Should Under-16s Be Banned From Social Media? Time Team's Patreon Fortune & Snubbing Tom Hanks with Strongwatch Studios

Should Under-16s Be Banned From Social Media? Time Team's Patreon Fortune & Snubbing Tom Hanks with Strongwatch Studios

July 17, 2026 · 39 min · Season 3 · Episode 28

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of a proposed social media ban for under-16s, insights from Strongwatch Studios, and the challenges of digital content creation.

Ben Powell-Jones and Thom Gulseven of Strongwatch Studios join Peter Fincham and Jimmy Mulville to reveal what it was really like to work at LADbible when it was booming, why they had to turn down Tom Hanks and whether the UK's proposed social media ban for under-16s can actually work. In this episode: •Why they said no to Tom Hanks's agent (and almost turned down Billie Eilish) •How a £500 video made £80k overnight (and why platform ad revenue can vanish just as fast) •Building LADbible's YouTube channel from zero to millions of views •Why Patreon and direct-to-consumer content is the future of monetisation, from Fin vs History to Time Team •Why focus groups lie (and what LADbible's data really showed about who was watching Love Island) •How TV and YouTube are merging, from Rest Is Football's move to Netflix to broadcasters commissioning entire YouTube channels •Their honest take on the UK's proposed social media ban for under-16s Have a question or opinion? Leave a comment, find us on socials (@InsidersTVPod), or email us at podcasts@hattrick.com. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a review 5-star review, share it with a friend and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode…

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