protections on automatically’. Teen Accounts limit who is able to contact teens as well as the content they see and parental permission will be required to change any of the built-in protections. Anyone under 16 joining the platform will automatically be placed into one of these accounts and existing accounts will be moved into Teen Accounts. It will be interesting to see the impact this has and how both parents and the teenagers themselves react in the coming months.

If you want to know more about this topic, or to find out what children and young people and their parents think about your brand or services, please get in touch with Helen Menzies at hmenzies@djsresearch.com.

References and further reading:

Online Safety Bill: Social media faces big changes under new Ofcom rules - BBC News: - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0467e9e43o
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/media-literacy-research/childrens
Australia's push for a teen social media ban is a lonely path. Are we brave or just lost? ABC News - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-10/social-media-teenager-international-outlier/104449294
Teen Accounts: Protection for Teens, Peace of Mind for Parents (instagram.com) - https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-teen-accounts/