The government is under pressure to ban kids from having smartphones on school grounds. Calls are mounting for Labour to enact the enormously popular policy, which is backed by 79 per cent of Britons.
Most people want the government to go further. Almost three quarters of the country favour banning social media for those under 16, with those aged between 25 and 49 – what I call the “logged-on” generation – the most enthusiastic.
This is the first generation to be raised by the internet. They saw its localised excesses before its true mass consumption, and they are most sceptical about passing it down to younger generations.
Although the position is inherently authoritarian and conservative, it is also philanthropic. The internet was toxifying for us, millennials are saying. And we’re not letting younger people have it the way we did… hooked though we are.
We Brits are the most pessimistic we have ever been about the influence of the internet on society. And those who know the internet best are most aware of its dangers.
[Further reading: Will Grok destroy the special relationship?]
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