Amid growing concerns about teenagers’ mental health and wellbeing, governments around the world are considering or enacting new restrictions on young people’s access to social media.

Australia has already legislated a ban on social media for under-16s, and the UK government has announced plans to introduce similar restrictions from spring 2027.

Yet a fundamental question remains largely unanswered: what exactly are governments trying to regulate through these bans?

Policymakers are already drawing boundaries around which platforms count as social media and which do not. The proposed UK approach is expected to follow the Australian model, covering platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube and X. Messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal are expected to be exempt from the proposed ban.

Our new research suggests that these boundaries may not always align with how the public understands social media.

Our study surveyed 968 UK adults, including 484 18- to 25-year-olds, about their perceptions of social media. We asked participants which online platforms they considered to be social media, what characteristics they associated with it, and whether they agreed with common definitions used by researchers and organisations. We also collected their views of how........

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