Banning social media won’t reach a generation cursed to be permanently online

As the last generation to remember a time before its existence, it’s hard to fully grasp the influence that it has on young people who face the curse of being permanently online, and the reality of social media as an over-powered medium.

It's everywhere, woven into every facet of society.

Once, the biggest concern social media presented was giving Bebo love to anyone other than your other half, or picking the song that best summed up your daily emotional state. Now, it literally influences the political landscapes of governments around the world.

Whether it's Tunisia and Egypt (the Arab Spring) in 2011, Sri Lanka (economic collapse) in 2022, Bangladesh (student-led uprising) in 2024, or the Western world's Cambridge Analytica scandal, which allegedly helped assist Donald Trump's ascent to power in 2016, it's hard to argue that social media's influence hasn't grown exponentially quicker than any restraints put in place in the vain hope of reining in its power.

How many of us, truthfully, will admit to having wasted looping hours "doomscrolling", or, if it's past midnight and you're supposed to be sleeping, "moonscrolling"?

And that's us, as adults, with supposedly fully developed brains.

Now imagine a young person, born into the permanently online, multiple-daily-post social media generation.

There's also the added pressure facing this new generation: as one of the pandemic's main ripple effects, a far larger majority of their socialising is now done online

Miss a major conversation among your peers the night before, and it's the digital equivalent of knocking on your friend's door later than planned, missing the group, then spending the next four hours chasing shadows. Social media groups are the new "outside," hanging about with friends.

A Children's Commissioner survey in 2025 found that UK teenagers spend 4.8 hours per day on social media, while one in five young people in Wales admitted to spending at least seven hours a day using phones and tablets.

A commonly spotted observation in the morning is youngsters walking straight ahead, phones held in front of their faces, oblivious to the world around them. How long before a child engrossed in their screen walks head-first into oncoming traffic?

There's also the huge issue of mobile phones in education and imposing bans in schools, but that's a subject discussion deserving of its own merit.

Public opinion, however, does seem to be swerving against social media companies, as multiple bans and restrictions are either in place, or are in the process of passing through parliaments around the world.

With a social media ban already imposed for under-16s in Australia, and restrictions in place across countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brazil, a bill for an outright social media ban for under-15s has also passed both chambers of the French parliament.

Countries such as Canada, Spain, Greece, Denmark and the UK are all aiming to bring in bans or restrictions within the next several years, with social media companies facing severe monetary fines if obligations are not met.

Unfortunately, parents can't escape a certain level of blame, as many are shirking their responsibility of limiting screen time and social media scrolling for their young children.

Don't believe me? Look up the term "Tablet Baby" on Google.

A final thought: The average UK adult spends more than 14 hours a week on social media, and nearly 24 hours per seven days on their mobile phone.

How can we expect a generation of impressionable youngsters to self-improve, when their parents and adult peer group are setting a bad foundation in stone from the moment they're born?