We need a social media site that is designed specifically for children and teenagers. And we need to do it as a non-profit, because there is no way that any of the big tech companies would ever build the sort of system that is required.
At this point, the problems with social media are all too familiar. Some concerns may be overhyped, notably the claim that social media is responsible for an epidemic of mental health conditions in teenagers. Complaints about 鈥�too much screen time鈥� are also simplistic. But many common critiques do stand up.
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Anti-feminist content has also proliferated, spread by users like Andrew Tate. This messaging has driven some young men to believe hateful things about women and steered them towards the extreme right. While certain sites have tried to stop their algorithms pushing this material, it is still common.
Meanwhile, online advertising is largely unregulated, so torrents of dodgy ads are targeted at users. There is evidence photo-editing, combined with diet and fitness influencers, are harming young people鈥檚 body image, which could lead to disordered eating. As some social media companies step back from more robust forms of content moderation and fact-checking, disinformation and other harmful content is likely to become ever more common.
At root, the problem is simple: no social media site to date has been designed with kids and teens in mind. Most of the early ones, like Facebook, were created by students in their 20s. Some have tried to adapt 鈥� witness and Instagram鈥檚 new 鈥� but these are the exceptions, and far from perfect.
Yet banning children from social media would be a misstep. They have every right to be online and, given they are growing up in a world where these sites exist, they must learn how to deal with them. But we won鈥檛 achieve that by throwing them in the deep end of adult social media.
What would a child-orientated social media site look like? First, it would have strong controls so a parent or guardian can limit with whom a child interacts and view all conversations. These restrictions need to be adjustable, so kids can be given more independence and responsibility as they get older. Perhaps there could be a limit on how often a child could post. It may be necessary to pre-moderate every post, at least for the youngest children. And there would be no advertising.
My model for this new social media site is, essentially, British children鈥檚 television. Every British parent swears by , the BBC鈥檚 channel for young children. It has no ads, the programmes are suitable for the youngest children and the entire vibe is lovely. My daughter has long since grown out of it, but it was a fabulous presence in her early childhood. Later, she joined the , essentially a tiny social media site for kids, with strict pre-moderation and anonymity rules. She never had a bad experience on there.
This goes to show that safe and enjoyable media experiences can be built for even the youngest kids. But you can鈥檛 do it by fiddling with an adult-centric model: you must aim it entirely at children.
Who could create this? No profit-making company would attempt it. In the US, Sesame Workshop (the producers of Sesame Street) might have been well-placed 鈥� . There are also open-source, non-profit organisations like the Mozilla Foundation and Wikimedia Foundation, but they have less expertise with children.
So my pick would be the BBC. It has already done it on a small scale with its fan clubs, its kids鈥� department is unparalleled, and it has a of technological innovation. Like it or not, our kids are growing up in a world with social media. We need to teach them how to navigate it.
Michael Marshall is a聽science writer based in聽Devon, UK
