DON’T ISOLATE, EDUCATE

The under-16 social media ban has been a disaster. Kids are still online — but now they are on the adult web instead of a controlled children’s one.

Platforms like TikTok and YouTube can be genuinely educational for children. Look at the STEM content on them. We owe our kids the right to reach that material.

What we actually need is controls — for parents, and for the children themselves. Teach them to manage their time. Teach them to understand what they are looking at, and to understand the world it comes from. Do not isolate them: educate them, and prepare them to be adults.

Banning the under-16s instead of giving parents control is the wrong policy. Prohibition in the United States in the 1920s is the standard example of what happens when you ban something a society wants badly enough — the demand does not go away, it just moves somewhere you cannot see it or regulate it. We keep learning the same lesson: outright bans fail where fair controls and education work.

The memo sets out our position in full: Children, Social Media and AI →
The policy →