Small island nation tries bold tech education strategy

Is the UK's social media ban for kids just reverse psychiatry?

Ask any parent: banning kids from doing anything doesn't work. On the contrary, it's just about the most powerful way to motivate them.

As The Register reported last week, the UK government is planning on kicking under-16s off social media. The move echoes a similar one by the Australian government, which we reported at the end of 2025 – noting at the time that "nobody thinks it'll really work."

Perhaps, though, there's more to it than at first sight. Perhaps this is some sinister mandarin's long-term plan to improve digital literacy and technology awareness among British, and indeed Australian, youth, using a well-established form of mind control far more effective than the CIA's MK-ULTRA: reverse psychology.

Or, as the late great Sir Terry Pratchett called it, "headology."

Although this quotation from Witches Abroad is about witches, he...

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