Banning SM for under 16s

Honestly it's ridiculous my 12 year old is autistic doesn't use social media as such but does use a phone for pokemon go which involves going outside walking moving visiting places if he can't take his phone out he is less likely to come outside and will stay in the home

I must have misunderstood you as I agree with most of what you've written here

Absolutely! I was the boring parent that wouldn’t let mine have one in primary school and in a tiny minority. Now toddlers have them which I really can’t get my head round.

I'd agree with this, I wish I'd been stricter with my dd, I thought I was quite strict at the time but looking back I should have been stricter.

It's so damaging and addictive, it ruined dds ability to concentrate and I can't remember the last time she read s book 😕

She's 19 now, if I had my time again she wouldn't get a phone until she was 14 and absolutely no sm until she was 16.

Parents allowing it is the problem! It's already stated that it's for 13+, but there are 'class' WhatsApp groups that are absolutely teeming with cyber bullying and we as a school, are powerless to do nothing about it because it's the parents who are setting them up and allowing, nay encouraging, their 8,9,10 and 11 year olds to use it...

I've yet to see any positives to children and teens using social media and so, until I'm convinced otherwise, I'm supportive of a ban.

I could do with that training course! My DD has hacked the parental settings I was pretty proud of adding, and thought they were locked down with an unguessable password, and was on her phone after midnight last night! So the parental controls tell me this but don’t stop it? She wasn’t at home btw.
I’d like a balance of education and technology to enforce a reasonable reduction in use but like others have said she uses her phone for homework as the interface is better than her laptop. Banning things rarely works, but the MH affects of social media are awful.

I'm not being judgemental.

I find it fascinating that the parents in DS class are totally loopy about smart phones. The one who has been most vocal has been the parent who demanded their child benefit given a tablet to manage his behaviour at school. On top of this, on numerous occasions he's told friends about various things he's watched on TV, YouTube and various games he's played. All age inappropriate.

His parents are unable to grasp that his access to a tablet and online gaming are as bad as a smart phone.

They want a ban, because it lets them off the hook.

That's the problem for me.

Not only that but given you can buy a smartphone for £40 if you really want one, it's not going to stop kids.

There is no substitute for being aware of what your child is doing and who with unfortunately.

It's not about policing it. It's about how it just passes the buck from parents.

Also, kids will eventually use social media and smart phones. They need to learn how to use them responsibly, manage their usage and protect themselves. If you stop them having them until a certain age, then all you do is save up a bunch of problems for when they are older anyway. It doesn't necessarily solve issues.

We need a better understanding of how we can teach kids, manage their use of various forms of communications and respond to difficult situations - at various stepped age appropriate points.

You aren't going avoid technology - it's not like drugs and alcohol in that respect.

I do think it's a good idea. I'm sure I read somewhere they were thinking of imposing heavy fines on companies caught with underage users to put the onus on them to ensure they're verifying age properly? I'm not sure how that works if they're not uk based though

What about children with type one diabetes? What about children with a hearing impairment? For those children a smart phone is a vital medical device.

I wish all schools could do what DD's school does.

The HT is married to a man who works for CEOPS. Every year they have an event, that a local businessman funds, where parents are invited along. There are games in the hall for kids, snacks and drinks for kids and parents, and then the HT's husband gives a tech lesson to parents.

He shows the dodgy bits, he shows how they'll get round your parental controls and he talks about which apps are causing the most problems atm (I've 6 kids and it's changed a lot over the years!).

I've been 3 times so far and I've learned some thing new every time!

It's so educational and it also gives parents a good idea of what all the other parents are thinking about apps. It does make it easier to say "No, they're not..." when your annoyed child claims everyones parents are allowing them snapchat/instagram when actually you know for sure they're not (not that I'd be swayed if they were but)

Its going to be impossible to police

I meant how would outside agencies know it was the under 16 accessing SM ,as not all parents will care or be in agreement with banning it.

Judgemental much?

Just because something might be difficult to police or enforce isn't a reason to just give up on it. It was difficult to change the culture around drink driving or smoking. It was difficult to get people to wear seatbelts or get their kids to wear seatbelts. Changing the law is only part of it, but it's an important part.

Not that I want to ever go back into lockdown but kids who didn't have access to the Internet/ smart phones were massively disadvantaged by not being able to access online lessons.

Same way I know if they're doing crack. It's my house, I know what goes on here

I don't think this is true.

I think here are so many positives of phones, computers and social media. Technology is the way of the future.

Unfortunately it can be used as a force for bad. But rather than just try to stop it, I think we should invest in more education around safe use. Instead of schools and communities and governments trying to ban everything, why don't they teach instead.

Schools could have e lessons on how to use a smart phone, what the apps do, what the dangers are, what apps can enhance your other skills. Lessons on using editing software, gaming development, email and communications apps safely, etc.. etc..

I believe education not prohibition is key.

Technology is here to stay. Kids sap it all up and have incredible tech skills. Let's use that and let's educate so they want to be responsible users, they can look out for each other online, they know how to report stuff appropriately, they know how to keep themselves safe online etc...

It's already been done in other places, like Australia, so it's perfectly possible.

Just because it's been banned doesn't mean it's actually working.

The parents who parent will adhere to it.

The parents who don't, won't.

And guess which kids are the problem to begin with?

I don't know but I'm sure that it's a good step towards changing the culture where kids are on their phones at all.

There's a lot of young people now themselves saying they don't want phones, they wish they could have had an actual childhood. And there's a wealth of evidence about how it's destroying mental health, education, relationships, even the ability to talk to people. Children are desperately lonely. We need to stop destroying children's lives.

Whatever it takes - banning social media, banning smartphones, bringing in punitive measures for parents who allow smartphone use - it has to be done.

Well exactly how would kids have managed without smart phones during the pandemic when they were accessing lessons onnline?

Absolutely. It's depressing this is where we've got to. Sold our kids down the river to Zuckerberg and his like

How would you know it was the under 16 accessing stuff.

It sounds like a good idea, but how would it be policed, or will there be a massive, expensive ad campaign trying to educate parents and teens on the issue at the same time as spending money on prosecutions? Will there be anything done to tackle why SM is so attractive/ dangerous eg forcing changes to alter algorithms to stop users being bombarded with increasingly harmful content?

Social media is changing all the time. So you find a way to effectively stop some (cos it will never be all) teens accessing Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp. Next week there'll be a new website / app popping up which won't stick to the rules. It's already against WhatsApp rules for it to be used by U13s yet parents ignore that then seem surprised when their kid is upset or in trouble re something said on there. That's poor parenting, thinking the rules are there to be ignored and despite being told how harmful it can be. The parents make the choice to let kids have access to SM because they think they know better. With something like smoking, it's easier to see the physical manifestations of cost, harm and the general unpleasantness of it and for parents to be against it from the start. It also takes prolonged use to have a truly catastrophic effect, whereas abuse on SM can lead to devastating consequences relatively quickly. The type of parents who don't look ahead to the potential harm of allowing their teens to use social media will ignore any ban, and by the time they have realised their mistake it will be too late.

A blanket ban is largely pointless. Education is the key, along with putting the onus on SM companies to minimise risks.

At the governmental level, sure, social media should be set for certain ages. It already is (13+), but kids still get on there at very young ages and with parental permission.

My dd is 12 and has absolutely no social media. Even sites like YouTube are blocked on her browser so she doesn’t watch all that vlogger shite. WhatsApp is very tenuous and we tightly monitor it. She is only in a few group chats with close friends. We don’t allow her in the whole year group chats or to be added to random ones.

But she has a friend who has been posting sexy photos publicly on TikTok since she was 9/10. Her mum, auntie, older siblings all follow her. 🙄 Parents gotta parent.