Blog post
What does the proposed social media ban mean for student voice in educational assessment?
The to follow Australia and restrict social media access for under-16s has reignited debates about young people’s wellbeing, online safety and mental health. Much of the discussion has rightly focused on the potential harms of social media, including anxiety, cyberbullying and exposure to harmful content. However, less attention has been paid to what young people may lose when access to social media is restricted. My doctoral research on A-level students’ (aged 16–18 in England) experiences of educational assessment, shared on TikTok and X (Twitter), suggests that the relationship between young people, social media and education is more complex than is often portrayed (Dike-Oduah, 2025).
Understanding assessment in the age of social media
To explore this complexity, I developed the Social Media Assessment Framework (SMAF), which integrates Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1974); the psychologically grounded concept of Assessment Dysmorphia (Richardson, 2022); and the EU Kids Online Research Framework (Livingstone et al., 2015). SMAF conceptualises students’ assessment experiences beyond institutional outcomes and argues that they are socially mediated and digitally constructed through online interactions.
To illustrate SMAF, consider the analogy of taking a photo or selfie on social media: one can add a filter to change or distort how they look. In the same way, when students take a test and then go onto social media (EU Online Kids Framework) to engage with assessment-related content from their in-groups and out-groups (Social Identity Theory), there is a chance that their engagement online can act as a filter to distort their assessment experiences (Assessment Dysmorphia).
Social media as a filter for assessment experiences
‘Social media is not simply a place where students discuss examinations and grades … it actively shapes how students understand assessment and construct their academic identities.’
Drawing on my doctoral research with 34 students (mean age 16.6 years), the findings reported here are based on semi-structured focus group interviews and analysis of TikTok and X (Twitter) data collected between 2023 and 2024 (Dike-Oduah, 2025). One of the central findings was that social media is not simply a place where students discuss examinations and grades. Rather, it actively shapes how students understand assessment and construct their academic identities. Students encountered narratives about success, failure, grade boundaries and fairness through social media, often before receiving official information from schools or examination boards. As a result, their perceptions of assessment were influenced not only by their own experiences but also by the experiences and opinions of others shared online. One student shared:
I feel like sometimes it (social media) makes me overthink … if I found the paper easy, but someone else found it difficult, I think to myself like, oh, maybe I didn’t answer the questions correctly.
For policymakers, this may appear to support restrictions on social media use. There are several examples of students expressing significant distress and unrealistic comparisons regarding high-stakes assessments. Social media platforms could amplify these emotions by exposing students to large volumes of similar content and consequently distorting students’ perceptions of their own academic performance.
Student voice in the digital age
My research also highlights social media as a space for student voice and democratic participation. During periods of educational disruption, particularly the assessment controversies during the Covid-19 pandemic, students used social media to share experiences, challenge decisions, and mobilise around issues of fairness (BBC News, 2020). Digital platforms enabled young people to participate in public debates about educational policy in ways that would have been difficult through traditional channels.
Can social media both amplify anxiety and enable student voice?
The answer may be yes.
Students are not merely consuming information; they are producing, sharing and using it to influence public discussions about assessment. Similarly, assessment is not just something that is ‘done’ to students; it is something they can shape if given the space to do so.
The challenge is not simply to ask whether social media is good or bad for young people, but to understand how it shapes the ways they experience, interpret and respond to education itself.
As policymakers consider the future of young people’s access to social media, educational researchers have an important role to play in ensuring that students’ voices remain part of the conversation. Additionally, schools should consider strengthening digital and assessment literacy within the curriculum so that students are better equipped to navigate assessment-related content online, and social media companies must commit to strengthening safeguarding measures for under-16s.
References
BBC News. (2020, August 14). Why did the A-level algorithm say no? BBC News.
Dike-Oduah, K. (2025). Tik-‘X’-ing the assessment box: A qualitative exploration of students’ educational assessment experiences on TikTok and X (Twitter) [Doctoral thesis, University College London, Institute of Education].
Livingstone, S., Mascheroni, G., & Staksrud, E. (2015). Developing a framework for researching children’s online risks and opportunities in Europe. EU Kids Online.
Richardson, M. (2022). Rebuilding public confidence in educational assessment. UCL Press.
Tajfel, H. (1974). Social identity and intergroup behaviour. Social Science Information, 13(2), 65–93.