Keeping children safe from social media, Crawley Observer Column, Wednesday 18th February 2025

I recall hearing about a group of advertising executives who, many years ago, went to visit a cigarette company client. During their meeting they were given large multipacks of cigarettes, but to the advertisers’ surprise the cigarette company executives didn’t smoke with them, in fact it turned out none of them smoked.

What they knew, and kept from the public, was the risk cigarettes pose to life. The fact social media executives today limit their children’s access to social media should give us pause for thought. Particularly as the research into the damage social media does to mental health and its addictiveness builds up.

‘Addictiveness’ is an accurate word here, it’s not just that people like using it, it’s the way systems are designed to maximise dopamine release, just like cigarettes. Putting poison into your body isn’t good for anyone, but the damage to developing brains is always far greater than for adults, with social media now involved in a quarter of UK suicides amongst those aged 10 to 19.

During a recent meeting with Crawley’s Secondary Heads I heard about the effect social media has on local children and their work to try and limit the impact. The need for national action was clear.

The Government has committed to fast-tracking a change in the law to help protect children from social media, although what this looks like has not yet been decided. Around the world Governments are still trying to resolve what approach will work best.

Inevitably many children have found workarounds to Australia’s social media ban, but a system doesn’t have to be perfect to be an improvement. Children still find ways to acquire cigarettes, but we don’t believe it was wrong to ban their sale to children.

Social media can be useful, but it is not essential and we are only beginning to uncover the extent of the damage it has done to society. Whatever they may think, social media bosses are not a law unto themselves. If they won’t act to protect children, the restrictions necessary to keep children safe may well be their companies’ undoing.