In this episode of the Policy Fix, we dig into what policymakers should do about social media and its effect on children.

Joining host Joe Owen are Hannah Perry, a former teacher and digital policy expert at the UK think tank Demos, and economist and policy fellow, Tony Curzon Price. They weigh the merits of radical intervention alongside regulatory and policy options.

We explore why existing legislation has failed to keep pace with the ‘attention harvesting’ business model that often prioritises shareholder profit over user safety. And our guests discuss the benefits and limitations of a blanket social media ban, such as the one introduced in Australia.

They consider additional regulatory and institutional options including strengthening the Online Safety Act, making sure that safety is built into mandatory standards and supporting the BBC to build its own public service social network.

Watch the full episode on Youtube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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Hannah Perry, director (digital policy), Demos

Hannah is the interim director of Demos Digital, leading the specialist digital policy hub with a focus on strengthening resilient information ecosystems and trustworthy technology. During her time at Demos, she led the launch of the Epistemic Security Network in 2025, a policy platform and home for collective efforts to protect democracy by fortifying our information supply chains, Waves, Demos’ digital democracy experiment, and studies including into the efficacy of Community Notes during the riots, how we strengthen local information ecosystems and advance digital rights.

Hannah is a former research & innovation director, bringing over a decade of experience from the worlds of research, social behaviour change communications and education with a focus on tackling harmful attitudes and behaviours online and offline, both in the UK, East Africa and Asia Pacific. She is a qualified secondary school English teacher (PGCE), has a SOAS MA in Migration & Diaspora Studies and an MSc on the Social Science of the Internet from the Oxford Internet Institute.

Tony Curzon Price, policy advisor, Nesta

Tony is a policy adviser at Nesta. He is an economist. In the public sector, he has worked in the No10 Policy Unit, the Cabinet Office, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the CMA and the Competition Commission. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of OpenDemocracy, and he founded and led a venture-backed California-based silicon design business. He is a non-executive director of the UK's energy regulator, OFGEM.