Happy Thursday everyone and we are back from a week off and I am still thinking about beautiful Bali.

We had a bumpy start though as my oldest went swimming the night before we flew and between that and jumping straight into the pool at the resort, he ended up with an infection in both ears poor thing. But the doctor was brilliant and although my son was pretty miffed to not be able to swim for the rest of the week as we had to take another flight to go see the Komodo dragons, he still had an amazing time as we all did.

What ended up being quite fortuitous on a research front for me though, was the fact that Indonesia's under-16 social media ban totally coincided with our arrival. It came in the day that we landed in Bali so I got to see first hand the steps that kids go through to circumvent the bans.

This week we also have a study that changes the screen time conversation in a way that actually gives you something to do tonight, and a question I think every parent should be asking their child this week.

Grab your coffee as usual and let’s get into it.

— Heidi

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There is no shortage of studies telling parents that social media is bad for children. Most of them leave you with nothing to do except worry. A new study from Imperial College London is different, because it points to something specific you can act on tonight.

The researchers followed more than 2,300 children at London secondary schools from Year 7 through to Year 10. Children who used social media for more than three hours a day were more likely to develop symptoms of depression and anxiety, with a stronger link in girls. That much is familiar. What caught my eye is what the researchers found when they looked at why. The biggest factor was not the content children were seeing or who they were comparing themselves to. It was that social media use in the evenings was cutting into their sleep, and the lost sleep was doing much of the damage.

I am not going to pretend the platforms are off the hook here. The reason the phone is still in a child's hand at midnight is because the apps are designed to be hard to put down. That is a design problem, not a parenting failure. But what this study does give you is a very clear place to start: the evening.

Check what time your child is actually on their phone. Most smartphones have screen time reports built in: on iPhone under Screen Time, on Android under Digital Wellbeing. These show not just how long but when. Evening and night-time use is the pattern to look for.

Think about where phones sleep. Charging phones outside the bedroom overnight removes the temptation entirely. It applies to everyone in the household, not just the child, which makes it an easier conversation to have.

Frame it as a sleep conversation, not a phone conversation. Children who feel defensive about their screen time may be more receptive to a conversation about sleep, something most teenagers already know they are not getting enough of, than one that feels like criticism of what they are doing online.

Read the full article: It's Not The Scrolling That's Hurting Children. It's The Sleep →

Indonesia's government has banned under-16s from holding accounts on eight platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Roblox. Existing accounts are being deactivated. Under-13s face stricter rules still. With around 70 million children in the country, this is the largest rollout of a social media age restriction outside the Western world.

The ban is real. My sons hit genuine blocks on their accounts. But the restriction operates at account level, not as a geographic block, and a VPN bypasses it in minutes. Reports from across Indonesia confirm this: VPN downloads among young people spiked within days.

Younger children are far less likely to find the workaround, and for them the ban is genuinely changing what they can access. But the children most capable of circumventing restrictions are exactly the age group the rules are designed to protect.

Greece's government made exactly this argument on 8 April, calling for an EU-wide ban after concluding that national restrictions alone are not enough.

What to take from this: Watching my sons work around the restrictions in ten minutes made me think the more important outcome is not the block itself, it is the conversation it forces. Why is this app banned? What makes it riskier than that one? A child who understands why certain platforms are considered more harmful is in a much better position than one who has simply been locked out and found the key. If your child has a VPN on their phone, ask them what they use it for. The answer will tell you more than the app itself.

Read the full article: Indonesia Just Banned Under-16s From Social Media →

Every time a major platform tightens its rules, the same thing happens: teenagers find somewhere else. Instagram locks down teen accounts, TikTok faces bans, YouTube adds age gates, and a wave of newer apps picks up the users the big platforms are pushing out.

Some of the apps growing right now are ones most parents have never heard of. PovChat AI, Chai, and Janitor AI are three of the most downloaded, but there are dozens more like them. Children are using them to form emotional relationships with chatbots, act out scenarios, and explore content that would be moderated on any mainstream platform. None of these apps were built with children in mind. Age verification is typically a tick box. Content moderation is minimal. And all of them are available in regular app stores, which means there is nothing stopping your child from downloading them right now.

This is the thing that keeps me up at night more than any single platform. We spend so much energy worrying about Instagram and TikTok that we forget teenagers are resourceful. When the front door closes, they find a side window. That does not mean the front door restrictions are pointless, but it does mean the most important safety setting you have is knowing what is actually on your child's phone.

Ask your child this week: "What apps are you using right now that I probably haven't heard of?" Not as an interrogation. As genuine curiosity. Ask what their friends are on. Ask if there is anything new. If you hear a name you do not recognise, look it up together.

And turn on app download approvals. On iPhone: Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → iTunes & App Store Purchases → Installing Apps → set to Don't Allow or Ask. On Android: Google Play Store → your profile → Family → Parental Controls. Nothing new gets installed without you knowing.

🇬🇷 Greece — Prime Minister Mitsotakis announced on 8 April that under-15s will be banned from social media from 1 January 2027. But the bigger story is what he did next: he wrote to the European Commission asking for an EU-wide age restriction with mandatory verification across all member states. We've written up the full story: Greece just banned under-15s from social media. Then it asked the whole of Europe to follow →

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill returns to the House of Commons on 15 April. This is the one to watch: the House of Lords has voted twice in favour of Lord Nash's social media age restriction amendment, rejecting the government's alternatives both times. If the Commons accepts it, the UK will have a social media age restriction written into law. If they reject it, it goes back to the Lords again in what is known as parliamentary ping-pong — and the government will face growing pressure to explain why it keeps blocking a measure with broad public support.

See where every country stands on the Wired Parents Country Tracker, updated every Thursday →

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OpenAI secretly funded a child safety coalition. Child safety organisations across the US were asked to endorse AI policy priorities by a group called the Parents & Kids Safe AI Coalition. What the outreach did not disclose was that the coalition was founded and entirely funded by OpenAI, which pledged up to $10 million. At least two groups quit when the funding was revealed. Read the full story: OpenAI Funded A Child Safety Coalition — Without Telling The Members →

Last week I asked: Has your son encountered manosphere content online?

🚫 67% said no, not that they are aware of, or he is too young

✅ 33% said yes, and they have talked about it

Two things stood out. First, nobody selected "yes, but I don't know what to say" — which either means parents who have encountered this content feel equipped to discuss it, or that the people who feel most stuck are the ones least likely to answer a poll. I suspect it's a bit of both. Second, a third of you have already had the conversation with your son, which is genuinely encouraging. If you're in the 67% who said no or too young, it's worth knowing that research consistently shows this content reaches boys younger than most parents expect. The guide is still on the site if you want to read it before you need it rather than after: The Manosphere: A Parent's Guide →

The UK Commons votes on the social media age amendment we covered above, and the COPPA 2.0 compliance deadline hits on 22 April. Platforms that collect children's data in the US will need to meet new standards on consent and data collection.

Until next Thursday!