TV streamers and family shows set to benefit as brands cease marketing to teenagers on sites such as YouTubeAnalysis: impact of social media ban in UK hinges on how firm it isBrands are expected to cut more than £1bn of digital advertising spending due to the UK’s ban on social media for under-16s, with streaming services tipped to benefit as advertisers try to reach large audiences of teenagers.The ban, due to come into force early next year, will leave UK advertisers scrambling to reassess mar
Brands are expected to cut more than £1bn of digital advertising spending due to the UK’s ban on social media for under-16s, with streaming services tipped to benefit as advertisers try to reach large audiences of teenagers.
The ban, due to come into force early next year, will leave UK advertisers scrambling to reassess marketing plans as millions of under-16s effectively disappear as a demographic that can be marketed to on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.
Liz Kendall also wants Ofcom to report to parliament every year on how effectively social media firms are keeping under-16s off their platformsStarmer acknowledges some teenagers will get round these restrictons. But that does not make the rules pointless, he says.Will it mean that no child ever looks at social media again? No.But look, this might shock you, but it doesn’t shock parents of teenagers; they get around other laws too.Some technology companies want us to think that social media is u
Meta, YouTube and Snapchat say ban, which would stop children using their platforms, will drive them to ‘less safe services’How will the ban work?UK parents: how do you feel about the ban?Britain’s plans to ban social media for under-16s will push teenagers towards more harmful platforms, the world’s biggest technology companies have said as ministers push to enact the new restrictions by next spring.Meta, YouTube and Snapchat have all criticised the ban, which was announced by Keir Starmer on M
Britain’s plans to ban social media for under-16s will push teenagers towards more harmful platforms, the world’s biggest technology companies have said as ministers push to enact the new restrictions by next spring.
Meta, YouTube and Snapchat have all criticised the ban, which was announced by Keir Starmer on Monday and would stop younger teenagers from using their services.
After falling for a scam call, ‘The Tech Chap’ host Tom Honeyands realised he’d given away vital details in social media postsWhen Tom Honeyands realised he had been defrauded out of £70,000 he was furious and embarrassed – and left wondering if he had given away too many details on his social media vidoes.Honeyands was on a work trip to Tokyo when he got a call from someone claiming to be from Lloyds bank. The caller asked if he had made a recent transaction in Singapore and when he said no, th
After falling for a scam call, ‘The Tech Chap’ host Tom Honeyands realised he’d given away vital details in social media posts
When Tom Honeyands realised he had been defrauded out of £70,000 he was furious and embarrassed – and left wondering if he had given away too many details on his social media vidoes.
Honeyands was on a work trip to Tokyo when he got a call from someone claiming to be from Lloyds bank. The caller asked if he had made a recent transaction in Singapore and when he said no, the scammer said his account had been compromised and that security details needed to be reset.
Measures to include restrictions on ‘safe’ social media apps, with some fearing banning some platforms and not others will lead to legal challengesTeenagers under the age of 16 are to be banned from accessing “high-risk” social media apps while safer platforms will be subjected to restrictions, under a sweeping government crackdown.Under-18s will also be banned from using romantic or sexual AI chatbots after a consultation on keeping children safe online. Continue reading...
Measures to include restrictions on ‘safe’ social media apps, with some fearing banning some platforms and not others will lead to legal challenges
Teenagers under the age of 16 are to be banned from accessing “high-risk” social media apps while safer platforms will be subjected to restrictions, under a sweeping government crackdown.
Analysts say Alphabet-owned platform’s evolution is one of the defining media shifts of the decadeYouTube has overtaken Netflix in average daily viewing among users around the world, according to analysis that reveals the digital platform’s ever greater media muscle.A major shift to watching YouTube on television has fuelled a growing rivalry between the world’s pre-eminent digital and streaming platforms. “YouTube is not just cat videos any more,” Netflix’s co-chief executive, Ted Sarandos, sai
Analysts say Alphabet-owned platform’s evolution is one of the defining media shifts of the decade
YouTube has overtaken Netflix in average daily viewing among users around the world, according to analysis that reveals the digital platform’s ever greater media muscle.
A major shift to watching YouTube on television has fuelled a growing rivalry between the world’s pre-eminent digital and streaming platforms. “YouTube is not just cat videos any more,” Netflix’s co-chief executive, Ted Sarandos, said recently. “YouTube is TV.”
With the constant risk of being recorded, many young people are afraid of showing enthusiasm – let alone doing something so potentially embarrassing as dancing in public. Is there a way to set themselves free?In a video posted to TikTok, where Katie Whitney has 2.5 million followers, she says to camera, bluntly: “This video is for Cynthia Erivo. If you’re not Cynthia Erivo … you can keep on scrolling.” Her demeanour then shifts, her voice becomes softer; more the way a person might talk to their
With the constant risk of being recorded, many young people are afraid of showing enthusiasm – let alone doing something so potentially embarrassing as dancing in public. Is there a way to set themselves free?
In a video posted to TikTok, where Katie Whitney has 2.5 million followers, she says to camera, bluntly: “This video is for Cynthia Erivo. If you’re not Cynthia Erivo … you can keep on scrolling.” Her demeanour then shifts, her voice becomes softer; more the way a person might talk to their puppy: “Hi Cynthia. Hi baby. Hey baby. How are you?” It’s toe-curling – or, in modern parlance, cringe – to watch. “I feel traumatised,” says one commenter. Others post photos of a stunned-looking Erivo and imagine: “What if the Wicked star were to actually watch this video?” Cringe!
Now 25, but having started making this kind of content – “weird skits” – at 20, Whitney is part of what is known online as CringeTok, a subsection of the internet that deals in content designed to make your toes curl. It’s in many ways a reaction to a fear of being “cringe”, which is seeping into all parts of life – from social media to classrooms to the workplace.
Record-breaking box office for Backrooms and Obsession has opened the door for twentysomething YouTube creators as the industry rethinks what audiences wantAt this time last year, the idea of a wide-release feature film-maker cutting their teeth on YouTube was, if not unheard of, certainly still a niche origin story. Siblings Michael and Danny Philippou had just released Bring Her Back, the follow-up to their surprise horror hit Talk to Me, to pretty-good reviews and OK box office; clearly they
Record-breaking box office for Backrooms and Obsession has opened the door for twentysomething YouTube creators as the industry rethinks what audiences want
At this time last year, the idea of a wide-release feature film-maker cutting their teeth on YouTube was, if not unheard of, certainly still a niche origin story. Siblings Michael and Danny Philippou had just released Bring Her Back, the follow-up to their surprise horror hit Talk to Me, to pretty-good reviews and OK box office; clearly they would continue to work, but the slightly diminished returns didn’t predict a YouTube explosion. Nor did the outright lousiness of Shelby Oaks, from longtime YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann, when it premiered in theaters later in 2025. Generous horror-festival buzz died down as more people actually laid eyes on the movie; Stuckmann was an obvious enthusiast, and some saw promise in his first effort, but a clumsy found-footage pastiche without much emotional sense didn’t seem like the next big thing, either.
But in 2026, something has shifted. In January, YouTuber Markiplier self-released his adaptation of the video game Iron Lung to theaters, and it outgrossed any number of big-studio titles. Then Curry Barker, whose comedy sketches have been a YouTube fixture, unveiled his feature debut Obsession. The film, made for under a million dollars, has become the box office phenomenon of the summer so far, managing a virtually unheard-of feat when its second and third weekends actually outgrossed its first. Obsession is sharing multiplex space with Backrooms, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, who previously brought the spooky internet meme to life in a series of YouTube shorts. Despite being set in a series of purgatorial, sparsely furnished, fluorescent-lit “liminal spaces”, it was the top movie at the North American box office this weekend, poised to become the biggest-grossing movie from distributor A24 in a matter of days. Backrooms also opened to bigger numbers than any number of starrier or bigger-brand 2026 titles like Wuthering Heights, Scream 7, The Devil Wears Prada 2 or the last Pixar movie. That makes three YouTube-trained film-makers who have presided over some of this year’s biggest and/or most surprising hits. With them have come countless social media posts about how YouTube, not film school, provides the real training tomorrow’s directors need.
Influencer and Britain’s Got Talent judge had made football, comedy and challenge videos with group since 2013KSI, the social media influencer and Britain’s Got Talent judge, has announced he is leaving the YouTube collective Sidemen.The 32-year-old, whose real name is Olajide Olatunji, has made football, comedy and challenge videos with the group since 2013. Continue reading...
The births, fledgling flights and even first dates on Robert Fuller’s site are about to hit a million global subscribersHaving enjoyed setting up bird boxes with his father as a child, the wildlife artist Robert Fuller wanted to go one step further. While he happily spent hours making the boxes and dotting them around the Yorkshire Wolds, he found it tantalising that he was unable to see exactly what the nesting owls, kestrels and kingfishers were up to.It transpires Fuller was not alone in his
The births, fledgling flights and even first dates on Robert Fuller’s site are about to hit a million global subscribers
Having enjoyed setting up bird boxes with his father as a child, the wildlife artist Robert Fuller wanted to go one step further. While he happily spent hours making the boxes and dotting them around the Yorkshire Wolds, he found it tantalising that he was unable to see exactly what the nesting owls, kestrels and kingfishers were up to.
It transpires Fuller was not alone in his curiosity. His YouTube channel, which livestreams footage from his artificial habitats and documents his love of British nature, is about to hit a million global subscribers. His channel now generates on average 2.8m monthly views.
Debut from 20-year-old director examines memory, reality and fear after Chiwetel Ejiofor accesses an infinite series of hidden rooms that all feel creepily askewAll the lonely people … where do they all belong? YouTuber Kane Parsons makes his feature directing debut with this icily brilliant and genuinely disturbing conceptual horror film based on his web series, and scripted by Will Soodik. There is something here of J-horror, the V/H/S found footage franchise, Dan Erickson’s Severance and Nath
Debut from 20-year-old director examines memory, reality and fear after Chiwetel Ejiofor accesses an infinite series of hidden rooms that all feel creepily askew
All the lonely people … where do they all belong? YouTuber Kane Parsons makes his feature directing debut with this icily brilliant and genuinely disturbing conceptual horror film based on his web series, and scripted by Will Soodik. There is something here of J-horror, the V/H/S found footage franchise, Dan Erickson’s Severance and Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal. It’s about people walled up in their own memories, imprisoned in endlessly remembered scenes from their past, or miserably perceived versions of their present existences in which they have become caricatures of themselves, gargoyle stars of their paralysed inner world of failure. Or perhaps the action of the film is not metaphorical in this or any other sense, and the “backrooms” of the title simply exist.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve give barnstormingly good performances as Clark and Mary; it is the early 90s and Clark is a failed architect, separated from his wife, and an alcoholic who to make ends meet self-hatingly manages a drearily and eerily vast discount furniture store, called Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire. He does dumb TV ads dressed as a pirate while uneasily aware he should be a sultan to make the “Ottoman empire” pun work. He goes to see a therapist, Mary, a sad, gentle person who markets her own self-help audio tapes and is haunted by childhood memories of her abusive mother.
The content creators behind channels like Chloe VS History are using AI tools to ‘bring history to life in a really visceral way’“I have just arrived in Tudor London, 1536,” a young woman in a green puffer jacket tells the camera. “I’m going to check in at my room in the inn, get into the market. Then, later I am meeting the actual king – yep, Henry VIII – in person.”On YouTube and other social platforms, users are flocking to watch AI-generated “history influencers”, characters that vlog their
The content creators behind channels like Chloe VS History are using AI tools to ‘bring history to life in a really visceral way’
“I have just arrived in Tudor London, 1536,” a young woman in a green puffer jacket tells the camera. “I’m going to check in at my room in the inn, get into the market. Then, later I am meeting the actual king – yep, Henry VIII – in person.”
On YouTube and other social platforms, users are flocking to watch AI-generated “history influencers”, characters that vlog their travels to historical settings.
2025 fuhr der Youtuber Mishka Polyakov zur Insel des isolierten Volks der Sentinelesen und hinterließ eine Coladose. Dafür musste er ins Gefängnis. Inzwischen ist er wieder unterwegs. Welche Bedrohung geht von Leuten wie ihm aus?
2025 fuhr der Youtuber Mishka Polyakov zur Insel des isolierten Volks der Sentinelesen und hinterließ eine Coladose. Dafür musste er ins Gefängnis. Inzwischen ist er wieder unterwegs. Welche Bedrohung geht von Leuten wie ihm aus?
It was just a creepy picture on the internet. Now it’s the year’s freakiest film. Its 20-year-old auteur Kane Parsons and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve take us through the terrifying labyrinthChiwetel Ejiofor has been on a lot of movie sets, but Backrooms was something different: a 30,000 sq ft labyrinth of apparently random corridors and chambers, all carpeted, fluorescent lit and decorated in the same sickly yellow wallpaper. It was so big that people were getting lost in it, says
It was just a creepy picture on the internet. Now it’s the year’s freakiest film. Its 20-year-old auteur Kane Parsons and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve take us through the terrifying labyrinth
Chiwetel Ejiofor has been on a lot of movie sets, but Backrooms was something different: a 30,000 sq ft labyrinth of apparently random corridors and chambers, all carpeted, fluorescent lit and decorated in the same sickly yellow wallpaper. It was so big that people were getting lost in it, says Ejiofor: “Especially on those first days. As you try to navigate your way around and you’re like: ‘I’m sure it’s this door, I’m sure that’s the way.’” He’s laughing at the recollection. “And you find yourself just back in the wrong corner of the whole studio and you’re like: ‘Get me some help!’”
This is kind of the point of Backrooms – the movie and the online phenomenon that spawned it. It’s a concept that takes some unpacking, but as the premise for a buzzy A24 horror freakout, you could summarise it as something like “The Blair Witch Project meets Severance” or “The Shining set in an infinite Travelodge”or maybe “the exact opposite of a Wes Anderson movie”. Comparisons fall short, partly because the Backrooms concept feels as if it’s come from another world – a parallel dimension, even. Ejiofor concurs: “There was stuff that we were doing by the end of the film that I was just like: ‘This is among the most bizarre things I have ever been involved in.’”
Defying criticisms of ‘slop’ and ‘theft’, the growing culture of AI-powered creativity is attracting interest from HollywoodIn a former hemstitching workshop where artisans sewed pleats for Stockholm’s 19th-century bourgeoisie, a distinctly 21st-century craft is taking root: AI film-making.One day last week, an actor, director and composer squeezed into a tiny studio booth to record a voiceover for their next AI release. Critics disparage AI movies as “automated slop” or cheating, and fume at wh
Defying criticisms of ‘slop’ and ‘theft’, the growing culture of AI-powered creativity is attracting interest from Hollywood
In a former hemstitching workshop where artisans sewed pleats for Stockholm’s 19th-century bourgeoisie, a distinctly 21st-century craft is taking root: AI film-making.
One day last week, an actor, director and composer squeezed into a tiny studio booth to record a voiceover for their next AI release. Critics disparage AI movies as “automated slop” or cheating, and fume at what they claim to be industrial-scale copyright theft. But this had a distinctly homespun feel, the little team fussing over a monologue by a poetic Scottish gorilla inhabiting a transhumanist cyberpunk universe. It was a bit like recording the Archers, one of them joked.
The 26-year-old has received rave reviews for his micro-budget horror Obsession, support from Ari Aster and control of a Texas Chain Saw Massacre remakeThings have been going scarily well for 26-year-old film-maker Curry Barker.The past 18 months have seen him level up from lo-fi YouTube comedy skits to an $800 horror short that went viral to a breakout feature picked up for $15m to being handed the reins of one of the most legendary franchises in Hollywood. It’s almost too good to be true. Cont
The 26-year-old has received rave reviews for his micro-budget horror Obsession, support from Ari Aster and control of a Texas Chain Saw Massacre remake
Things have been going scarily well for 26-year-old film-maker Curry Barker.
The past 18 months have seen him level up from lo-fi YouTube comedy skits to an $800 horror short that went viral to a breakout feature picked up for $15m to being handed the reins of one of the most legendary franchises in Hollywood. It’s almost too good to be true.
The two-time major champion has mused about life as a full-time streamer. But sport should be more than just a platform to grow an athlete’s brandGolf: a feeder sport for aspiring YouTubers? When Bryson DeChambeau, faced with the expiry of his LIV Golf contract at the end of this year and the implosion, possibly even sooner, of the now Saudi-less LIV Golf, mused last week that he might give up life on tour to focus on his YouTube channel, most professional golf watchers scoffed. This was just a
The two-time major champion has mused about life as a full-time streamer. But sport should be more than just a platform to grow an athlete’s brand
Golf: a feeder sport for aspiring YouTubers? When Bryson DeChambeau, faced with the expiry of his LIV Golf contract at the end of this year and the implosion, possibly even sooner, of the now Saudi-less LIV Golf, mused last week that he might give up life on tour to focus on his YouTube channel, most professional golf watchers scoffed. This was just a bluff, a move to gain leverage as DeChambeau, like every other LIV player, contemplates an uncertain future and negotiates the fraught path back to the PGA Tour.
“I think, from my perspective, I’d love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more,” DeChambeau said. “I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube. And then I’d love to play tournaments that want me.”
GB News owner’s son, who wants Channel to be mined to stop migrants, is latest to have a go at transatlantic rightwing commentaryOn a Los Angeles stage in 2011 Winston Marshall, then the banjo player for the folk rock band Mumford & Sons, could scarcely believe what was happening. Not only was he playing at the Grammys, he was playing alongside Bob Dylan, legendary composer of social justice anthems and one of his heroes.About 15 years later, Marshall once again found himself stateside, this
GB News owner’s son, who wants Channel to be mined to stop migrants, is latest to have a go at transatlantic rightwing commentary
On a Los Angeles stage in 2011 Winston Marshall, then the banjo player for the folk rock band Mumford & Sons, could scarcely believe what was happening. Not only was he playing at the Grammys, he was playing alongside Bob Dylan, legendary composer of social justice anthems and one of his heroes.
About 15 years later, Marshall once again found himself stateside, this time on a very different stage. Appearing on Fox News in his new guise as a conservative YouTuber, Marshall advocated what he admitted was an “outlandish idea” to stop small boat crossings in the Channel.
The female-created YouTube sketch series Smatouha Minni – You Heard It From Me – uses satire to confront misogynistic attitudesIn Beirut’s Gemmayzeh neighbourhood a rented flat has been transformed into a film set: bright studio lights in a cosy living room. At its centre is Maria Elayan – though she is barely recognisable. Filming for the third season of Smatouha Minni (You Heard It From Me), a feminist series in Arabic, the actor is in a padded muscle suit, wearing a slicked-back black wig and
The female-created YouTube sketch series Smatouha Minni – You Heard It From Me – uses satire to confront misogynistic attitudes
In Beirut’s Gemmayzeh neighbourhood a rented flat has been transformed into a film set: bright studio lights in a cosy living room. At its centre is Maria Elayan – though she is barely recognisable. Filming for the third season of Smatouha Minni(You Heard It From Me), a feminist series in Arabic, the actor is in a padded muscle suit, wearing a slicked-back black wig and beard.
“If your wife asks you to change the diapers, you should change her,” the Palestinian-Jordanian barks, mimicking an aggrieved self-help podcaster. An hour later, she is slouched in a hoodie, shisha pipe in one hand and a gaming console in the other, shouting: “Mama, I’m hungry. Can you make me a sandwich?”
As AI erases the bottom rungs of the corporate ladder, some gen Z workers skip the entry level to become their own CEOsWhen Ashley Terrell graduated from the University of Hawaii in 2024, she planned to find a job in marketing, maybe for a tech company. She had a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a college résumé that included a student marketing job for Red Bull. But after months of applying, her only offer was to work in the power tools section at Home Depot. “It was quite a sho
As AI erases the bottom rungs of the corporate ladder, some gen Z workers skip the entry level to become their own CEOs
When Ashley Terrell graduated from the University of Hawaii in 2024, she planned to find a job in marketing, maybe for a tech company. She had a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a college résumé that included a student marketing job for Red Bull. But after months of applying, her only offer was to work in the power tools section at Home Depot. “It was quite a shock,” she told the Guardian. “I searched for jobs every single day in that Home Depot bathroom.”
Terrell’s generation is entering the workforce in a particularly unlucky moment. Hiring in the United States has slumped to its lowest rate since 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While workers of all ages are feeling the pressure of an uncertain economy, it’s gen Z who is the most pessimistic about their job prospects: entry-level jobs are the most vulnerable to impacts from artificial intelligence, and some younger workers are seeing their careers stall before they have even started. Terrell felt she was not just competing with other people for jobs. “Especially with marketing, a lot of people think it can be replaced with AI,” she said.
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