Can we stop teens from using social media?

Countries have been moving to ban social media use among children and adolescents aged 16 and below, with the United Kingdom being the latest to announce a ban last Monday. Australia was one of the first to adopt such a policy back in December 2025, focusing on age verification and platform restrictions. In the Philippines, similar bills from both houses have been proposed, but none have yet passed into law. In the meantime, the Philippine Pediatric Society, Inc. has taken the position not to recommend social media use among children aged 16 years and below. This reflects a growing global concern about children’s vulnerability in digital spaces, with countries debating whether children need stronger protections online. While there is much to support such concerns, can these well-meaning policies and guidelines be realistically implemented?

There is emerging evidence on the risks of social media use among children and adolescents. We need to consider that brains are still actively developing at this stage, making them vulnerable to digital influences. In fact, a new Cambridge neuroscience study has identified five ages of the human brain throughout our lifetime, redefining adolescence as ranging from ages 9 to 32 years. Brains do not develop uniformly over time. The biggest growth happens in childhood. This is why kids can learn languages relatively fast, for example. The second burst of neural growth happens in adolescence (what we loosely call the “social brain”), when they start paying more attention to emotional and social cues in processing information and making decisions. This is also when we see the emergence of mental health problems as teens navigate complex emotions and challenges, resulting in underestimating risk and harm in situations, leading to increased risk-taking. They also place a high value on peer evaluation and social belonging, giving rise to bullying and peer pressure.

Social media environments are not designed with children’s well-being in mind. In fact, they can even exploit their vulnerabilities. The seemingly limitless stream of stimuli can pull young children toward watching and playing excessively, risking poor sleep and increasing irritability. Just see the billions of views on children-targeted content, as children can play the same video on loop for hours. In social media, information is unregulated and at the same time heavily curated. Algorithms are designed to keep users engaged. They show viral content, which tends to be highly stimulating and emotionally provocative, something that children and adolescents are highly vulnerable to. Think of social media as a grocery store where the shelves are constantly rearranged to keep you shopping, such as placing sugary, salty, and highly processed foods at eye level. You can still make healthy and responsible choices, but the algorithm makes certain choices easier than others.

While unregulated digital environments can expose children and adolescents to harm, it is still not certain if an outright ban is the appropriate solution. First, no studies yet have shown that bans are beneficial. Second, bans are notoriously difficult to implement. In Australia, 70 percent of adolescents continue to have access to social media despite age-verification measures. Age-verification measures, since they require identifying information, come with serious data privacy issues. We are also relying on the platforms to do the regulating, which is counter to their business interests. Ironically, we might risk making social media more appealing to adolescents as they are drawn toward pushing boundaries and exploring autonomy.

As a parent, I realized that the only way to minimize my child’s screen or social media use was to limit my own social media use as well, which is an even greater challenge. Schools and workplaces also now require some form of social media use, whether for online learning requirements, communication, or group collaboration. Can we really ban something that is so pervasive and essential to modern life?

Banning it outright also assumes that social media, as a whole, is harmful. Studies have shown that social media does offer some benefits, depending on how it is used. It offers social connection among friends and family. Children who feel isolated from their schoolmates can find online friends with shared interests. It can also be a good source of information, especially for niche topics and interests not covered in school.

Not all social media is the same. Some are more focused on connecting IRL (“in real life”) friends to each other. Others offer video content. Still, others center more on visuals, inciting more social comparisons. Some rely heavily on views, follows, and likes. Others encourage more back-and-forth conversation. Each of these elements comes with its own risks and benefits, thus requiring its own solution.