Simon Kilby, Managing Director of Bauer Media Advertising, alongside campaigner Esther Ghey. led a powerful discussion at this year’s Future of Media London 2025 conference during the panel “Media Leaders: It’s Not Too Late to Make a Difference,” hosted by Magic Radio’s Sonali Shah.

Esther Ghey is the mother of Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old who was tragically murdered in 2023. In the aftermath of her daughter’s death, Esther transformed her grief into a powerful campaign for change, advocating for stricter online safety laws, mindfulness in schools and greater accountability from social media companies.

Simon Kilby challenged the advertising and media industry to take responsibility for the content available on social platforms, emphasising that the advertising industry must step up in the face of growing concerns over young people’s wellbeing. He said; “For me, the overwhelming requirement for the advertising industry, the media industry, is not just to say something must change. They’ve got to understand that we are the change. We are the change that has to happen.”

The discussion drew a clear link between social media exposure, mental health pressures and the broader societal role our industry plays. Kilby urged the advertising industry to confront the mental-health risks posed by social media platforms and to rethink how advertising investment influences the digital ecosystem. He argued that it’s time for agencies and clients to “put their wallets where their heart is” by either withdrawing spend or redirecting it more sensibly.

Esther spoke about how her daughter’s declining mental health for the last two years of her life was “being exacerbated by what she was accessing online”. She also noted that one of Brianna’s killers regularly accessed the dark web, viewing videos of torture and murder.

Simon highlighted statistics which show that mental health disorders in young people aged between 17 and 19 have increased from one in 10 in 2017 to one in four in 2023. Added to that, children who are spending three hours plus a day on social media face double the risk of depression and anxiety – and the average teen now spends nearly five hours a day on social media. Simon pointed out that this makes this “a crisis, not a trend”. He added that “increasingly social platforms are unregulated and we need to take responsibility for that.”

Esther brought a powerful, personal dimension to the session, discussing what change is needed and how the industry can deliver it.  Simon added: “This is having a detrimental impact on the advertising industry as well as on society and there has to be a discussion about whether the rapidly increasing spend on social media is good for the nation’s mental health.”

Simon referred to the Advertising Associations’ All in Census earlier this year; “The most shocking statistic that came out of me is that 60% of people who work in our industry do not trust our industry. 60% of people who work in the industry that we all inhabit do not trust it. One of the main reasons for that is because the majority of spend goes on platforms that people don’t trust.”

Esther noted that the power dynamic doesn’t have to remain tilted toward tech companies, it can be reclaimed by the people who use and fund them. As she put it, “Social media companies need you far more than you need them.”

As the industry grapples with trust, safety and regulation, this session reaffirmed Bauer’s continued commitment to ethical, responsible media and our determination to use our influence for positive impact – ensuring that the media we help create genuinely contributes to a better future.