Eight hundred thousand. That is how many children and young people accessed NHS mental health services in just the last year. That includes 20% of all 16-year-old girls.¹

The culprit? Most say the blame rests firmly on social media. Just last month, a major study found a clear correlation between rates of anxietyA feeling of unease or worry. It can be mild or very severe. and depressionLow mood that affects someone's daily life, and can last for weeks or months. and time spent on social media sites.²

Experts argue social media gives us a rosy view of other people's lives and makes us feel worse about our own. It can also get us fixated on bad news. Some people end up addicted to the constant flow of new information and are unable to concentrate on anything else.

This is why some think it is time to get young people off social media for good. A new private member's billIn the UK, a type of bill (suggestion for a new law) that can be introduced by Members of Parliament (either from the Commons or Lords) who are not government ministers. in the UK parliament proposes raising the age at which social media companies can allow users to sign up from 13 to 16. A similar ban is currently under consideration in Australia.

For some, this evokes an older notion of childhood as a time that should be spent far from the worries and the evils of the world.

In 1794, English poet William BlakePoet and printmaker associated with the Romantic Age (late 1700s and early 1800s). The Romantics were often doubtful of the value of science - they thought it gave reason too much credit. wrote a set of poems based on this idea, called Songs of Innocence and Experience. He castigated those who sent small children off to sweep chimneys or work in dangerous factories. Such bitter experiences, he thought, killed their innocence - and often killed the child too.

They should instead be given the space for idle play, exploration and moral learning.³

The term "innocence" ultimately derives from the LatinThe language of Ancient Rome and its empire. Today it is considered a dead language, but it was for a long time the language of academics and scholars. "in-", meaning "not", and "nocere", meaning "to harm". That is why we can be "innocent" of a crime someone accuses us of: it means we have not done the harm in question.

But it has also taken on a more general meaning, describing someone who has not yet committed any sins or done any harm to the world. Historically, this meant it was closely associated with children.⁴

By extension, to be "innocent" also came to refer to someone who did not know about the evils of the world. As such, many thinkers who believed the world was a bad and vicious place pinned their hopes on children, who had not yet been corrupted by it.

Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques RousseauAn 18th Century Swiss philosopher whose book Reveries of the Solitary Walker extolled the virtues of being alone in nature. argued that children must be educated in such a way as to retain their initial innocent goodness.⁵

Some adults today hope that if children are kept away from the corrupting influences of modern media they will be healthier and happier, and might be able to build us a better future.

But others think we can no longer afford innocence. The world, they say, is a dangerous place. If an innocent is someone who does not know about the evils of the world, they are also someone who is unprepared for them.

If we raise our young people to be innocents, they say, the world will eat them up and spit them out.

Do we need more innocence?

Yes: We are incredibly lucky to live in an age where most children are not sent out into the fields or up chimneys. Yet instead they are on the frontline of social media. We must strive to preserve them from the world's horrors.

No: The day will come when young people must face the evils of the world. It is better that they already have some exposure to it before that day arrives.

Or... Innocence should not only be for children. We must all be engaged in the process of building a better world without the evils that threaten everyone's innocence.