Protesters held a demonstration outside government offices on Friday morning to urge ministers to “look beyond” a proposed social media ban for under-16s.
A consultation on whether to bar young people from social media platforms is set to close next week as politicians look to respond to growing pressure to ensure UK law is keeping children safe online.
But demonstrators from the group Mad Youth Organise said a ban “isn’t the answer” and called on politicians to crack down on Big Tech’s power instead.
Protesters gathered outside the Department for Science, Technology, and Innovation, as well as outside Meta’s London headquarters, to argue that age-based restrictions penalise young people rather than tackling the real harm.
The group installed bright pink telephones outside both buildings, which when lifted by employees, played messages left by young people sharing their vision for social media.
These included the ability to control their own algorithm, removing addictive features like auto scroll, and removing advertising from platforms.
Run by young people who say say “addictive” and “dangerous” social media algorithms damaged their mental health, the movement is calling for an alternative approach to tackling children’s safety online.
The group’s demands include a four per cent “misery tax” to be imposed onto the UK revenue of tech corporations, and for the money to be fed back into positive action through mental health services and the creation of new, community-led platforms.
Hannah, from Mad Youth Organise said: “We’re outside the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology to tell the government they need to look beyond a ban to action which will really make social media safe for young people.
“The big tech billionaires have shown they don’t care about our wellbeing, for them social media is just a tool to amass money and power. That’s why we’re telling the government the ban isn’t the answer. Taking social media away from the strangle of big tech corporations is!”
Diarmaid McDonald, the director of Just Treatment, the campaign group behind Mad Youth Organise, previously told The Independent the group aims to “recognise the critical role social media is playing in undermining people’s health”.
“We think that every firm that is culpable for this youth mental health crisis across multiple industries should be paying a four per cent tax to finance a huge scale up in services,” he explained. “It’s about trying not to have a knee-jerk reaction to this really important problem and implementing a solution that isn’t going to fix it and is going to make other problems worse.”
Meta and DSIT has been contacted for comment.
