Mad Youth Organise responds to the government consultation on a social media ban for under-16s

In March, the UK government proposed a blanket ban of social media platforms for under 16s and opened Growing Up in the online world; a public, national consultation on the ban and other potential measures to restrict young people’s access to social media. 

At Mad Youth Organise we share the government’s concern about the harm being caused by social media, but we believe they are focused on the wrong question. Rather than looking at whether to ban young people from this important part of the public sphere (or restrict their access), they should instead be concerned with how to make social media safer for everybody and beneficial to democracy and society. 

So we’ve been asking the critical questions the government has neglected: How can we have connection and community without sacrificing mental health? How can social media better serve society? What happens if we remove platforms from the control of the big tech corporations? 

Over the last five months across workshops, online surveys and outreach to students, we have been gathering the stories of young people’s experiences of being online. We asked for their views on who is responsible for online harms, and their visions for an alternative social media free of the hands of big tech corporations. In total we have spoken to forty 16-30 year olds. 

Our new report - Beyond the Ban - outlines the themes we’ve found across the many conversations we’ve had and the survey responses received. We end by providing our conclusions and recommendations. We hope it offers an alternative framework for understanding online harm; one that moves beyond individual responsibility to look at how big tech corporations are shaping our online and offline world.

Check out the full resource, and help us get this message in front of the government by writing to Liz Kendall, Minister of Science, Innovation and Technolog!