In response to pressure from parents, politicians in Switzerland and elsewhere are considering social media bans. But teens say that won’t solve the problem.
A teen on her phone ignores a birthday cake. (Illustration by News Decoder.)
This article was produced out of News Decoder’s school partnership program. Ava Rabian is a student at Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich, a News Decoder partner institution. Learn more about how News Decoder can work with your school.
Australia’s announcement that it would ban social media for under 16-year-olds beginning December 2025 sparked heated debates in multiple other countries about whether they should restrict phone use by children and teenagers.
When the world was first introduced to smartphones in 1992, these devices were considered revolutionary. Now, almost 25 years later, the downsides are becoming apparent.
Recent studies show that algorithms can amplify psychological problems and negative thoughts, causing severe depression and eating disorders among teenagers.
I decided to do my own study by talking to teens around me about whether they thought a social media ban would be effective.
Most rejected the idea, saying instead that it would be more effective to educate young people on how to handle cyberbullying and sexual violence. Teens are often not properly educated on how to avoid such content or how to handle cyberbullying and sexual violence online, due to a lack of guidance.
Where responsibility rests
At least until last month, large social media platforms had not been held accountable for how they affect young users. That’s when a jury in California awarded a woman $6 million to be paid by the social media companies Meta and Google for having gotten her addicted to social media from a young age, which caused her long-term depression and anxiety.
Still, there remains a lack of government regulation about how social media companies can operate. One thing everyone can agree on is something must change. What that something is, however, is another matter.
Switzerland is considering a possible social media ban. In an interview with the newspaper ‘Blick’ in December 2025, Federal Council Member Elisabeth Baume-Schneider said she was open-minded on the issue.
In December 2024, a postulate (a request for action) was submitted to the Federal Council asking for a report on the topic. Two years later, however, the report is still nowhere to be seen.
Some suspect that the tariff wars with the United States may have halted the process.
Meanwhile, multiple surveys have been conducted among the population.
Measuring sentiment of social media bans
The results of a survey by Swiss research organization Sotomo found that 80% of the population support a social media ban and 82% support a phone ban in schools.
A study by media company Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) got similar answers: 85% of the population view the current excessive use of the internet as dangerous and are concerned that children are not receiving sufficient information on the topic and 97% of parents have set up some kind of rules or screen time limitations for their children, but around half of them struggle to enforce these rules.
When it comes to regulation, Switzerland is holding back, especially compared to other countries. The EU, for example, has had the Digital Services Act since mid-February of 2024. This EU law establishes uniform rules to increase transparency, security and, most importantly, accountability of platforms. Its goal is to combat illegal content and protect user rights.
While the EU itself does not have an all-encompassing social media ban, its member states have their own regulations. France, for example, has had a ban on phones in primary and secondary schools since 2018 and is set to extend it to high schools in 2026.
Protecting the youth from damaging content is of the utmost importance in the era of fake news and deepfakes, whether that is political or sexual content.
On the other hand, the Swiss foundation Pro Juventute has vehemently opposed an all-out social media ban, arguing that it would violate children’s right to age-appropriate information under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. They believe that the government should create better regulations and guidelines.
Social media affects more than teens.
Some might say that banning under-16s from social media is patronising. Social media offers teenagers so much more than just the risk of becoming addicted. It is their main source of information and entertainment.
For teenagers who feel isolated in the offline world, due to their sexuality, heritage or interest, social media offers a sense of community and reassures them that they are not alone.
A ban would shut the door to these open spaces, forcing young people to seek out even more niche spaces with fewer regulations and less oversight. By banning kids from these platforms, they will miss out on important digital competences that they need in the age of digitalisation.
As well as a lack of regulation there is also a lack of guidance from parents and other significant figures in children’s lives. You can’t expect children to learn what constitutes healthy use of digital media, if their parents themselves spend an unhealthy amount of time on their mobile phones themselves.
Negative content is not just found on social media, but in other parts of the internet too. Parents need to guide their children and take responsibility.
The same applies to large social media groups. I think that they should be legally required to control their platforms, remove any disturbing content and ensure that their algorithms no longer suggest it to minors or young people.
What teens say
When discussing a topic that affects around 15% of the Swiss population, it is important to hear their perspective. For this article I conducted a series of interviews with teens ranging in age from 14 to 18.
Most of them understood the reasoning behind implementing a social media ban for under 16-year-olds. Louise, a 16-year-old who enjoys analogue games in her free time, shared her thoughts: “I think banning social media is a good idea,” Louise said. “It’s addictive and really bad for the mental health of many people.”
However, almost all of them rejected the idea of a ban. Instead, the feeling was that children should be better educated about the dangers of social media and the internet.
Julia, 15, suggested that banning social media would be like banning drugs or pornography — something for adults only. This would mean that the content on these networks would end up being more tailored towards adults.
Anyone under the age of 16 still using these platforms would have access to this content without knowing how to handle it.
A ban would also remove liability from the platforms, since they could use the terms and conditions as an excuse.
Education is needed.
Multiple other people also pointed out that it’s not just young people who are addicted to social media, but adults too. Having grown up with mobile devices, teenagers have been told from a young age to ensure that they don’t spend too much time on them or become addicted to them.
This is not the case for adults. They have no one to teach them about the dangers of addiction; they just assume they won’t become addicted because they believe that they can just stop whenever they want, since their brains are already fully grown and mature.
Almost all young people who answered ‘yes’ to the question of whether they would call themselves a phone addict mentioned that their parents also spend quite a considerable amount of time on social media.
As 17-year-old Heather from Zurich, said: “It’s our parents’ job to raise us, not the other way around.”
Sarah, an 18-year-old high school senior added: “It’s not just young people who are addicted to social media, although adults always like to portray it as such.”
Since the possible social media ban would only affect people under 16, many teens over that age feel little need to confront the topic.
One such teenager is Mary, 16, who is of Georgian heritage: “Obviously I empathise, but I’m not affected since I’m already 16 and so I really can’t be bothered to care.”
These teenagers often talk about personal responsibility, saying that being told how to behave all the time doesn’t help them develop.
The quest to return a childhood, taken away from them by mobile devices, to children has certainly reached a breaking point. Whether or not to follow Australia’s lead with a social media ban for under-16s is now up to individual countries.
Questions to consider:
1. Why are many countries considering banning social media for young people?
2. Why do teens say a social media ban based on age won’t work?
3. In what ways would you be better or worse off if you were kept off social media?
Ava Rabian is a high school student at Realgymnasium Rämibühl in Zurich, Switzerland. In her free time, she enjoys reading books and practices karate.