Will the UK’s social media ban backfire?

0:03On the 15th of June 2026, the British Prime Minister, at the time, introduced a major new policy. Today is a big moment for our country. This is a big step. Real change for our children and our future. Keir Starmer was about to announce arguably the biggest restriction on British behaviour since the indoor smoking ban of 2007. Because today I can announce that the government will ban access to social media for all children under the age of 16. Some children welcomed the ban If it is banned then it'll be a good opportunity for us to finally go outside instead of doom scroll Some wanted more alternatives to social media If they want to change something like that they should have alternatives Other children were a bit less hopeful Earlier we looked at screen time, what was your screen time over the weekend?

1:01Nine hours Nine hours, so suddenly you're going to have a lot more time to fill And what will you do? stare at a wall. But will the ban work? What happens when nationwide restrictions are put in place? How do these restrictions affect our psychology? And how do brands use similar restrictions to fuel their sales? All of that is coming up in today's episode of Nudge.

1:33most businesses have an overwhelming amount of data it's typically scattered across the business in different tools with different teams but because it's scattered no one can use it that is where hubspot come in hubspot connects it all every interaction every support ticket every conversation and they connect it into one platform that every team can work from. Because when you know more, you grow more. Check out HubSpot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses. Hello, you're listening to Nudge with me, Phil Agnew. Today, we are looking at the UK's attempt to ban social media apps for all children under the age of 16.

2:17The The ban includes some of the world's most popular social media apps. The Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the ban covering Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X amounts to world-leading action. Messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal, they aren't included and YouTube for kids is excluded as well. Gaming isn't included in the blanket restriction, though certain gaming features are. It'll remove high-risk features such as live streaming with strangers being able to contact children on gaming platforms. AI romantic companion chatbots will be banned for those under the age of 18.

2:57And once a child turns 16, the restrictions will remain in place by default, but those 16 and 17-year-olds have an option to turn the restrictions off. Schools will also be asked to educate children on harmful content online. Spotting deepfakes, using artificial intelligence and keeping safe on social media. Subjects all schoolchildren will be taught in schools in England from September. All of that came after a three-month consultation with 116 ,000 Brits. And this consultation, well, it found that nine out of ten parents, nine out of ten, backed the social media ban. That consultation also found that two-thirds of young people agreed that under-16s should not be allowed to use at least some social media platforms.

3:46Our consultation shows parents and children are concerned about what they're being exposed to online. That's Liz Kendall, the technology secretary. Harmful content, content that's completely inappropriate for their age, abuse and exploitation. They're worried about the impact on sleep, school, children's physical health and their emotional wellbeing too. Because of this, the UK government are also considering overnight curfews and enforced breaks on infinite scrolling for those aged 16 and 17. I think it's perfectly reasonable to say maybe between midnight and 6am you should be asleep. If you're 16 or 17, you've got your exams coming up, you need to focus on your future.

4:30We are running trials at the moment about this overnight curfew for 16 and 17 year old. It would be default on this curfew. And in case it's not clear, the reason why the UK government has taken this action is because they have concluded that social media is harming children's lives. Social media is making children unhappy. It's making it easier for bullies to harass and abuse them. And it could even be harming their mental health. exposing them to content that is dangerous, because that's what grabs the attention. It's designed to be addictive. Yet, as you heard at the start of the show, it is really not hard to find children who totally disagree.

5:14Many kids think the ban is a very bad idea. Here's the BBC reporting on the day the ban was announced. Hands up, those of you who welcome the ban. Hands up for those who welcome the ban. There are 12 teenagers in the room. It's in Tarleton Academy, a secondary school in Lancashire. None of the children raised their hands when asked. All of them disliked the ban. Let's just come over to you, Isabella. Tell me how you felt when you heard the Prime Minister say, no more social media for you. I didn't think it would actually happen. I kind of believed that he'd chicken out of it and give it more time or more consideration, but he seems pretty sure of it and I'm not sure if I agree with him.

5:59But while these teenagers have a right to their opinions, their frustration is, well, it's very expected. Bans and restrictions often elicit this response. If we are told not to do something, we feel an urge to do that thing. This is known in psychology as reactants. Put simply, reactants, or psychological reactants is the tendency to push back against something when you feel your freedom to choose is being restricted or taken away. There's a study from 1972 which showcases this very nicely. It's from three researchers from the University of Colorado. They interviewed 140 young married and unmarried couples.

6:40These weren't all teenagers but young adults aged between 16 and 20 and all of them were in a couple. They were asked about their love, their trust, and critically if their parents endorsed the relationship. Six to ten months later the researchers interviewed each of the couples again and the unmarried couples were parents who strongly opposed the relationship, parents who said they don't think their child should be with their partner, well those unmarried couples reported significantly more romantic feelings than anybody else. But when those parental objections weakened, when the parents after a bit of time sort of didn't mind with their child being someone they didn't originally want them to be with, the intensity of that child's affection towards their partner reduced.

7:27In other words, we want what we can't have, whether that's a romantic partner that our parents disagrees with or access to a social media app. And three teenagers interviewed on Sky News showcase this very nicely. So I don't personally support this social media ban because I feel that it pushes the narrative that it's young people's fault that they aren't safe online, which is so untrue. Yeah, I don't really agree much, but I feel like 16 is a bit too high. I think no, I don't think it will work. I think I compare it to vaping, because under 18s are banned from vaping, but a lot of younger children do.

8:05So how is the social media ban going to work when all you need is download a VPN and young people are accessing vapes from shops? So no, I don't think it will work. That last point from Tyler Parsons, a 16-year-old, is very interesting. He believes that children will try to get around the ban, and I reckon he's spot on. In 1965, Professor Friedman asked 89 boys aged between 10 and 7 to review five toys. Four of the toys were very ordinary, Tonka tractors and plastic submarines, stuff like that. But one of the toys was an expensive battery-controlled robot, a very, very alluring toy, especially back in the 60s.

8:47Midway through the experiment, the adult pretended to have an errand to run. Half the boys were given a mild threat by the adult. They were told not to play with the robot. And in the mild threat, the adult said, it's wrong to play with the robot. The other group of boys received a much more severe threat. They were told, if you play with the robot, I'll be very angry. One group is told, it's wrong to play with the robot. The other group is told, if you play with the robot, I'll be very angry. The severity of the threat changed the temptation. Only 29 % of those who heard the mild threat actually went and played with the robot.

9:24but that increased to 67 % of those who received the severe threat. When they're told if you play with the robot I'll be very angry you're actually more tempted to play with the robot. Not only do we try and circumvent restrictions but the stronger the restriction is the more we want to get around it. Australia since enforcing its own social media ban has really struggled to keep children off social media and has just recently announced higher penalties for tech firms who break the rules. Global tech giants will face tougher penalties for not complying with the under-16 social media ban as kids continue to find a way to stay online.

10:04The government declaring it's not here to play games despite not handing down a single fine since the law was introduced. Enforcing a total ban on social media for 16 year olds is quite obviously impossible. What is stopping a 16 year old taking their parents phone to access YouTube? Nothing, really. But the government seems to expect this. Will it mean that no child ever logs onto social media again? No. But look, this might shock you, but it doesn't shock parents of teenagers. They get around other laws too. But we don't say, oh look, a teenager managed to get a drink somehow, so let's not bother banning alcohol sales to children.

10:49We don't do that, do we? That would be utterly ridiculous. And so I just don't accept that argument. Children will obviously attempt to get around the ban, partly because once something is restricted, we always want it more. There's a study that proves this very nicely. It's from four Purdue university researchers and they asked 64 male participants to review a book. Half read that the book was restricted to those aged 21 years and over. The other half of boys saw no such age restriction. All other information about the book was the same. The blurb was the same, the reviews were the same, the subject matter, the front cover, all of that was the same.

11:29However, those who saw that the book had an age restriction, rated the book as 14.9 % more desirable, 10.5 % more readable, and expected to enjoy the book 2.8 % more. I wrote restricted to those age 16 and over on the show notes of this episode, and perhaps you are enjoying today's show more because of that restriction. Brands do this all the time. They restrict access to their products to make their products more alluring. Gmail originally was invite only. You could only get an account if an existing user invited you. Supreme, a clothing brand, only sells their products in weekly drops. Once they're sold out, they're gone.

12:12But one of my favourite examples comes from Disney. In an earlier episode this year, the great Robert Cialdini, the godfather of influence, he told me about how Disney restricted access to their movies to make customers desire their movies more. You can see that Disney does this with its classic movies like Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella. They take them out of the vault every so often. You can now get them and then they put them back in the vault after a period of time. You can't get them anymore. Your last chance to own Disney's ultimate fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty.

12:52No time to And the classic musical masterpieces Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. Because on January 31st, these hits are going back into the Disney vault. Get them before they're gone. It makes people pile in to those things because they are scarce, rare, and often dwindling in availability. In his book, Cialdini explains how the attraction to restrictions has been visible throughout history. Take phosphorates in laundry detergent. Over the past five or six decades, phosphorous have slowly been banned. Phosphorous, in laundry detergent, causes algae to multiply across lakes, which soaks up all the oxygen and suffocates the fish.

13:34It acts like a fertilizer for plants and algae in Spokane's rivers and lakes. And when those plants die, they suck up all the oxygen. During the decomposition, it eats up the oxygen and then the fish don't have enough to breathe. In 1972, Dade County in Florida banned the sale and possession or use of washing detergent containing phosphorates. In less than one week, stores all over Spokane will be pulling popular detergents from their shelves. Following the ban, researchers Mazis, Settle and Leslie interviewed 130 mothers. Half were from the banned county and another half were from a region of America, Tampa, Florida, that had no such ban.

14:17The mothers who were banned from owning the soap rated that soap higher on every single attribute compared to the mothers in a location with no ban. In their minds, the soap was 15 % better at removing stains, it worked 14.2 % better in cold water, and left clothes smelling 11.4 % fresher. Once mothers heard that phosphorates were to be banned, their perception of the product changed entirely. they immediately believed it was more powerful, more potent, better quality, and it led many of them to bulk buy laundry detergent. I'm glad I have what I have. You're going to stock up? I did. I bought it.

14:58I think the phosphate ban is a pretty good description of what will happen with the social media ban. Just like with the phosphate, as soon as the ban is announced, there is a real desire to circumvent it, and it will be extremely strong, this desire. Kids will download VPNs, they will pay others to create accounts for them, they'll use third-party computers to access social media content. But just like with the phosphates, after a while, circumventing the ban just becomes too much effort. In Virginia's James River, for example, phosphorus in the river dropped sharply after the ban was introduced, from a 85 % level before the ban to just 13 % after.

15:37These residents, they could have travelled to different regions to do their laundry, and many could have bulk bought laundry detergent from different states. But after a while, they just gave up doing this. Circumventing the ban is just too much effort. It was easier to just pay a little more and get an eco-laundry detergent. And I think the same will happen with the social media ban. After a few years, most children will give up trying to access social media content. Circumventing the ban will just be too much effort. But I think there's an even larger deterrent. because even if a child succeeds in getting on social media, the content on the apps will have dramatically changed.

16:16Imagine you are a 14-year-old in 10 years' time who manages to get on Instagram or Facebook, for example. Creators your age and nationality, well, they won't be on the platform because they're banned. Your friends won't be there. And perhaps more importantly, older creators who are allowed to be on the platform, well, they would have stopped making content targeted at you because your demographic won't be on the platform anymore. And all of that, I believe, will combine to remove the urge for younger audiences to join social media in the first place. In 10 years, a 14-year-old boy who does manage to circumvent the ban will find a social media platform totally devoid of content targeted at him.

16:57Gone are the videos about Minecraft and Fortnite. Gone are the memes that make him laugh. And that'll be the final nail in the coffin. The restrictions will make kids more desperate to access social media and the apps initially. But after some time, just like with the phosphates, that desire will almost certainly vanish. I think the ban will work, but I did not want to finish the episode here because there is much more to the psychology of restriction and friction. And after the break, I want to cover some examples of companies that use friction to make their products slightly more alluring. All of that coming up.

17:33Making Tax Digital is now live for sole traders and landlords. If you're not using compatible software to keep digital records and submit quarterly returns, then you need to be. It's something I've been getting my head around, and the Federation of Small Businesses has made it much simpler, which is one of the reasons I pay for my own membership. They offer a HMRC-recognised app, plus a free one-to-one overview session to get you set up properly. Visit get.fsb.org.uk forward slash nudge, or click the link in the show notes to sign up, and use code nudge to get 10 % off your membership. The Ross Simmons Show is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

18:12I've been following Ross for a while. His podcast is great. And an episode I'd highly recommend is called Mastering Time, Prioritization Over Productivity. He gives some really well thought out tips on how to prioritize your time, including something I care a lot about, which is how a small percentage of your efforts can drive the majority of your results. So go and listen to The Ross Simmons Show wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome back. You are listening to Nudge with me, Phil Agnew. In the first half of this episode, we covered the UK social media ban. I shared how bans and restrictions often have the opposite effect, making the banned substance far more attractive than before.

18:52But I also shared examples where bans still work. Despite fuelling attraction, they still defer behaviour. Just look at the phosphate bands across Europe and America. However, brands still attempt to use friction to make their products more alluring. Take pistachio nuts. In a very unscientific experiment a few weeks back at the pub, I asked a group of my mates to rank their favourite nuts. Walnuts came in last. Nobody preferred walnuts. They were followed by peanuts, hazelnuts and cashews, who a handful of my mates preferred. But pistachios came in first. most of my friends said their favourite nut was the green shelled pistachio.

19:31This mint green nut has become a real premium product in recent years. Boutique gelato stores stock the ever-popular pistachio flavours, Waitrose created a viral pistachio easter egg, and pistachio-filled Dubai chocolate briefly took the world by storm. But why? There is no objective reason. The flavour and texture of pistachios aren't wildly different to other nuts. You don't see many nationwide ads for pistachios and you don't hear many doctors suggesting we eat them. The answer as to why pistachio is so popular, I think, lies in the shell. The effort it takes to open a pistachio shell makes us enjoy the nut more.

20:11That small bit of friction, the extra step, alters perception. It's why pistachio products have multiplied in recent years and yet you'll never find a company successfully selling shelled pistachio nuts. The small bit of friction makes the nut tastier. Friction, whether it's a social media ban, an age restriction on books, or an instruction not to play with a toy, can make an object, a product, or a person more alluring. We are drawn to things that are hard to get, and the more effort required to get it, the more we want it. I remember when San Pellegrino first released their Limonata Lemonade.

20:47make a perfect moment with san pellegrino essenza the recipe is simple one part good people one part good food and a little mediterranean flavor the old san pellegrino soda had a foil lid wrapped over the can and i think that foil lid had the same effect as the pistachio shell the slight effort to get to the drink made the drink more desirable. I heard Rory Sutherland make an interesting point about this on a recent podcast.

21:42when you couldn't do the same with 10 cans of Fanta. There's something going on there which is not simply the rational hygiene component. It changes the meaning of the drink. You can't have 10 cans of Fanta at your wedding, but you can have 10 cans of San Pellegrino Aranchata. And that may partly be due to that foil lid. The slight bit of friction makes the drink more enjoyable. The same, of course, is true for wine. In 2017, Oxford professors Spence and Wang had 140 participants taste identical bottles of 2015 Melbeck. But there were two conditions. Half had to physically open the bottle themselves.

22:18They had to either pull out the cork themselves or unscrew the cap. The rest simply heard the researcher open the bottle and then all tried the wine. When questioned, those who opened the bottle of Cantina Melbeck themselves rated the screw cap version as 2.8 % higher in quality and the cork top version as 1.5 % higher in quality. A small amount of friction between the wine and the consumption imbued a positive perception. And I think the same is true for San Pellegrino and pistachios. The small amount of effort flips our enjoyment. And one final study before we go. A tiny amount of friction even made one American coffeehouse more profitable.

22:57A 2025 paper in the Journal of Marketing Research offered discounts to 100 ,000 people across eight experiments. In one of the experiments, some cafe customers were given an automatic discount on their coffee, while others had to enter a coupon code to access that discount. Those forced to enter the code were 59.3 % more likely to buy. In a follow-up study, participants were required to complete a capture form to unlock a discount for a pair of on-sale shoes, and that tiny bit of friction made shoppers 154 % more likely to buy than those who received the discount by default. Friction nudges us to act.

23:40Smart businesses make promotions more enticing by adding friction and ill-informed parents make a child's undesirable partner more attractive by denouncing them. But despite all that, a full-scale ban will have a major impact. It won't stop every single child from accessing social media, but it will dramatically reduce the numbers of children endlessly doom scrolling. Many children will feel at first that temptation to circumvent the ban, but as time goes on that desire will lessen and perhaps most importantly a social media ban does something that a smoking ban or a book ban never could do. It fundamentally changes the product.

24:21With no British children on social media, the actual content on social media will get significantly worse for British children. Children won't see creators like them and adult creators will stop creating content for a demographic that are no longer online. The smoking ban didn't change the addictiveness of a cigarette once you tried it but a social media ban does because the content will become worse for children. The addictiveness of social media will actually decrease as time goes on and that in my view will make the ban a long-term success. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Nudge, folks.

25:01And thanks again to the Federation of Small Businesses for sponsoring today's episode. As I mentioned in the ad, I'm a member of the FSB and I signed up with my own money before they even sponsored this show. I did say because I myself run a small business that really, really benefits from their support. As a member, I get member-only discounts, which have saved me literally hundreds of pounds. I'm in a community of 500 ,000 other businesses but more importantly I get legal advice I get 100 ,000 pounds worth of cover for things like tax investigation protection and help with recovering debt from clients who haven't paid their invoices as I have no employees I pay just 195 pounds a year for my membership and I've already made that back in discounts but if I have any legal problems it'll be worth 10 or even 100 times more than that so thank you again to the FSB for supporting the show.

25:53As a reminder, they have very kindly agreed to give a 10 % discount to all Nudge listeners. They don't really do discount codes, so this is a genuinely good deal. It's a discount on your full year membership. So to get that discount, click the link in the show notes. You have to click that link. Use the code Nudge, that's Nudge, N-U-D-G-E, at checkout, and you'll get 10 % off your first year of membership. You will not regret it. Thank you again for listening. I'll be back next Monday for another episode of Nudge. Bye-bye.