There is growing concern about the influence of social media on our young people. In a perhaps historically unique position, young people are growing up as digital natives. Although as parents, carers or grandparents we will have had some exposure to the rapidly-developing internet in the last 30 years, many of us just aren’t fluent in the same way. We worry about what type of content they are accessing, what the impact on them is right now and in the longer term. Our attempts to work out how to keep them safe online are happening in real time.
So concerned have some countries been about the influence of social media, particularly on teenagers, that the Australian government has taken what some see as the radical measure of implementing a total ban for under-16s as of December 2025. In Europe, France has just moved closer to a ban for under-15s, Denmark is also reported to be planning a similar ban, and the subject is under discussion across many European countries. The UK has recently rejected potential legislation, but has launched a three-month consultation.
In this context of global scrutiny, it is fascinating to learn of a local study due to take place in 2026 in Bradford. In this trial, thousands of local teenagers will see their social media use capped daily in what is set to be the largest study yet dedicated to looking at whether reducing use of social internet platforms can improve adolescent mental health.
What’s happening in real life
The study – known as the ‘IRL Trial’ (IRL stands for ‘in real life’) – will run as a partnership between the University of Cambridge, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Bradford Institute for Health Research.
Professor Amy Orben from Cambridge’s MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, one of the joint leads on the trial, also sits on the academic advisory group for the Australian eSafety Commissioner, helping to evaluate the evidence arising from the country’s social media ban. She said:
“Within a year, we should also know more about how effective the Australian social media ban has been, complementing the results of this trial which focuses not on bans, but on time limits and curfews,”
Dr Dan Lewer, Consultant in Public Health at the Bradford Institute for Health Research and co-leading the trial, said:
“We are calling this research the IRL Trial as, in our discussions with teenagers, many felt that social media distracts them from ‘real life’ relationships and hobbies. We hope the trial will help teenagers focus more on their ‘real life’ activities.”
Born in Bradford trial subjects
The IRL trial forms a part of the wider Born in Bradford cohort study. This is a programme building a detailed picture of the lives of over 60,000 Bradfordians by looking at health and development over a 20-year period and through studies of different aspects of their lives.
For the IRL Trial, around 4000 students from school year groups 8-10 (ages 12-15) will be recruited from across 10 Bradford secondary schools. Half of the group will be allocated the social media restrictions at random and the results will be compared to the remaining year group students who have not had any limits on their social media use.
The students taking part in the restriction trial will upload a bespoke app onto their phones which will cap social media use during the day, and block it entirely overnight. The cap is likely to be set to limit social media use to one hour a day, but these factors are subject to change during the feasibility study.
Messaging apps like WhatsApp will not be included in the study, but all the common social media apps (eg, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and so on) that this age group uses will be included in the trial and be subject to the cap.
A two-year process
With the consent of participants, data can be collected from the research app and mobile device about social media and phone browser use. This data, alongside interviews and questionnaires conducted both before and after the trial, will be used to gauge any changes in sleep quality, anxiety, wellbeing, body image, social comparison, school absences, bullying, and time spent with friends and family. In particular, students with pre-existing anxiety conditions will be closely scrutinised to see how limiting social media access might affect their symptoms.
Dr Lewer said: “Teenagers are telling us that they want to contribute to healthier and safer online lives. This will be the first trial of social media limitations among healthy teenagers in the world”.
The entire programme, funded by the Wellcome Trust, is expected to last for two years. The IRL Trial is due to launch in spring and summer 2026, with an initial feasibility study to test the research methods. This will be followed by a full 6-week study in secondary schools taking place during autumn and winter, with data analyses being completed by the middle of summer 2027.
Understanding social media consequences
Research findings from Born in Bradford’s Age of Wonder project, due to be published later this year, suggest that teenagers as young as 13 use social media apps for an average of three hours every day.
However, the findings of previous research from Profesor Orben’s group, which used existing NHS data to examine links between social media use and mental health, suggest that adolescents with a mental health condition spend more time on social media: an average of 50 minutes extra on a typical day.
And last year, Professor Orben and her team at Cambridge’s Digital Mental Health Group led a report commissioned by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, reviewing research on the impact of smartphones and social media on children and young people’s mental and physical health.
“Most scientists agree that we need to do more to keep children safe online and to ensure that the digital platforms they use are designed to support their wellbeing and development,” said Professor Orben.
“What we currently lack is research on what interventions work to do just this. For example, to our knowledge, there has been no high-quality scientific study that has removed or substantially reduced social media use among healthy under-eighteens and systematically examined the consequences.”
Based on a press release
