Devastating or positive? Students have their say on social media ban

As a snapshot of how teenagers are divided about how the government's plan for a social media ban for under-16s could affect them, we took their reactions the day after the announcement from a school in Coventry.

Apps including TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram will become inaccessible for children, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Monday.

At Lyng Hall School, Bhavika, a pupil said she thought the idea would be "positive," and better for her, as it meant she could go out more, study and spend time with family.

"We need to stay children, we shouldn't really exposed to the outside world this young," she added - but another student said she was "really devastated" by the ban idea.

Lisa Hagan, the school's director of English, was supportive and had seen the impact social media had had, on young boys especially.

"I think it's quite an overwhelming decision that they've made, but personally from my position as an educator, I think once they understand the why, I think it can be only a good thing for our people," she said.

Elian, another student, said she was "really devastated" by the idea of a ban but understood the government's decision.

"I feel like they shouldn't ban it, they should put some restrictions in the apps, where we can stop ourselves from seeing what we don't want to see," she told the BBC.

Fellow pupil Iris added that social media was a way of "connecting with the outside world".

Hagan said she felt the pupils' initial reaction was focused around their friends or "online being their whole world" in terms of how they connected with other people and communicate.

"Social media is the way that they form connections and form relationships, it is their social life beyond the boundaries of home or beyond the boundaries of school," she explained,

"So with that being removed from them, they don't quite know then what to do with that space."

As per school policy, pupils were encouraged not to bring in their mobile phones unless it was needed for their commute to and from school, but they were banned from using them in lessons and social times, she added.

Hagan added the ban would be a "collective responsibility" and part of it would be parents policing their children's devices.

"Whilst it has benefits, what social media has done is created limits and boundaries to how we can interact with one another," she added.

"I do feel that there would need to be intentional planning for what we do about it once it comes into force next spring."

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