Something significant happened recently in the UK government’s approach to young people and social media. New, planned measures were announced to implement overnight curfews on social media apps for 16 and 17-year-olds, switching off access between midnight and 6am. Features designed to keep users scrolling, such as autoplay videos and endlessly personalised feeds, could be turned off by default for older teenagers next year.
A pilot involving more than 300 teenagers and parents across the UK found that overnight curfews quickly became part of family routines and led to measurable improvements in sleep and concentration. The conclusion was clear: young people benefit from time away from their screens, even when they do not choose it voluntarily.
Most parents would welcome these steps. However, there is a more interesting question, though: Isn’t it less about what we take away from young people, but more about what we give them instead?
The difference between consuming and creating.
Social media, when it is being used passively, can turn us into consumers. We scroll through other people’s lives, other people’s opinions, other people’s carefully curated highlights, absorbing content that someone else made, shaped and optimised to keep us watching for as long as possible. The algorithm is designed to maximise engagement, which, for young people, can mean maximising anxiety, comparison and the nagging sense that something more interesting is always just one more scroll away.
The antidote to consumption is creation, and there is no simpler, more accessible form of creation than crafting.
When a young person learns to knit, throw a pot, carve wood, make a candle, sew a piece of clothing, or work with resin or metalwork or textiles, something fundamentally different happens. They start with an idea and put in effort to turn it into something real. They make mistakes and learn from them, developing patience, concentration and skill. They experience the satisfaction of finishing something that exists in the physical world, that they made with their own hands and can be proud of. Unlike the dopamine hit of a like or a share, that satisfaction does not evaporate the moment it arrives. It lasts.
Why crafting is the perfect alternative to passive consumption.
Learning a craft builds practical skills such as the ability to make, repair and create things. These skills give young people a kind of competence and self-reliance that will be required at other times of their lives.
Creativity is exercised not by browsing but by doing: experimenting, solving problems, making decisions and living with the results. The patience and concentration required to make something well are qualities that endless scrolling cannot provide.
There is also the question of confidence. Completing a project, whether it is a finished piece of jewellery, a hand-thrown bowl or a batch of hand-poured candles, gives a young person genuine evidence of their own capability. That is a very different thing from the fragile, comparison-driven self-esteem that social media tends to produce.
Craft can also become a career. Skilled trades and creative professions offer real routes into employment, self-employment and apprenticeships. Many of the crafters we work with at Craft Insurance started as young hobbyists who discovered they loved making things and gradually turned that passion into a livelihood. The craft community in the UK is welcoming, supportive and full of people who began with an idea, a passion and two willing hands!
At Craft Insurance, we have spent nearly four decades providing craft insurance to makers of every kind and at every stage of their journey. We have seen first-hand how transformative craft can be, and we are proud to work with many skilled crafters who have built businesses they are genuinely proud of. If you are thinking about encouraging a young person in your life to pick up a craft, you could not be choosing a better moment!
Can crafting really compete with the phone?
The pull of social media is real, and it is engineered to be difficult to resist. But, as the government pilot proved, when there is a structure of an overnight curfew, for instance, it quickly becomes routine. The same principle applies to craft. The hardest part is starting. Once a young person has sat down, picked up the tools, made something and felt that satisfaction, the return visit becomes easier. And the more they make, the more they want to make – then they can use social media creatively to share their creations!
Often young people need active help to step back from the features designed to keep them hooked. Craft provides that help in the most positive way possible, not by removing something but by replacing it with something genuinely better. Something that builds rather than drains and has lasting results.
From hobby to business: we are here when they are ready.
If the young person in your life takes to craft and starts thinking about selling their work, teaching others, or turning their hobby into something more, Craft Insurance is here to help them take that step with confidence. Our creative insurance is designed to grow with makers at every stage, from a first stall at a local fair to a fully established craft business.
Craft insurance does not have to be complicated or expensive. We make it straightforward, jargon-free and genuinely affordable, because we want as many makers as possible to be able to do what they love with the peace of mind that they are properly protected. Whether your young crafter is just starting out or already selling, get in touch and we will make sure they have exactly the right creative insurance cover for where they are right now.
The government is planning to take a step to protect young people from the worst of what screens can do to them. The craft community can offer the best of what hands-on creativity can do for them, and we are proud to be part of that story.
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