Learning Circles
A community event series co-hosted by UNICEF Adolescent Mental Health Hub and MHPSS Collaborative
What are Learning Circles?
The UNICEF Adolescent Mental Health Hub and the MHPSS Collaborative have launched an exciting new community events series called Learning Circles.
Unlike traditional webinars, these are facilitated, highly interactive sessions built for dialogue. Each Circle opens with short contributions from Catalysts who are invited speakers that share evidence, experience, or practical cases to frame the key tensions and questions for the group to work through. The invited participants, known as Sensemakers, then step into the dialogue to test ideas, add context, and surface what the conversation means for practice, policy, and young people’s lives. The goal is simple: exchange experiences, challenge assumptions, and co-develop new insights together.
To ensure the knowledge shared is captured for the wider community, each Circle will result in the publication of The Circular, which is a brief synthesis of the key messages and insights surfaced during the dialogue.
Learning Circles are designed to be dynamic spaces for dialogue rather than one-way webinars — prioritizing interaction, reflection, and co-creation of knowledge.
Learning Circle 1: Social media bans and impacts on adolescent mental health
Key question:
Is restricting or banning social media for adolescents a justified approach to protecting their wellbeing?
On February 26, 2026, we convened young people, practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and advocates from around the world to address this key question: Is restricting or banning social media for adolescents a justified approach to protecting their wellbeing?
As governments worldwide consider age restrictions and bans for social media, this session aimed to move past the headlines to examine:
- The tension between protective legislation and digital rights.
- What the current evidence says about the effectiveness or not of broad bans.
- The practical challenges these policies present for practitioners and families.
Over 105 minutes, the sensemakers heard from two Catalysts who shared different angles on the evidence and different perspectives on the policy debate. Then they moved into small, facilitated groups called Mini Circles: Three rounds of structured dialogue in a shared workspace with collaborative boards for individual reflection, and time for group harvest.
The Circular, co-created by Catalysts and Sensemakers, is a brief synthesis capturing the key messages, tensions, and insights that emerged.