What was once seen as privilege, a learning tool, and endless opportunities for children is now being seen far more dangerous than first thought.
The evidence of the dangers to developing brains of spending so much time online, rather than in the real world, grows with every passing day.
Campaigners and MPs have realised this, and the government are now slowly waking up to it too.
We saw it earlier this year with the way that No10 leant into the stories about nudification apps, and AI tools like Grok abusing images online.
Ministers went both barrels against Elon Musk’s X site and demanded that they act.
When I met Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street this week to discuss online safety, I was armed with the knowledge that many of our listeners care deeply about this subject.
We hear from callers, parents, teachers, and even kids themselves about worried about the effects of social media and spending time online.
Everyone is in agreement that more needs to be done.
Social media and tech firms have themselves taken some big steps towards acting to keep kids safe – teen accounts, curfews, the ability to control how many hours kids spend on phones per day.
Sir Keir admitted to me that even he’s done that with his own kids – that shows the scope of the issue.
I was in the room as he hauled in social media bosses and read them the riot act over dangers of online safety, saying it can’t be that the price of being online is that kids might face harm.
No product has an automatic right to be involved in our lives, let alone childhood, he told them.
And I was struck by his tone – he does understand the dangers that face kids out there.
He may not be a social media expert – he slightly struggled to tell journalists which his favourite app is – but he gets the political capital around this argument.
Despite fierce political debate for many years over the Online Safety Act, politicians are now united that we must take more action to keep our kids safe.
Freedom of speech is out, children’s safety is in.
Australia, France and Greece are leading the way with an all-out ban, and I reckon it’s not long before the UK will follow suit too.
But it will be done in ‘Starmer Style’ – armed with as much evidence as possible about how it would actually work, and the hefty weight of a consultation behind it.
Plus, Australia’s proved that this isn’t an easy fix, more a sticking plaster solution that won’t solve everything all at once.
I suspect that Starmer’s plan will likely go further than just a ban for under 16s – with a package of other measures on the cards.
I think we’ll see firms forced to stop features like auto-play for children, and stopping them from being able to see infinite posts.
That may also see a stronger ban on phones in schools too; putting that in law, rather than just guidance.
This will more than likely be before the end of the year too – he’s already taken the powers needed to enact such changes and was clear with me yesterday that it needs to be soon.
Labour MPs have repeatedly made this case to the PM, too; with the prime minister’s leadership still in a precarious position, it’s sensible to do whatever he can to shore this up.
Of course, there’s a balance to be struck; both with freedom of speech concerns, and worries that a ban won’t totally work.
Insiders think it is fair to take the time to get it right, and try and address the concerns of groups like the NSPCC and molly Rose Foundation, who have reservations about a blanket ban.
The PM and government have woken up to the reality – that parents want action on social media.
It’s now about how we do it, and what has the best effect. For now, he’s trying to encourage firms to do as much as they can before he acts.
A combination of extra safety features – led by these firms – combined with government action, appears to the way the government want to go.
It will be a landmark moment if Starmer follows nations around the world in banning social media for children.
But I highly suspect we’ll look back at some of the awful things we let kids do unattended online, with the outrage that we once gave to the idea of seatbelts in cars.
In future, it’ll seem totally mad that we didn’t act on the dangers earlier. It’s only a matter of time.
