'It's similar to gambling' - professor believes social media can harm children

A psychology professor says children consuming excessive amounts of social media experience a similar high to that experience gamblers.

Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington Josh MacAlister tabled a Private Member's Bill on protecting children from social media harms in Parliament last month.

The former teacher led an independent review into children's social care for the former Government.

Mr MacAlister says evidence shows a negative impact on children who 'doom scroll' for hours a day.

Padraic Monaghan, Professor of Cognition in the Department of Psychology at Lancaster University, believes excessive social media consumption activates similar feeling to gambling.

He said: "Some of the problems stem from activating similar brain circuits to when people are gambling, the release of endorphins in the brain, driving and repeating that behaviour.

"You get these classic symptoms of withdrawal and we do see that in very young children with apps designed to help them. They draw people in which make them hard to put down.

"Algorithms around the social media platforms are designed to draw us in and keep us there, that applies to adults too. But it problematically applies to children as well, they have less of an ability to consent, but as our cognitive systems become more mature we do get better at controlling our behaviour.

"This develops by the time we're 17 or 18 but children don't have those brain safety mechanisms in the same way."

The former Conservative government provided guidance to schools in England on mobile phone usage during the school day in February 2024, but it is currently not legally binding.

Mr Monaghan supports the social media bill tabled by MP Josh MacAlister, he believes tools are needed to manage the potential dangers of social media.

He said: "School teachers say they see something similar too, if devices are around the classroom - especially individual devices - that can be really problematic in bringing their attention back to the class.

"Some schools are banning mobile phones. It's something that has been tried in the Netherlands and all the responses are extremely positive.

"When you're using an app it takes a little while to recover to be able to give your full attention to environments, for example in the classroom.

"For some children it takes up to 20 minutes - but we have found there are some positive effects to some children's language development."

Arvin Parmar, a year 13 studying at Carlisle's William Howard School, says he downloaded most of the social media apps in year seven.

He said: "I'd say it really it just makes you vulnerable to seeing so much stuff that you really shouldn't see at that age. I think it definitely had an affect on me and other people I know, and I think it can be really toxic."

Lorna Graham, who's also in year 13, says she would compare herself to influencers online.

She said: "As a girl growing up on social media, I would compare myself to these influencers who became popular due to their looks or their overconsumption, they would buy so many things to look pretty.

"I felt like I had to be like that. And when I wasn't or when I couldn't be, it really took an impact on my mental health and self-esteem."

Richard O'Connor, Deputy Headteacher at William Howard, said: "We have the ban in place, I have to really stress it's not just about the ban, it's about the educational aspect of it.

"It's important that our students understand why we are putting this into place, in essence, to support them, their own social wellbeing, mental health and their progress in school."

The Bill originally called for schools in England to become mobile-free zones which the Government did not support.

MP Josh MacAlister is now focused on raising the age at which a child can consent to social media platforms accessing their data, pushing the 'internet adulthood' up to 16-years-old.

He said: "We know for the average 12-year-old they're spending 21 hours a week on their smartphones across the country - that's the equivalent to a part-time job.

"I am concerned about what children are looking at during that time because often it's a dopamine hit from doom scrolling - particularly for young girls - it means they're doing a lot of peer-to-peer comparisons.

"I am also really concerned about the stuff they're not because they're on those devices... real world interaction, playing, falling out with their brothers and sisters. I want to free up a bit more of childhood to be focused on those things, which is important for their development."

Detailing how effective the proposals would become, the MP added: "Social media companies would not be able to gather and hoover up all that data from kids which then feeds algorithms that then makes the content so addictive in the first place.

"It would mean a fundamental change in how social media worked to make it less addictive and get kids off their phones for a few more hours a day."

The bill will be debated in the House of Commons on 7 March 2025.

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