Childhood, Carefreeness and Social Media: The Case Against Social Media Bans
Ruth Wareham

Recent policy developments in Australia, the UK, and across Europe reflect growing support for banning social media access for under-16s. Such bans are often defended as necessary to protect children’s mental health and wellbeing. This paper examines the philosophical claim that prohibitions on social media can be justified by appeal to the childhood good of being carefree. I argue that this justification fails. While negative online experiences can generate stress and anxiety, social media can also foster positive emotional responses such as excitement, awe, and delight; support children’s engagement in meaningful projects, including play and education; and help them to cultivate and maintain interpersonal relationships. For some children, online spaces also enable forms of social participation that are unavailable offline and thus may mitigate stress and anxiety. Finally, I suggest that blanket exclusion from social media risks unjustifiable silencing, undermining children’s participatory rights and obstructing the graduated engagement with online spaces required for becoming good digital citizens.

Ruth Wareham is a moral and political philosopher whose research focuses on education, particularly normative questions about religion, belief, values, and justice in schooling. Before becoming an academic, she taught in primary schools in Birmingham and the West Midlands for six years. Between 2018 and 2025, she worked in education policy at Humanists UK and remains involved with the organisation as a Research Associate and member of the Humanist Philosophers Group. Along with Dr Laura D’Olimpio and Dr Jane Gatley, she is the co-author of Philosophy of Education (Palgrave Philosophy Today, 2025).