# UK social media ban: an end to brain rot and doomscrolling?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-story-7774740/uk-social-media-ban-an-end-to-brain-rot-and-doomscrolling
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-story-7774740/uk-social-media-ban-an-end-to-brain-rot-and-doomscrolling.md
Podcast: [The Story](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-story-7774740)
Published: 2026-06-16T00:01:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/uk-social-media-ban-an-end-to-brain-rot-and-doomscrolling--72542556
Audio file: https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72542556/media.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-story-7774740/episodes/uk-social-media-ban-an-end-to-brain-rot-and-doomscrolling
Duration seconds: 2005

## Resource

The government has announced a ban on some social media platforms for under-16s. It’s a move that echoes a similar ban introduced by the Australian government, which came into effect in December. So what are teens actually looking at on social media? And will a ban help? This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory Guest: Mark Sellman, technology correspondent, The Times.Host: Manveen Rana.Producers: Micaela Arneson, Harry Bligh.We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com Read more: Doomscrolling 708 videos a day: how TikTok turned our teens into addicts Further listening: How infinite scrolling damages our brains - The Saturday Story Clips: The Times, Times Radio, Revealing Reality, BBC News, Sky News.Photo: Getty Images. This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-story-7774740/episodes/uk-social-media-ban-an-end-to-brain-rot-and-doomscrolling/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-story-7774740/uk-social-media-ban-an-end-to-brain-rot-and-doomscrolling.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.