The world of social media
Whether it’s messaging a friend, posting pictures of a holiday or sending each other funny videos, many of us use social media every day - often without even thinking about it. But the way we use it could be about to change, with the UK government’s recent announcement of plans to ban under-16s from certain social media platforms.
So, how well do you know social media? Here, BBC Bitesize has pulled together some of the key points on its history, how it’s changed and how it affects us.
Got a good memory? Once you've read the article, come back to the quiz below to see how many of the social media platforms mentioned you can name against the clock.
What is social media and how did it start?
Social media is a type of mass media communication that uses the internet. People use it to share information, ideas, messages, images, videos and other content.
It may seem strange to define it, because social media has become such a central part of many of our lives. But it was once brand new, as were concepts like social networking and microblogging – more on those below.
Did you know social media has been around since before the World Wide Web? It’s existed for almost as long as the technology that supports it, though these sites didn’t look like the platforms we use today.
Usenet, which launched in 1979, is widely considered the first digital social network and the precursor to platforms like Reddit. Users could post and receive messages in subject areas, called ‘newsgroups’, which were text-based discussion forums.
Is social media the same as social networking?
Of course, it’s not quite that straightforward…
Social media is any digital tool that allows users to create and share content or participate in social networking – which is an overlapping concept, but not the same thing. All social networking sites are examples of social media, but not all social media platforms allow for social networking.
For example, YouTube is a form of social media, with the emphasis on sharing video content. Users can leave comments and interact with creators, but YouTube is primarily focused on sharing video content rather than connecting with friends in the way Facebook does.
Another related concept is microblogging – where users share short, frequent updates, mainly through text. X and Threads are examples of social networks that follow this format, with users also able to follow each other and send direct messages.
How has social media changed over time?
The invention of the World Wide Web by British computer scientistTim Berners-Lee changed the game.
The internet – the global network of connected devices that allows them to communicate and share information with each other – already existed by this time. The web is the system of sites, pages and files that are connected by links and viewed through a web browser.
For example, you need the internet to access the web browser Google Chrome, which navigates the World Wide Web. You can use this to access the BBC iPlayer website, which features multimedia content like images and videos, and hyperlinks that take you through to other iPlayer pages or different websites.
This meant a shift from localised messaging boards like Usenet to global networks that could host huge social platforms. Considered the first real social networking site, SixDegrees.com launched in 1997 with many of the features we recognise today: users created profiles, had lists of friends and could message each other privately.
Despite claiming to have over three million users by 2000, the company wasn’t financially successful and collapsed that year.
The early 2000s saw the rise of sites like Friendster and MySpace, which launched in 2002 and 2003 respectively. MySpace was the most-visited social networking site from 2005-2008. It allowed for more personalisation and was especially popular as a way of discovering new musical artists.
Both were eventually overtaken by Facebook. If you’ve seen the film The Social Network, you might be familiar with the story of its creation. Launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates at Harvard University, the platform was only for students with valid university email addresses until it opened to the general public in 2006.
From this point onwards, new forms of social media emerged that catered to specific kinds of content. YouTube launched in 2005 as a place to share videos, Instagram began in 2010 as a photo-sharing platform and TikTok, which was rolled out globally in 2017, was designed for short-form vertical videos.
Microblogging sites also became popular. Twitter, known as X since it was bought by Elon Musk in 2022, launched in 2006. Tumblr followed a year later, and at its peak in 2018 reportedly had around 472 million registered accounts. In more recent years, sites like Mastodon, Bluesky and Threads have joined the format. LinkedIn, a social network designed for people to make professional connections and find jobs, also allows for microblogging.
How many people use social media?
It’s believed that over 5.7 billion people use social media globally – that’s around 70% of the world’s population. On average, each person uses about 6.5 different social platforms and spends 18 hours a week on them.
In the UK, the proportion is actually higher, with more than 55 million people or 80% of the population using social media. Brits spend on average up to four hours per day on these platforms.
The most popular social media platform globally is Facebook, with around 3 billion active users each month, followed by WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube. In the UK, WhatsApp takes the lead, closely followed by Facebook.
It probably won’t come as a surprise that TikTok is the most popular platform amongst under-25s, both in the UK and worldwide, followed by Instagram and Snapchat. TikTok became especially popular in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, and briefly overtook Google, YouTube and Facebook to become the world’s most popular website in 2021.
Is social media being banned in the UK?
On 15 June 2026, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to ban under-16s from certain social media platforms from spring 2027. The ban would include Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X, but not WhatsApp or the similar messaging app Signal.
The ban isn’t in force yet. It’s a bill, which is a proposal for a new law that has to be debated, examined and amended by Parliament. If both the House of Commons and House of Lords approve it and it is given Royal Assent, it will become law.
During a government consultation – when members of the public, experts and organisations are asked to give feedback on proposed laws - almost 90% of the 9,499 parents and carers involved said they supported a legal minimum age for accessing social media, and 88% of those said that age should be under-16s.
But how would a ban like this work? A similar one is already in place in Australia, the first country in the world to introduce one. As of 10 December 2025, under-16s can no longer set up new accounts and their existing ones were deactivated. YouTube Kids, Google Classroom and WhatsApp are exempt.
While children and parents aren’t punished for breaking these rules, social media companies could be fined up to £25 million for serious or repeated breaches. They have to take steps such as ID verification, face or voice recognition to keep children off their sites.
While it’s been welcomed by some, the ban has also been criticised for not going far enough, not blocking loopholes to access and potentially isolating some young people who use social media as a form of connection.
Is social media bad for you?
One of the key arguments behind the bans in Australia and the UK is that it will improve young people’s mental health, as well as their physical and emotional safety.
A 2025 study found that 96% of children aged 10-15 in Australia used social media, and that 70% of them had been exposed to harmful content such as violence, misogyny and eating disorders. One in seven reported experiencing grooming from adults or older children, and over half had experienced cyberbullying.
And it’s not just under-16s who can be affected. A 2026 study from the University of Oxford found people’s wellbeing dropped the more time they spent on social media, especially in under-25s.
If you’ve ever doomscrolled, you might know the feeling. Researchers pointed to algorithms that are designed to keep us engaged by feeding us more of the content we’ve previously interacted with, as well as a feeling of comparison to other people’s lives.
Are there any benefits to social media? Yes – many young people report the positive side, such as connecting with others, exploring their interests and learning about current affairs. In the UK, more than three quarters of young people aged 16-24 rely on social media for news, and more than a quarter of 16-29-year-olds use social networking sites for political or social advocacy.
