P - honing it in Br - itons, smartphones an - d social meda

Asked to describe the impact of social media on society in a few words, the top responses from the public are “negative”, “bad” and “dangerous”. [...] Crucially they don’t think that social media companies can be trusted to regulate themselves, and want the Government to support them in protecting people (and especially their children) from the most harmful and uncertain effects of social media. [...] 46 per cent of parents in the UK say they struggle to limit the amount of time their children spend on their phones - more than in France, Germany and the United States. [...] And I feel that there's a lot of diagnosis coming out of autism and ADHD and I'm sure they're all related to the way these young people operate with the phones because they're not concentrating, they're not in the moment, they're just following a screen around. [...] Whether it is a complete ban on social media for young people, or better enforcing school bans on smartphones, these age related restrictions are top of the public’s list of priorities for helping parents to take back the control they have lost with the emergence of social media.