To ban or not to ban? Young people take nuanced view of apps

Nine in 10 parents in the UK support an under-16 social media ban, but the feeling among the children it would affect is more mixed.

- Dan Milmo

Or at least it is for a group of 10 preteens and teenagers who talked to the Guardian at a location in west London this week.

The 12- to 16-year-olds were well versed in the debate, with a set of views ranging from mandatory time limits to tougher controls and a full ban for under-16s. All those options are under consideration in a government consultation on children’s online safety that is due to deliver a verdict next week.

Precisa, 13, is on TikTok and Instagram, but not for the usual reasons: she runs a roll-on deodorant business in her spare time and uses those platforms for marketing. Snapchat is her main app for personal use - largely messaging.

“It will definitely be much, much harder to [run the business] without those apps to help me,” she says. Precisa is also deputy youth mayor of the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and says social media plays an important role in publicising the youth council’s work.

Precisa thinks a blanket ban is not the answer anyway. Instead, she believes there should be tougher monitoring of harmful content and limits on screen time. “I think it would be much better if it was controlled more or monitored, because there’s a lot of people posting very inappropriate things, even on TikTok,” Precisa says.