“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”

C. S. Lewis

Across the UK, the United States, Australia, Europe, and beyond, governments are restricting young people’s access to social media in the name of protection. They say it's for our own good. But when our own good requires identity checks, blocks lawful expression, and subsequently prevents an entire generation from accessing the modern internet, it becomes something else: control.

This is not a defence of everything social media has become. Social media can cause real harm. It can be addictive, manipulative, and cruel.

But it is also where young people can speak freely, and very frequently it is the only place where they can speak freely. Using social media, we create, learn, organise, find communities, and discover that we are not alone in the world. For a lot of us it is literally the only place where we can do these things.

Social media is not some demon, separate from modern society. Social media is modern society.

An outright ban does not erase its problems. It does, however, erase young people's freedom of choice. The world will continue moving forward, while the next generation is forced to watch from behind a ID-shaped locked door.

We will be denied the freedom to speak, the freedom to learn, and the freedom to create.

And increasingly, everyone will be asked to prove who they are before they can participate at all.

We reject the idea that privacy must be surrendered for safety. And we reject the idea that every person should need government-approved identification to access ordinary parts of the internet.

Young people deserve protection from harm. They also deserve dignity, privacy, and a voice. These principles are not opposites.

We are minors, not idiots.

We understand the internet’s risks because we live with them every day. Decisions about our future should not be made without us, or imposed by people who mistake control over us for care.

And this is why we created 0Phone.

Our commitment is simple: to provide secure phones in the cloud that let people access the apps and services shaping the modern world without being forced to surrender unnecessary identification, privacy, or personal data.

You should be able to access the internet without first proving who you are.

You should be able to participate in society without being tracked.

You should be able to speak, learn, and create freely.

That is the future we are building.

If you believe protection should never become oppression, explore our tools.