Social Media Bans Demand Teen Mental Health Studies — SkimNews
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- Australia became the first country to ban social media for people under 16 in December 2025, with Indonesia quickly following the same path.
- Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to resolve U.S. claims that Facebook and Instagram harmed children, and will introduce 'safety by design' features such as concealing the number of 'likes' on posts.
- The European Union is banning social media for children under 13 and personal accounts for people under 15 after pressure from several member states, while the United Kingdom plans to introduce its own social media ban in spring 2027.
- A British Medical Journal evaluation found little evidence of substantial reductions in social media use three months after Australia's ban took effect, and Australia's online watchdog reported that more than 80% of children were still using a restricted platform.
- Wellcome, a London-based philanthropic foundation and one of the world's largest mental health research funders, will fund evaluations of the UK ban's impact on youth mental health, with research teams working with tens of thousands of teenagers.
- Young people consulted for the research reframed the debate, repeatedly asking researchers to examine what role social media currently plays in their lives and what might replace it — rather than simply measuring changes in screen time.
Why it matters: Early Australian data shows over 80% of children still used restricted platforms three months after the ban, and a BMJ evaluation found little evidence of substantial use reductions — making Wellcome's planned study of tens of thousands of UK teens ahead of the spring 2027 ban the first rigorous attempt to measure real mental health effects.
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