38% of parents say it has a negative impact on their own children

Key takeaways

  • 77% of parents support a ban on social media for under-16s
  • 82% of parents say social media use has a negative impact on children; 38% say it has had a negative impact on their own children
  • 88% of parents say social media companies need to be doing more to protect children from the negative effects of social media; 76% say the same of the government
  • 33% of parents admit to needing to do more themselves to protect their children
  • 73% of parents say it is difficult for parents to keep children safe online
  • 33% feel badly able to control what their children access online
  • The biggest obstacles parents feel to when it comes to managing their children’s social media use are the impossibility of always checking on them, peer pressure, and striking the balance between monitoring them and respecting their independence

Today Keir Starmer announced under-16s will be banned from social media.

As YouGov has shown previously, such a policy would be widely popular with the general public. In our latest survey, looking more specifically at the views of parents, we find that 77% of those with children under the age of 18 would support a ban, compared to only 14% who are opposed.

Despite this, parents are divided on how effective they think a ban would be, with 45% expecting it would be effective but 46% disagreeing. The wider public are even less optimistic, with fully 59% expecting the ban not to do much – including 52% of those who support the ban! This again is consistent with our previous studies.

How negative an impact do parents think social media has on their children?

Our study shows that 82% of parents believe that social media has a negative impact on children – including 48% who say it has a “very negative” impact.

When it comes to their own children, 38% of parents report that their offspring have been negatively impacted by social media, including 14% who see a “very” negative effect on their own children.

Who do parents think needs to be doing more to protect children from the harms of social media?

Fully 88% of parents think social media companies need to be doing more to protect children from the downsides of social media, including 71% who say they need to be doing “much more”. Just 7% of parents think social media companies are doing as much as can be reasonably expected.

Likewise, 76% of parents think the government needs to kick up their activity on this issue, although a much lower rate of 43% think they need to be doing “much more”.

Three quarters (76%) believe that parents in general need to be doing more to protect their children from the negative impacts of social media, including 48% who say other parents need to be doing “much more”.

However, only 33% believe they personally need to be doing more to protect their own children (and just 13% confess to needing to do “much more”).

Instead, most parents (58%) believe they are doing as much as can be reasonably expected to keep their children safe from the harms of social media.

Separately, when it comes to schools, 41% of parents think they need to be doing more on the issue of social media, but 51% think schools are doing as much as can be reasonably expected.

What do parents see as the biggest obstacles to keeping their children safe online?

Almost three quarters of parents (73%) say that it’s difficult for parents to keep their children safe online. However, 49% say they personally feel they are well able to see and control their parent’s online and social media usage; 33% feel badly equipped for this task.

When it comes to the biggest obstacles parents feel they face in managing their children’s use of social media, the most common answer is that it’s impossible to monitor their online activity all of the time. Half (54%) of parents picked this from our list.

The next most frequent answers are the difficulties caused by peer pressure from their children’s friends (46%), and striking the right balance between monitoring their children and respecting their privacy or independence (46%).

Other common answers include concerns their children will feel excluded (39%), while 37% say the failure of social media companies to pull their weight is a top problem.

Full tables coming shortly

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