More in Common polling for the Sunday Times reveals the views, habits and worries of 16 and 17 year olds.

Key findings:

Mental health and wellbeing

• Widespread anxiety among 16-17 year olds. Majorities are concerned about the state of the world and their own future: four in five say they worry about finding a good job, three quarters say they worry about money. 

• • Young Britons think  COVID school closures did more harm than good. By a margin of 48 per cent to 38 per cent, 16-17 year olds (who would have been 11 or 12 when the pandemic began) believe that closing schools and moving learning online did more harm than good.

• Nearly three in five have at some point stayed home from school due to anxiety – rising to seven in ten (69 per cent) among girls. A quarter of girls (24 per cent) of girls say they do this ‘often’.

Screentime, social media and online safety

• More than two in five young Britons spend more than six hours a day on their phone – one in ten spend more than 10 hours. Forty-three per cent say they spend 6 hours a day or more on their phone.

• Two in five (39 per cent) young Britons say they first saw pornography before reaching their teens. Meanwhile nearly one in ten (8 per cent) say they first saw pornography under the age of 10.

• A majority of young people (51 per cent) say it will be easy to bypass the Online Safety Act, and only a third (34 per cent)  think the law will make them safer online.

The polling also revealed some shifts in political views among Britons soon to enter the electorate, and stark divides in their values and worldviews.

Politics

• The next generation of voters is fragmented: Your Party would earn 21 per cent of the vote with 16-17 year olds in a 3-way tie with Labour and Reform. Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of 16-17 year olds support Reform UK – higher than 18-24 year olds.
• Growing gender gap: boys are nearly twice as likely (45 per cent to 24 per cent) to support parties on the Right. Your Party could widen the gap: the new party would tie with Labour for first place with girls and lead to a Labour/Reform tie among boys.

Views on gender equality

• Three in ten 16-17 year old boys (29 per cent) believe that Britain would be better if we returned to enforcing traditional gender roles between men and women.

• Young Britons are split in their views on masculinity:  a third of boys think you need to be fit and muscular to be a ‘real man’ – but only a tenth of girls agree.

Pride, patriotism and institutions

• 16-17 year olds are more patriotic than previous generations. Nearly half (49 per cent)  are proud to be British, compared to 45 per cent of the whole public.
• Yet only a quarter (24 per cent) would oppose the abolition of the monarchy: half of young Britons do not have an opinion on abolishing it.