Most Brits want AI banned in schools
Key Points
- 52% of Britons say AI, including ChatGPT, should be banned in schools
- Support has risen from 43% in Ipsos's 2025 Education Monitor
- 71% back banning under-14s from social media, up 8 points since 2024
- 37% name social media and technology as a top challenge for young people
- Britain ranks last of 31 countries on whether a degree is good value
More than half of British adults want AI banned from schools, according to new polling from Ipsos.
The firm’s 2026 Education Monitor found that 52% of the public in Great Britain believe the use of AI, including ChatGPT, should be banned in schools.
That places Great Britain among the five most AI-sceptical countries in the survey, alongside Canada on 59%, Ireland on 57%, the United States on 56% and Australia on 52%.
Ipsos recorded 43% support for banning AI tools in Great Britain in its 2025 Education Monitor, nine percentage points below this year’s reading.
Support for restricting children’s access to social media runs higher still, with 71% backing a ban on under-14s using it both inside and outside of school. That figure has risen by eight percentage points since 2024.
More than 1 in 3 British adults (37%) named the effects of social media and technology such as AI as one of the greatest challenges facing young people in Great Britain today.
The global average sits at 30%, and only Belgium (39%), France (34%) and Germany (30%) sit near Britain at the top of the table.
Doubts over the value of a degree
The same survey found British adults more sceptical about university than the public in any of the other 30 countries polled.
Only 28% agreed that university degrees in Great Britain offer good value for money, 25 percentage points below the global country average of 53%.
Britain also came last on the question of whether a degree matters, with 40% calling it very important to succeed in life against a global average of 57%.
Ipsos found a clear split in the advice Britons would give school leavers:
- 39% would tell young people to enter the workplace directly
- 23% would tell them to go to university first
- 59% of highly educated Britons agreed a degree aids career progression
- 45% of those with lower qualifications agreed with the same statement
Great Britain is one of only two countries surveyed where the public favours going straight into work over higher education.
“Britain stands apart from many other countries in the way it thinks about university,” said Trinh Tu, Managing Director of Public Affairs at Ipsos in the UK.
“While people still recognise the opportunities a degree can create, many are questioning whether the costs are worth it.”
Tu added that younger Britons remain more positive about university than older generations, despite carrying the financial costs most directly.
Opinion on schools also low
Just over 4 in 10 British adults (43%) rated the overall quality of the education system in Great Britain as good, while 26% rated it as poor.
More than 1 in 3 (37%) agreed that the school curriculum adequately prepares students for future careers, and 55% disagreed.
The public split evenly on whether the education system reduces social inequalities, with 42% agreeing and 42% disagreeing.
Ipsos interviewed 23,537 adults across 31 countries on its Global Advisor platform between 19 June and 3 July 2026, including roughly 1,000 people in Great Britain.
