Beeban Kidron's new book Users arrives as Sir Keir Starmer pushes a UK ban on social media for under‑16s, following Australia's December law and similar plans in France, Austria and Spain. The cover bears an endorsement from Jonathan Haidt, author of *The Anxious Generation*, signalling the debate's momentum.

Kidron, a former film director of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, has spent over a decade lobbying through her charity 5Rights and as a crossbench peer. She argues that bans are only a temporary balm and proposes concrete tools: automatic fines for companies that breach local rules, geoblocking of non‑compliant services, and mandatory safety‑by‑design defaults for all tech products.

The book cites the 2017 suicide of Molly Russell, where a coroner found Meta and Pinterest contributed "more than minimally" by serving self‑harm streams. Kidron contrasts tech's claim of being mere conduits with its rapid action on Covid conspiracy theories, and details lobbying tactics such as moving discussions "offline" to evade accountability.

Critics note thin longitudinal evidence linking teen mental health to social media, warning bans may let governments sidestep investment in youth services. Yet Kidron's core thesis remains: treat Big Tech like any other sector — subject to regulation, recall‑style liability, and safer design. Users (WH Allen, £22, 416 pages) frames the fight as essential for preserving democratic discourse.