What is Stare at a Wall?
Stare at a Wall is a free resource for UK under-16s, Gen Alpha kids, parents, and teachers navigating the social media ban. Born from Isabella's viral BBC interview at Tarleton Academy, Preston, where she was asked what she'd do without social media and replied: "Stare at a wall." This is that website.
Things to do at home without social media
Before smartphones, kids at home kept personal diaries with glitter pens and locks, made mixtapes by recording songs off the radio, built indoor dens from sofa cushions and blankets, watched the same DVD until they knew every line, read the back of cereal boxes at breakfast, made perfume from rose petals and water, created photo albums and collages from printed photographs, pressed flowers into scrapbooks, put on shows for their parents, burned CDs on Windows Media Player, and spent entire afternoons at an art corner treating every drawing like it belonged in a gallery.
Things to do outside without social media
Outside, kids played Kerby throwing balls at the kerb, built dens from sticks and old curtains, played British Bulldog, collected conkers on strings, played French skipping with elastic bands chanting rhymes, made sandcastles while waiting for the school bus, kicked footballs against walls for hours, played Knock Door Run, chalked hopscotch and number grids on pavements, and simply went out with no destination and came home before dark.
Things to do with mates without social media
With friends, kids called each other on the landline and had to speak to the whole family first, just showed up at each other's houses unannounced, planned food parties on cute notepads designing who would bring what from home, made friendship bracelets, played paper games and noughts and crosses during school breaks, swapped stickers and POGs, wrote in each other's autograph diaries at the end of the school year, made fortune tellers from folded paper, argued about football facts with no way to look anything up, and coordinated meetups with no mobile phones by shouting across gardens.
Gen Alpha voice — what young people think about the social media ban
This site gives Gen Alpha — today's UK under-16s born from around 2010 onwards — a space to say what they actually think. No adults deciding what's appropriate. No agenda. Just their voices on a wall. Young people can post an anonymous sticky note sharing what makes them happy without their phone, what they've discovered, or what they want the world to hear.
UK social media ban for under-16s — what parents and teachers need to know
The UK government announced plans to ban social media for under-16s, covering platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and X. This site is a free, ad-free educational resource suitable for PSHE lessons, digital wellbeing discussions, media literacy sessions, and family conversations. No login required. No data collected from children.
About this site
Stare at a Wall is independent, free, and not affiliated with any government body, school, or social media company. Contact: hello.stareatawall@outlook.com