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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAccording to OFCOM, three-quarters of social media users aged 8\u201317 have an account on at least one major platform, despite many platforms requiring users to be upwards of 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New guidance aims to implement effective age checks in a bid to prevent young people from viewing offensive content, but many think that the government needs to do more to protect them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study at Ecclesfield School comes in the midst of a social media ban for under-16s in Australia, with the eyes of the world watching to see whether it will effectively protect children online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lada Price, senior lecturer in journalism at the University of Sheffield, believes that parents and companies both need to do more to protect children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the government starts banning, then there will be outcry because of censorship.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mrs Price explained that there was a balance to be struck between respecting what children want and how we can protect them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUsually it tends to work when students feel they\u2019re being heard,\u201d she said. “They get exploited. It\u2019s absolutely horrendous for a parent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n What makes regulating social media such a difficult task is that there are many different issues that need to be dealt with to adequately protect children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liz Hunter, PSHE Curriculum Leader at Ecclesfield School, worries that children do not understand how the content they see affects them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s like they’re sitting with their mouths open being fed just the same stuff,” she said. “There\u2019s an opportunity for people who want to talk about the worst of everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI honestly don\u2019t know what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the potential harms, Mr Walkden said a total ban on smartphones or social media was increasingly difficult in a world that is so constantly online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Walkden said: “In the modern day world, you can\u2019t survive without a smartphone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If you haven’t got a smartphone, you\u2019re not in the game.” A pioneering study banning smartphones in a bid to “rewire” childrens’ brains is coming to Ecclesfield School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":267,"featured_media":75873,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Graph-1.png\")
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