New social media platform safer for young people

Tribela is designed for under-18s

A specialist social media platform designed for under-18s provides a "safer place for younger users", its founder has told the BBC.

Tribela is a new platform that has come out of Oxford University Innovation - a collaboration of academics, students and alumni - and aims to offer a calm, constructive and safe online space for young people.

Its founder Natalie Boll said: "Social media in itself is not bad, it's just how we design it and how we regulate it that needs work."

The "magic" and "what really is the difference" between current platforms and Tribela were its safety features and recommendation system, Ms Boll said.

"I worked in the media for 20 years, but it wasn't until I had children and saw the effects of social media on them, and particularly my daughter, that I really opened my eyes to the harms," she said.

"Something really needed to be done to design a safer place for younger users."

Tribela founder Natalie Boll said having a daughter made it clear to her something "needed to be done to design a safer place for younger users"

To tackle the harmful impacts of being online, Australia is currently in the process of banning under-16s from social media platforms.

But Ms Boll, who is originally from the US and now lives in Germany, questioned a ban, saying teenagers used social media much like older generations used traditional media.

"I felt like banning social media is similar to banning TV - we wouldn't ban TV if there wasn't an appropriate channel, we'd make one," she said.

Tribela - which is set to launch in 2026 - will see all content moderated it before making it on to the platform, with violence, sexual content and explicit language banned.

A recommendation system, which was designed in part by Ms Boll's daughter, allows users to customise what they see on their feed based on topics.

Tribela will allow people to customise their interests

Lindsay Powell, who is supporting the new platform, said her two daughters were currently trying it out.

"They've been having great fun with it because actually they're not on any other social media at the moment," she said.

"The worst thing they have been able to say to each other on it is that they smell of poo."

Ms Powell, who is from Abingdon and previously worked in education for 15 years, has been helping the Tribela team develop its relationship with schools.

"I was able to shed a bit of light about how we could work with schools to help them [students] think about their online presence," she said.