Australia has already taken steps to ban children from social media, and according to extensive polling on smartphones and young people, eight out of 10 Brits want the UK to follow suit
A new poll has revealed how Brits feel about the idea of a social media ban for teens across the UK after the House of Lords voted decisively for a full social media ban for under 16s.
An overwhelming majority want under-16s banned from social media in the UK – but support dips in parts of the North and Scotland, and opposition is strongest in London. Australia has already taken steps to ban children from social media, and according to extensive polling on smartphones and young people, eight out of 10 Britons (80%) want the UK to follow suit, amid fears that many young teenagers spend too much time on their screens.
That is felt most keenly in the North East, where 86% of those polled want to limit access to addictive and damaging social media content, and only 3% oppose a ban, with the remaining 11% unsure.
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After the North East, support for a ban was highest in Wales (85%) and the East Midlands (83%). Meanwhile, Londoners were most likely to be comfortable with young teenagers using social media, with one in eight (13%) saying they opposed a ban.
See how your area feels about a social media ban for teens using our interactive map below:
But even in the capital, three in four (75%) want under-16s locked out of social media, showing the appetite for a ban is still strong. Support to limit social media use is also below the national average moving up the M6 through the North West (77%) and into Scotland (77%).
The Australian ban is a world first and came into force in December. It prevents under-16s from accessing content from 10 major social media platforms, including Facebook, X, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Social media giants are accused of creating harmful algorithms that parents claim have led to addiction, radicalisation, self-harm, and even suicide. Last month, the House of Lords voted decisively for a full social media ban for under-16s – backing an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing Bill by Conservative peer Lord Nash in favour of such a measure in the UK.
Exclusive polling, carried out by polling firm Yonder for Reach, shows that the vast majority in the UK would welcome that ban, while nearly two-thirds (64%) are concerned about what children might be exposed to during screentime. People in Northern Ireland are most concerned, with 79% admitting they are worried about what their children are seeing on their smartphones. However, 13% said they had no concerns, the highest proportion in the UK.
Parents in Yorkshire and the Humber were least likely to be worried about what their children were up to online on their smartphones, with fewer than six in 10 (57%) admitting to concerns.
Across most of the UK, the main concern about screentime is that children will be exposed to inappropriate content. However, in Yorkshire and the Humber, Wales, and the East of England, respondents were more worried about online grooming.
The poll also revealed that children in the North West are the youngest when they are given their first smartphone. On average, they receive a phone at the age of nine years, seven months, and 17 days. That’s almost a year earlier than the UK average.
Children in London have the longest wait for a phone, until the age of 11 years, 2 months, and 23 days. But youngsters in the West Midlands can only expect to receive their first smartphone four days earlier.
