Chris Stokel-Walker

I think it's not that.

I just think it's a really poorly thought through solution.

So it is an attempt, I think, to try and tackle a real issue.

We've had

internal you know uh documentation from many of these big companies that has been released through whistleblowers through reporting by the guardian and others saying that actually they believe that there are elements of their apps that are harmful to younger users um but they don't want to say that mr zuckerberg did meta purposely design the platform children

Yeah, they are absolutely worried about this.

I mean, we only need to look, for instance, at the fact that there has been public lawsuits that have found against these platforms for the harm against Kayleigh, KGM, as she was known, a teenager in the United States.

And the fact that after that suit,

Big tech platforms have subsequently settled before they got to court other actions in a similar sort of vein.

So I think there is a recognition here that social media platforms are a bit on the back foot when it comes to these sorts of things and that the tide is turning.

I think that there are significant market young people to these platforms, not necessarily just for the here and now, but for the years to come.

The idea of building brand loyalty is a really important thing, right?

So if you say that we are the destination of choice for young people, you ingrain in them habits.

And this is in part, I think, why...

the government's approach of something needs to be done to try and get us out of this kind of horrible, vicious cycle of almost addiction to these platforms.

polling by the Molly Rose Foundation, which is a UK-based think tank set up by Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, who killed herself after being bombarded with terrible imagery on Instagram.

They did surveys of teenagers in Australia about a few months after the ban was put in place, asking, did you still have access to social media?

Did you still have your usual way of life?

61% of them said, yes, we do.

So, you know, in reality, kids are wily.