I welcome the social media ban, but how long can we keep our kids off smartphones?

How relieved am I, therefore, to find myself on the cusp of my daughter’s teenage years and her transition to secondary school at the moment that social media will be banned for under-16s.

Elisa Bray[Missing Credit]

As parents at a north London Jewish primary, we formed our own group of campaigners and signed a class pact not to allow our children a smartphone while at primary school, successfully pushing back the devices that bit longer – while Jewish smartphone campaigner Nova Eden was pioneering a grassroots movement in the borough of Barnet.

The platforms included in the UK’s ban are Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X. Following the same model as Australia’s social media ban, it does not include messaging services WhatsApp and Signal.

As Nova Eden says, this is not the end of the conversation. I am fully aware of the challenges that my daughter, my husband – a secondary school teacher who knows all too well the dangers for youngsters being exposed to harmful content – and I will face over the next few years.

We cannot expect the pact we made at primary school to be in place at my daughter’s secondary school. What is more, there is a crucial window between now and early 2027, when the ban will begin. Before then, children who have already been furnished with a smart phone will no doubt want to share content with peers who don’t yet have access. To keep your children away is not only impossible but could also impact their developing social groups.

My child loves to see her friends in person, to read books, to crochet. Would I want to lose her to a screen and algorithms at precisely the moment she should be forging friendships and finding her place and sense of self at a new school? We can only hope that other parents also agree.

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‘Banning social media is just the start of protecting our kids from Big Tech’

Nova Eden[Missing Credit]

Nova Eden is the founder of One Collective Power, which promotes healthier digital habits

‘After three years of campaigning to get smartphones out of classrooms and to raise the minimum age for social media, I feel a huge sense of relief at the UK government’s recent announcements. Every school will be required by law to be smartphone-free, and the UK will be taking legislative action to implement a minimum age of 16 for social media.

It is a genuine, hard-won step forward for the next generation, and I am proud to have played a part alongside so many campaigners, health professionals and parents who have championed the need for urgent change.

But while these measures are necessary and important, they are only the beginning.
We won’t see their full impact for many years. A minimum age is only one piece of a much larger puzzle. Tech companies must be held to account. Parents and children need support to manage screen time safely, and we have to face a deeper concern – the digital landscape has crept into every corner of childhood.

It is fantastic that there is now greater awareness of the risks associated with smartphones and social media. Yet two other issues urgently need our attention.

The first is the early years. Nearly 40 per cent of two-year-olds now have their own iPad. As a expert on children’s mental health and digital wellbeing, I am increasingly concerned by what this means for developing brains. We already know that excessive interactive screen time in the early years is associated with delays in speech and language development, alongside difficulties with social communication and emotional regulation.

The foundations of good mental health, learning and relationships are built during these years. If we are serious about tackling screen addiction and digital dependency in teenagers, we need to start by asking what is happening much earlier in childhood.

The second issue is EdTech. The government has rightly said that smartphones have no place in the school day. Yet, at the same time, more and more schools are placing an iPad or laptop on every desk, often marketed as the future of learning. For years, we have been sold the idea that more technology automatically means better education, but two decades of research suggests otherwise.

Children develop deeper thinking skills and retain more of what they learn when they engage with pen, paper and books rather than screens. Screens are not neutral tools; they are designed to compete for attention and can make sustained concentration more difficult, especially for children with ADHD.

It is no coincidence that PISA scores, the international benchmark for reading, maths and science, have been declining across much of the developed world since 2012. Countries including Sweden, France and Denmark have had the courage to rethink their approach, reinvesting in books, handwriting and paper-based learning while reducing the role of technology in classrooms. We should have that same courage.

For more than 15 years, Big Tech has been allowed to shape childhood with remarkably little challenge. This is not simply a UK problem, it is a global one, and it requires a global response.

As a Jewish community, it is especially important that we are mindful and intentional about the access to social media we give our children. Sadly, antisemitic content is widespread. No child should have to encounter hatred, prejudice or misinformation online. By taking an active role in guiding and monitoring our children’s digital lives, we can help protect them from harmful content, while fostering a stronger sense of identity, resilience and wellbeing.

Parents, communities and world leaders must stand together now and put children’s mental health, development and education ahead of corporate profits. Childhood should not be designed around the interests of tech companies. It should be designed around what children need to thrive.

The government’s announcement is a victory worth celebrating. It shows that change is possible when parents, professionals and policymakers come together around a common goal.

But this is not the finish line. It is the starting point.’