Banning social media for young people, Professor Wolfers?
Text: Lara Wolfers, media psychologistA ban aims to protect young people from the risks of social media, but what would they also be losing out on? Perspectives from media psychology.
Key takeways
- Studies do not consistently find negative effects of social media on well-being or depressive symptoms. The impact varies considerably from one young person to another.
- A ban would deprive young people of important spaces for forming opinions, exploring their identities, and connecting with others. It could also make open conversations about negative experiences more difficult.
- Lara Wolfers advocates holding platforms more accountable, for example through stricter rules on harmful content and features designed to keep users engaged for as long as possible.
According to a study by Zurich University of Applied Sciences, in 2024, almost 90% of 12- to 19-year-olds in Switzerland used social media for entertainment, with 57% also using them to find information. Many people are critical of this situation and accuse social media of encouraging depression, radicalizing young people and worsening their body image.
The image painted by research is less clear when it comes to the impact of social media on young people. Although there are, for instance, indications of problematic effects on body image, studies often find no impact on general well-being or depressive symptoms, also because such effects are highly individual. Additionally, it is difficult to distinguish between causes and consequences: Often, usage patterns are an expression of problems in a person’s life offline. Social media can exacerbate these problems or offer a place where people can find encouragement. In short: It’s complicated.
So, should there be a ban on social media for young people under the age of 14 or 16? One argument in favor of a ban is that social media expose young people to unsuitable content and things that make them feel uncomfortable. For some adolescents, the time spent on social media would be better spent doing something else. There is also a problem with the business model of social media platforms, which aim to maximize profit rather than the welfare of their users. This encourages the extensive collection of data and favors designs that are intended to maximize usage time.
On the other hand, there are also good arguments against a ban. In our digital societies, social media have become political spaces where opinions are formed. A ban would deprive young people of a key space for civic participation. Social media can also help people discover their own identity. Young people sometimes lack role models — such as someone of the same sexual orientation — in their immediate environment. Social media platforms offer insights into many different ways of life, allowing young people to reflect on which one suits them.
A ban could also complicate precisely the sort of conversations that are essential to dealing with negative experiences. If parents have banned Instagram and their daughter uses it anyway, she might not tell them that someone has sent her intrusive messages. At school, too, it is harder to discuss experiences that were not acquired “legally.” Research into media education has shown how important it is for young people to talk about their experiences with media.
A ban is therefore not an ideal approach. Likewise, simply continuing as before would result in too many young people having negative experiences. So what are the alternatives? One possibility would be strict regulation of the platforms, with penalties based on the providers’ profits. Social media companies have far from exhausted their means of prioritizing the well-being of their users. We could force them to remove problematic content quickly and reliably and to deactivate, by default, the aspects of the design that encourage longer use. Our aim should be to create online spaces where young people can participate in societal discourse and express themselves. Only if that fails should we talk about a ban.
Lara Wolfers is Assistant Professor of Digital Lives at the Faculty of Psychology. Her work focuses on media psychology, including research into everyday digital life and how well-being and social relationships are affected by digital media.
More articles in this issue of UNI NOVA (November 2026).