Under-18s feel addicted to social media – they need a doom-scrolling cap
3 min read
I was elected to Parliament last July wanting to make a real difference. Soon after, when I was selected as the Liberal Democrats’ Science, Innovation and Technology spokesperson, I knew just how important it would be to make the online world safer for young people.
At the Lib Dem autumn conference this year, I called for mandatory health warnings on social media apps alongside a two-hour ‘doom-scrolling cap’ for under-18s.
These proposals were built on the voices of parents, teachers, experts and – most importantly – young people themselves. The most insightful exchanges came from a Safer Screens Tour of schools where I spoke to young people about the impact of social media on their lives.
What I heard was clear: we must do more to protect children online. One young person wrote that social media was “as addictive as a drug, and I feel the negative effects of my addiction to it every day”. Another simply wrote: “Help, I can’t stop.”
It’s not just the harmful content that is worrying so many, it’s the way that these platforms are built specifically to keep young minds hooked. Push notifications, infinite scrolling, likes and streaks – all of these features are designed to create a product that captures attention and keeps them coming back for more.
Our children understand the grip that addictive social platforms have on them – and they desperately want to break free. Polling commissioned by the Lib Dems revealed that eight in 10 parents of school-aged children report negative behaviours due to excessive phone usage, including children skipping meals, suffering sleep difficulties and experiencing physical discomfort such as eye strain and headaches.
In practice our proposals for health warnings would be simple: any under-18 with a social media account would see regular alerts, appearing on that site or app, reminding them of the harmful effects. Social media companies are in the business of getting our attention and sharing content – this should be just as easy. Global voices like the former US surgeon general have already called for this and several US states are examining legislation to introduce warning labels. The UK should be forward looking and take the lead.
These warning labels wouldn’t be a silver bullet; however, they will ensure that young people understand the risks involved, empowering them to take action. The two-hour doom scrolling cap would complement this approach by introducing a maximum daily time limit for under-18 users and ending the ‘infinite scroll’ feature. We must help young people get the best out of technology, not the worst. These targeted measures could help make this happen.
Social media giants have failed to tackle the harms they inflict on young people for far too long. Although steps have been taken, the government is moving far too slowly while young people are still calling out for help and parents are sounding the alarm bells.
A public health approach means putting children’s wellbeing first – not the profits of US tech giants
We need to call this what it is: a public health emergency, and these calls represent a real opportunity for the UK to lead the world in tackling it. The impact of addictive social media on an entire generation constitutes a crisis that must be treated as such.
A public health approach means putting children’s wellbeing first – not the profits of US tech giants. It means bringing forward meaningful, evidence-based solutions that can help reclaim our children’s lives from an online world designed to trade on their attention. It means taking real steps to educate children and their parents about the risks of untrammelled social media access and the steps they can take to manage it. Only when we give parents and children the tools they need can we hope to move towards a solution.
Victoria Collins is the Liberal Democrat MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, and is the party's spokesperson for science, innovation and technology
