The creator of Adolescence, Jack Thorne, has praised the government’s social media ban for under 16s, which he believes will “do profound good”.
On June 15, the UK government announced that children under 16 will be banned from using social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). This is to prevent harmful or manipulative content being accessed by children.
Toxic online content influencing teenagers was part of the narrative of the award-winning series Adolescence, following the family of a 13-year-old schoolboy (Owen Cooper) who is arrested for murdering a classmate. Jack Thorne, who created and wrote the series alongside star Stephen Graham, praised the move in an interview with The Times, published Wednesday (June 24).
“I wanted Adolescence to start a discussion about our children’s relationship with social media, so what Keir announced is amazing,” Thorne said. “Because it is not just a boy problem — it’s a girl problem too, how the algorithm will give them information about harming themselves. It’s a children problem, wave upon wave of filth is thrown their way and the fact that this government is tackling it is amazing.”
Critics of the announcement have argued a blanket ban could do more harm than good, and prevent vulnerable teenagers from finding support or community. Thorne said while there is a lot of positive content online, the difficulty in separating what is helpful from what is harmful makes a ban necessary.
“Oh, there is lots of good that social media does,” he said. “Influencers, for instance, who will talk about mental health and the ability of minority groups of various forms to find solace in each other is great. The trouble is that those groups, outside the mainstream, are also the ones who are bullied online and fed stuff that is damaging.”
“So, if there was a way of keeping the cold tap running and turning off the hot, I’d be completely in favour,” he continued. “But the structure of the organisations and their algorithms have destruction within them, and some people just don’t understand how dark it gets, how quickly. You cannot police it effectively. You have to literally turn off both taps in order to get the hot off. The ban will do profound good.”
Owen Cooper’s performance in Adolescence, his first acting role, led to him winning numerous awards, including Best Supporting Actor at the BAFTA TV Awards. His rapid rise has seen Tom Holland recommend the young star as his successor for the role of Spider-Man.