Original subtitles

We're about to spend a week with two social media-obsessed teenagers.

I think I spend way too much time on my phone.

I just scroll and scroll and scroll.

It's terrible!

What happens when they give up their smartphones

and allow us to film the whole thing?

I did know that I was going to struggle for, like,

the first bit, but I didn't know I was going to struggle this hard!

Lots of kids say they see stuff on their phones

they don't like, and social media companies

stand accused of not doing enough to protect them.

Kind of just stains your brain,

and it's all you think about for the rest of the day.

We are asking a private company to moderate themselves,

which is like asking a tiger not to eat you.

Calls to restrict our kids' use of smartphones are growing.

I personally would ban them

and I think we need government directive to do that.

But is a ban really the answer?

I don't think we should expect kids to use their phone less,

because we're not.

We're not. I'm not.

You're not.

I don't think anyone is.

On the outskirts of Birmingham, 14-year-old Josh

says he can spend up to ten hours a day on his smartphone.

He messages his friends and scrolls through hundreds of TikTok videos.

It's pretty much like my best friend.

Like, I use it every single day.

I always have to have it next to me because, like,

I won't get scared that I'm being like, left out, or something.

During the week,

Josh's mum makes him leave his smartphone downstairs at night.

But at the weekend it's a different story.

I, like, watch my phone throughout the night.

My phone would be, like, constantly going off,

which will wake me up, and then I'll have to check it,

just to see if I'm, like, missing anything important.

Normally at four in the morning it's not that important.

He's very tired the next day

because he's been up all night and he's not had enough sleep.

Sometimes, even when he's asleep you can go in

and he's still holding the phone

and it's still playing a TikTok video, or something.

A few miles away, 13-year-old Keah is also rarely off her phone.

When I'm not at school, I probably use it, like, a LOT.

Like, most of the day.

She scrolls through dozens of videos an hour

and chats to friends and family around the country.

Sometimes I stay up all night, maybe until about, like, 5am,

watching TikTok or playing games,

or watching Netflix, or anything like that.

I just scroll and scroll and scroll.

It's terrible.

Sometimes I'll go to my sister's and the family will meet there

and she'll just go upstairs and be on her phone.

And that's the time

when I feel like I would like her to just put the phone down

and have her family time.

Many of us are obsessed with our smartphones,

but what's the impact on our kids?

From looking at Keah and Josh's social media feeds,

they're not seeing anything that's too bad.

But, as the BBC's disinformation and social media correspondent,

I've seen countless harmful posts

that many teenagers have been exposed to,

and I've investigated the part they've played

in violence, suicide, and even murder.

A third of 8- to 17-year-olds in the UK

say they've seen something worrying or nasty on social media

in the past year.

What are the things that people are most worried about?

People are most worried about

violent content,

and what we hear from children as well

is that it's often the case

that they see this violent content as unavoidable.

Access to pornography is also one concerning area

where children are accessing pornographic content

younger and younger in age.

Tends to be a minority of them

that get exposed to the most harmful content.

What we know, however, is that once you are exposed to that

harmful content, it becomes unavoidable.

Radical moves are being proposed to protect kids around the world.

Florida's banned social media for under-14s.

France is talking about a smartphone ban for under-13s,

and in the UK,

calls to delay giving kids smartphones are growing.

So, what would it look like if we take kids' phones away?

I'm about to conduct a not-very-scientific experiment

to help me find out.

In Birmingham, smartphone obsessives Josh and Keah have agreed

to give up their phones, tablets and personal laptops for a week.

I feel quite nervous about it

because then it's just not going to...

It's going to be really weird not being able to, like,

message everyone every day.

I think my main feeling will definitely just be being bored

because when I'm feeling bored, I'm just like, "I'll go on my phone."

So let's start with your phone.

In it goes. Oh!

We've got everything else.

Thank you very much.

Their mums will look after all their devices.

I think she's going to go stir crazy by the end of the week,

but we'll see.

I'm quite excited to see what's going to happen,

I'm not going to lie.

We're giving both teenagers brick phones

with no internet access, in case there's an emergency.

So, this is your new phone.

What?!

A very old phone.

Do you like it? Yeah.

There's only numbers.

It's like being a kid when I was a kid.

Do you know how to turn it on, Josh?

I have no clue!

It's like Christmas.

They've agreed to let us install cameras in their homes

to see what happens.

LAUGHTER

Goodnight.

It's the first couple of days of our experiment.

Josh used to be woken in the night by friends' messages,

but now he's sleeping better

and starts the week with purpose.

My day was, like, a lot more productive.

Like, I ended up writing a to-do list,

and at the end, I was just so impressed with myself.

I cleaned my room. Like, I got the vacuum out and everything.

I even got the polish out.

I think it's actually immaculate right now.

Across town, Keah is finding the first couple of days

more difficult than Josh.

As soon as you left, I was just...

I felt like I was just like, "I need my phone". Um...

Um, yeah, I was complaining a lot.

I'd just describe it as bored and irritable.

Around two-thirds of 12- to 17-year-olds in the UK

say being online helps them build or keep friendships.

Many of Keah's friends don't live close by,

so without her phone she feels lost.

I'd usually just FaceTime my friends and I was missing that the most.

I love FaceTime with my friends and just playing games with them.

She's agitated in a way.

She's a little bit more snappy as well.

It's not easy for Keah because her mum's on her own phone all the time.

We all use them now to do everything from paying bills to ordering food.

Tonight, dessert's on the menu.

I think right now I'm jealous of her because I can't go on my phone.

I did know that I was going to struggle for, like, the first bit,

but I didn't know I was going to struggle this hard.

If we took phones away from children,

I don't think we would overnight have happier children.

Young people say the phone is the solution

rather than the cause of the problem,

so it's how they relax when school is stressful,

or how they get in touch with their friends

when they're feeling lonely or worried about some things.

It's one thing to control how much children use their phones at home,

but what about at school?

Guys, put your phones away, please.

Here at the Q3 Academy in Langley just outside Birmingham,

headteacher Peter Lee oversees a strict policy.

Morning, guys! Good morning!

Are we Langley listeners today?

At the start of every day, students' phones are locked

in a safe, and phones found after this are confiscated for five days.

I can see the kind of criticism at times -

"it's draconian" and so forth.

I think, however, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

The benefits for me are disruption-free learning.

You know, I've visited some schools that allow children on iPads

or their own devices at lunchtime, and they're just sat on a phone.

Studies suggest it's too early to say whether taking away

smartphones completely would improve performance at school.

But students here say giving up their phones

during the school day helps them focus.

Social media is VERY addictive.

You're just sat there scrolling,

and then the next thing you know, you've gone like four hours.

I just watch recommended videos and I'm sat there for ages.

I'm like, "just one more minute".

Yeah. One more minute turns into another hour.

Many teachers are also worried

that kids are being bullied on social media.

Here at Q3 Academy,

taking phones off students during the day

doesn't stop arguments kicking off at night.

I would say 50% of our pastoral issues

that the team deal with

come from overnight,

or over the holiday especially,

that have happened on social media,

and then parents are saying, "This child said this about my child,"

and it's all on kind of WhatsApp or Snapchat and so forth.

Children are more likely to be bullied in person

than they are online.

But if it happens on a phone, it can feel relentless.

What we do have is evidence that bullying is now more 24/7

because it's always there on your phone,

and it's hard to escape.

When it happens to you, it's more all-encompassing.

I think that's notably worse than it used to be.

Josh!

In Birmingham, Josh has resorted to desperate measures.

TUNELESSLY:

Keah is doing much better than she was

and is using the time to get out of the house more.

I love being outside, and I love,

like, going out for walks.

I love going out to eat. I love going out shopping.

It's actually a really nice day.

Only a quarter of kids in England today say

they play out on the street, compared with

more than three-quarters of 55- to 64-year-olds,

who say they did.

More cautious parenting plays a part in that.

A lot of Keah's life is on her phone,

simply because I don't let her hang out on the streets with her friends.

Like, if she wants to go out with her friends, no problem.

I'll go and grab your friend. I'll take you to the cinema.

I'll pick you up afterwards.

It's been good to just go out for a walk and spend time with my dog

and my mum, just relaxing.

Over the last...10, 20 years,

we have reduced free play time at school.

We have reduced what many children used to love,

which was the walk to and from school

because we drive them about everywhere.

Um... They don't know where they can go

and casually meet their friends in a way that, you know,

parents are going to let them do.

So they go on their phone.

The more time kids and adults spend on smartphones,

the more money the social media companies can make

through ad revenue.

They use computer systems called algorithms

to recommend stuff they think we might like,

based on the preferences of other users like us,

and also what we show an interest in.

It's all to keep us coming back,

but some of the content that can keep us gripped can also be harmful.

Kai is 18 and says he's had violent and misogynistic content

recommended on various social media apps since he was 15.

Some of the stuff is just like really gratuitous violence. Mmm.

And they push it like it's a good thing.

Kai's into boxing and martial arts,

but he doesn't want to see the violent images

he says the algorithms are serving up on Instagram and TikTok.

Think back to when you were about 16, 15.

What kinds of stuff would you tend to see on your social media feeds?

All sorts, to be honest.

It's like you just scroll. You know, you get video after video.

It could be a dog, and then next minute it's someone getting run over

or a car crash, or something like that.

Just out of nowhere. Spontaneous.

Is it like you've searched something and it's come up,

or is it, like, unexpected? No.

It's on your feed. It escalates very quickly.

You could like it or you could comment your opinion -

be like, "I don't agree with this",

but you'll still get even more and more and more and more.

It kind of just stains your brain,

and that's all you think about for the rest of the day.

Like, I've tried putting the little "not interested" thing,

but then three videos later you'll get another one.

There's nothing you can do and it feels a bit... It's just weird,

and it ruins your mood.

It makes you a bit numb. Like, it desensitises you to everything.

Kai's noticed how constantly watching harmful content

can distort the views of young men his age, including about women.

You watch it and you like it,

then you'll get another video on it and another video on it,

and all of a sudden it's your whole personality.

It's your whole opinion. It's everything.

Kai says his feeds look very different

from those of girls he knows the same age.

Why is that?

Andrew Kaung worked at TikTok in Dublin for 18 months

until 2022,

as part of a team focused on protecting users.

He and a colleague decided to check out

what users on the app were seeing,

including some 16-year-olds.

If you're a female, a 16-year-old who lives in London,

they're just usually interested in the pop singers.

The songs.

Er, make-up.

Um, whereas, like, it's very different for a teenage boy.

So stabbing, knifing type of content.

Um, sometimes sexual content

and of course, mostly with the misogynistic

sort of controversial hate content as well.

Most content which is removed from TikTok for breaking the rules

is done by artificial intelligence.

Tricky judgment calls, though, require human moderators.

TikTok says it had specialist moderators when Andrew worked there.

He says he proposed hiring more.

At the time, they were just like,

"Great idea. Good job, but it's too costly.

"We're not going to implement it."

Um, so I was like, OK.

I kind of expected that because if something involved...

an investment, and quite a lot of investment

and a change, like, it's very hard to persuade people.

TikTok says 40,000 safety staff work alongside innovative technology,

and it expects to invest more than $2 billion in safety this year.

It says it doesn't use gender to recommend content,

has settings for teens to block content that may not be suitable,

and set 60-minute limits,

and doesn't allow extreme violence or misogyny.

Meta, which owns Instagram,

says it wants to give teens positive and age-appropriate experiences.

It says it's introduced over 50 different tools and resources,

including for parental supervision,

limiting screen time

and reducing sensitive content.

Keah got her first smartphone when she was seven,

and soon found herself thinking about how she looked.

When I was younger, I definitely used to feel insecure.

Like, when I was like nine.

I'd see these girls on TikTok with, like, the really nice bodies

and they'd be, like, dancing.

I used to wear baggy clothes because I thought that it was, like,

disgusting to be fat.

And I used to think I was, like, fat when I wasn't.

But social media, and they're like unrealistic things,

like, made me feel like that.

The time she was saying those things was really upsetting.

Like, she was chatting to me, she was chatting to my sister.

Having a strong family helped Keah at that time massively.

It was...

It was hard, but we did it.

Those in favour of banning smartphones for kids

say they're fuelling a child mental health crisis.

Being a teenager is a really hard period of everyone's life,

and it's kind of with the tsunami of social media on top of children.

I think in maybe 20 years' time, 30 years' time,

we will look back on mobile devices like we view cigarettes.

I personally would ban them

and I think we need government directive to do that.

The evidence isn't clear.

In the last decade, kids' smartphone ownership has rocketed.

Since 2017, there's been a rise

in suspected mental health issues in children in England.

But that doesn't necessarily mean

smartphones cause poorer mental health.

There's no convincing evidence for a causal link.

We've been looking at this from a research perspective for years,

if not decades,

and we've not found those clear smoking gun causal effects.

When we do the surveys of young people's wellbeing,

one of the top anxieties they report is academic pressure,

which has definitely increased.

Competitive pressures.

Um, they talk about, worry about how they look,

which we could link to the phone,

we could link to broader consumer culture.

There are lots of pressures on families and on children nowadays

of which, you know, the phone is a small, if very visible, part.

Right. Shall we make some dinner? What are we having?

Wraps.

Back in Birmingham, Josh is spending more time with his mum, Carrie.

It's been nice. I've really enjoyed spending time with Josh this week.

I thought we were besties. We are besties.

I don't usually cook with my mum because I'm always, like,

thinking I've got more important things to do on my phone

when I actually don't.

The more important thing is, like, getting to spend time with my mum.

But it's still a struggle.

Do you feel like you're missing out

because you've not got your phone and, like, everyone else

is still talking to each other?

Yeah, I do.

Especially, like, this is a generation where, like,

everyone speaks on their phone.

I think at the start of the week it was a lot more easier.

But now I'm thinking that it's like a lot more tricky.

Pretty much my whole life is on my phone

because, like, that's how I organise things,

like to go out with my mates and to, like...

That's how I have conversations

that I might not be able to have at school.

I've tried my hardest around Josh not to really use my phone as much.

I do tend to get lost in TikTok myself.

You think, "Oh, I'll just have ten minutes of looking",

and then the next thing it's an hour and a half later.

I've maybe burnt a pizza or two.

Keah is spending more time with her mum too.

Vienna works at a go-karting track

and she's brought Keah along to stop her feeling bored.

There are lots of things parents could do,

some of which are about providing alternatives,

about doing other things together,

about finding, just kind of ways of keeping the phone in balance,

so that it's not all focused on that bit of technology.

This was much better compared to my phone!

It's so fun because you're actually doing something,

other than just like sitting there and being on the phone -

you're actually doing something.

It's really fun.

For years, social media companies have largely been left

to police themselves.

Andrew Kaung, who's worked at both TikTok and Meta,

says that approach hasn't worked.

We are asking a private company

whose interest is to promote their product

to moderate themselves,

which is like asking a tiger not to eat you.

Kids have to be 13 to get on most social media apps.

Now, a new UK law will force social media firms to verify kids' ages

and stop them recommending porn or other harmful content.

Media regulator Ofcom is in charge of enforcing it.

Fixing algorithms is a very important element of the solution.

So content that is pornographic,

promotes suicide, self-harm or eating disorders -

we are suggesting that all that content

should be out of the feed of children and young people.

Then for other categories like violent content

or hateful content,

we want the prevalence of that content to be very much reduced

in the algorithm.

How feasible is it in reality?

I'm an optimist in terms of the potential of technology.

And is it possible?

I think of course it is possible.

Ofcom says it can fine social media companies,

or could even bring criminal prosecutions if they don't do enough.

But measures won't come in until 2025.

It's Saturday and...

Ahhh! I get my phone back today!

The week without smartphones is over.

How do you feel?

Excited.

There you go.

HE SCREECHES

I get to hold my phone again!

Feel as though I'll cry!

On WhatsApp I've got 62 messages from my drama group.

It's so overwhelming, checking everyone's messages.

Makes me feel, um,

like, good again.

How does it feel having it back and seeing all the messages?

It feels... Oh!

I love it. I'm very happy that I finally got it back.

I'm a little bit worried that we've already lost him

back to the world of the phone.

Like, I've realised that,

like, social media is just...

..not that great.

I feel better when I'm not just scrolling and scrolling,

like, endlessly, for hours.

Our experiment has revealed how hard it is for kids

and their parents to live without smartphones.

I think the focus on bans is maybe the wrong thing at the minute.

This thing that we've got in our pocket is amazing.

Of course there are going to be benefits to that,

but there are negatives there as well.

And we need to consider what the balance is

between benefits and risks.

What many teenagers want is to keep the good bits on their phones

and get rid of the bad bits.

Ofcom says social media companies need to give kids more power

to decide what they don't want to see.

If I say I dislike it, I dislike it. You can stop showing me now.

I feel like social media companies don't respect your opinion.

Our phones are here to stay.

Now the pressure's on to make sure kids can use them more safely.

I don't think they should take away smartphones for kids.

I think they're... I think they're great for learning.

I think they're great for socialising,

for kids that can't go out.

I don't think there's any comeback

from how far we've gone into the digital world.

Hopefully they'll just find ways of making sure

that the younger kids are more protected

than they have been in the past.

Goodnight.