Name: Social Media Addiction in Children Declared as Bad as Smoking
Uploaded: 2026-05-26T19:10:10+00:00
Description: Social media ranks alongside smoking as a danger to children, senior British doctors said on Tuesday, urging lawmakers to tackle the harm they say excessive screen time is causing to young people. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges detailed the impact of social media on children in a submission to the UK government’s consultation on protecting children online, which closes on Tuesday.

Social media ranks alongside smoking as a danger to children, senior British doctors said on Tuesday, urging lawmakers to tackle the harm they say excessive screen time is causing to young people. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges detailed the impact of social media on children in a submission to the UK government’s consultation on protecting children online, which closes on Tuesday.

Social media ranks alongside smoking as a danger to children, senior British doctors said on Tuesday, urging lawmakers to tackle the harm they say excessive screen time is causing to young people.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges detailed the impact of social media on children in a submission to the UK government’s consultation on protecting children online, which closes on Tuesday.

“It ranks alongside smoking and wearing seatbelts in cars as a unifying force for the medical profession,” the Academy stated. “There can be few issues which have united clinicians so resoundingly in recent years as the impact that unfettered exposure to tech and devices is currently having on children and young people’s health,” said the body, which represents the UK and Ireland’s 23 royal medical colleges and faculties.

A survey of 132 doctors revealed alarming patterns of tech-related health harm:

The harms documented ranged from physical injuries—for example, caused by replicating acts of extreme pornography—to mental health impacts, such as trauma from seeing violence online.

Britain is consulting on restricting children’s access to social media, including:

Australia last year became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, with European countries considering similar measures.

Britain’s online safety law already requires social media companies to take measures to protect children from illegal and harmful online content, but the government has committed to going further.

“The question isn’t whether we are going to act; we will, whether that is a ban on social media for the under-16s or restrictions on key features and functions,” Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told BBC News.

Families Testing Restrictions, Experts Divided

Hundreds of British families are testing social media bans, curfews, and app time limits to see how they impact children’s sleep, family life, and schoolwork.

However, experts remain divided on how effective a total ban would be, while a group of young people in London recently told Reuters they were opposed to restrictions.

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