Episode
Should the Government ban social media for young people?
- Podcast
- The Briefing Room
- Published
- Feb 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1721
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002rghw
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-briefing-room-1106985/episodes/should-the-government-ban-social-media-for-young-people/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-briefing-room-1106985/should-the-government-ban-social-media-for-young-people.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Pressure is building in the UK for a ban on social media use for young people as countries across the world watch Australia, which introduced its own ban for under 16s last December. Meanwhile, the government here is launching a public consultation on children’s use of social media which will look at a range of options, including a ban. It also said this week that it wants to create new legal powers so it can take action quickly. David Aaronovitch asks what the evidence so far tells us about social media and harm to young people and what else could be done about it short of an outright ban. Guests: Katy Watson, Sydney Correspondent Luke Tryl, Director More in Common Professor Amy Orben, Programme Leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge Professor Sonia Livingstone, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics Pete Etchells, Professor of Psychology and Science Communication, Bath Spa University Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Caroline Bayley and Kirsteen Knight Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound engineer: James Beard Editor: Richard Vadon