Pornography and gaming blamed for rising numbers of young men unemployed

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said the impact of online gaming and pornography on boys was leading to economic inactivity. Photo: ANDY RAINE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Women's mental health is suffering due to unrealistic ideals portrayed on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

“For boys… things like games , and of course pornography and things like that are a more common factor,” Mr Stride told the Work and Pensions Committee.

The 2023 study, published in the American Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, found that “stress, anxiety, and depression are strongly associated with pornography consumption.” 

The link to gaming is less clear: a 2022 Oxford study found that playing video games only harms mental health if people struggle to stop.

Mr Stride said young people aged between Between 16 and 24 years of age there is a “very noticeable improvement in mental health, which is very worrying, not least because these are young people with a future ahead of them.”

While he said lockdowns were an obvious factor, he suggested social media and technology were playing an even bigger role.

Mr Stride said: “I think probably as a society we haven't explored and haven't fully discovered what exactly this technology means for young people's mental health, because I think the impact is actually quite profound and is probably an area where more attention is needed.» research.»

New ONS data has revealed that young people are behind the continued rise in unemployment. By the end of March, an additional 99,000 men aged 16 to 24 were unemployed, while the number of women of the same age classified as NEET had fallen by 11,000.

Around one in seven young men, according to the ONS , are now considered NEET, compared with one in ten young women.

The UK is facing one of the worst disease crises in history, with more than 2.8 million people of working age excluded from the labor force due to poor health health, including mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. This is up from around 2 million pre-Covid.

In total there are 9.4 million working-age people in the UK who are not working or looking for work, a ten-year high.

Mr Stride has unveiled a series of reforms to tackle Britain's unemployment crisis, including an overhaul of Britain's benefits system, warning that the approach to mental health and social care risks «going too far».