This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Banning children under 16 from social media was one of Keir Starmer's last acts as prime minister before he stepped down in July 2026. Following Australia's ban on children under 16 in 2025, which turbocharged the debate globally, the UK ban is scheduled for early 2027.
As Meta's recent $18 billion (£13.2 billion) settlement over teen addiction to its online platforms demonstrates, there is growing recognition that social media poses real risks to young people. Thinking about this issue is constantly evolving. Popular platforms such as Instagram and TikTok offer an endless stream of algorithm-driven material tailored specifically to each user.
While the full effect of social media use on developing brains is unclear, parents, teachers and politicians have all expressed concerns about the social and emotional impact of this consumption on young people. Social media feeds off a portrayal of real life that is fundamentally unreal. In an age of filters, AI and engagement farming (using manipulative and often misleading tactics to boost engagement), the distinction between performance and reality online is increasingly blurred.
In the face of this targeted barrage, children and teenagers are ill-equipped to distinguish between reality and the performance of that unreality flickering across their screens. I'm a classicist and theologian with an interest in how culture and performance shape our ideas of what it is to be human. It strikes me that there is a fascinating parallel for this contemporary debate in the Greco-Roman obsession with theatricality and drama.
The great dramas of classical Athens remained popular for a millennium, inspiring new genres and theatrical styles throughout the Mediterranean world. As research, including my own, into this breadth of ancient media production has developed, one theme has emerged again and again: As theatrical performance grew into a cultural staple, it was accompanied by the fear that just as art imitates life, art could overcome reality itself. This "theatrophobia"—a fear of the theatrical—appears throughout the literary record.
This was a genuine anxiety, yet one that clearly fascinated ancient audiences. Drama embodied the artistic imitation of life and, in doing so, spoke to contemporary debates, offering moral or emotional exemplars. But how was the audience to best respond?
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