Britain’s teens want safer social media, not an outright ban, finds Channel 4 research
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Britain’s teenagers want politicians, regulators, platforms, and advertisers to make social media safer, but most do not support an outright ban, according to the latest research from Channel 4.
The broadcaster’s Teenhood Today study finds that just 31% of teens support a social media ban, while 81% say they would find ways around it.
The findings come as the Government prepares to ban under-16s from using certain social media platforms. Former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the policy in June, with the first regulations due to be laid before the end of 2026 and changes expected to take effect in spring 2027.
Rather than the Australia-style approach being adopted by the Government, 51% of teenagers surveyed said they would prefer under-16s to have access to social media with harmful features blocked.
The research finds that teenagers value social media for news and connection. Two-thirds (66%) believe a ban would leave them less informed about the world, and 57% say it would limit their opportunities to build connections.
The study, which surveyed 1,000 teenagers aged 13 to 19 across Gen Z and Gen Alpha, also finds strong support for specific interventions, with 71% saying bots should be banned, 66% supporting a ban on abusive language and 69% backing a ban on the sharing of fake news.
Taken together, the findings suggest teenagers are seeking greater control over their online experience rather than simply less access to social media.
The report comes as platforms face growing pressure to introduce more targeted protections for young users. In August, Meta agreed to an $18bn (£13.3bn) settlement with US states and territories over claims that Facebook and Instagram harmed children.
As part of the settlement, Meta will introduce a series of measures including default time limits, overnight restrictions, school-hour controls and greater choice over algorithmic feeds. The measures are currently restricted to the US, but they add to the growing pressure on platforms to introduce more protections to make their products safer.
What teens want from advertisers
The research also highlights high expectations around transparency from brands.
Six in 10 teens (60%) said they would stop using a brand if it ran a misleading advert, while 63% said they feel they are “constantly being sold to”.
However, the findings suggest teenagers are not rejecting advertising, but are demanding relevance and transparency from brands. Two-thirds (66%) said they are happy to see advertising in exchange for free access to content, while 72% said they are happy to see ads they consider personally relevant.
When asked what they want from advertising itself, 34% said they want to be told the price, while smaller proportions said they like ads to make them feel emotional (9%), feature a dramatic storyline (11%), or feature a celebrity or influencer (11%).
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Teens are confident navigating the online world
Channel 4’s study also found that many teenagers feel confident identifying misleading or commercial content online.
Almost eight in 10 (79%) said they were confident identifying shoppable content, while 77% said they were comfortable identifying AI-generated imagery. Three-quarters (75%) said they were confident spotting phishing messages, while 65% felt comfortable identifying fake news.
Despite this confidence, trust in social media remains low. More than half (55%) said they do not know who to trust online, while 68% said they see things they believe are untrue or unreal most days. Half (50%) said they do not trust algorithms.
Rak Patel, chief commercial officer at Channel 4, said the findings show that teens do not want to “shut the digital world down”, but want “society to step up and enable trust”.
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