To think we absolutely have to ban social media for under 16s.

Because everybody is going to be thrilled in the world of Data Protection to hand over that level of information to access Social Media.

and the answer is of course we aren’t - no one is going to be happy with having that level of information being held - database hacking is already fairly common.

and that’s the issue isn’t it. Id for other things are quick and not held.

the problem is there isn’t an easy answer at all

How else could it be enforced? It's obvious that they'd need information like a credit, passport, photo driving licence, electoral register entry, etc. Of course, IF we had a national ID card system, it could easily be linked to that, but Blair/Prescott blew the chance to do it 20 years ago!

The problem is implementation is next to impossible - we have no rules relating to alcohol for example at the moment within the house - parents can give children alcohol - making Smart phones illegal and parents responsible is next to impossible and would be political suicide for whoever implemented

so they make the companies responsible- fine but we already in society see VPNs and fire sticks as perfectly acceptable to use so how exactly would this work. Many things have an age but just based on the year.

Sending it underground won’t help either - banning something doesn’t mean they won’t use it. So that then becomes parents checking what their children use. Which frankly it what it should be anyway. So we could go all around in circles to end up back where we started.

The overall problem is that there is limited monitoring of sites - content should be regulated for everyone. Take Mumsnet and the horrific images that were posted recently. Sites should be more responsible for that. Recently on Facebook I am a member of groups relating to sport that someone has posted pornographic images on. That is what should be monitored.

They make money on that so yes.
Those companies will be targets for hackers too.

I agree in theory but it’s impossible to implement. Under 16s won’t stop going on SM without parents buying into the idea and the fear of their child being left out means that the majority won’t. When I say SM I include WhatsApp etc which is likely to have links and images shared in group chats.

Australia voted for a ban but it’s not in force and they’ve not announced how it will be done. The average teen knows what a VPN is so will use one of those if age verification isn’t possible. Have they announced what SM will include? Many messaging apps and forums include SM functions like sharing images and video.

Of course!

Would this result in all of us having to give more information to these companies and/or the state to verify though?

That is incredibly sad. I'm sorry it happened to your family. I hope you and dc are ok now.

I agree things can be improved. I suggested above certain locks and protection for children social media accounts. I don't think the suggested ban is the solution or even the right step forward.
If only we had more policing resources to track paedophiles instead of arrests 'for conspiracy to create public nuisance' iykwim

NIce idea but completely impossible. Kids will find ways to access it. Just like 50 years ago, teenage boys found ways to access girlie magazines. 10 years ago, teenagers found ways to smoke cigarettes. Today, teenagers find ways to access alcohol.

IF, you come up with guaranteed ways to ban youngsters from SM, then I'll be first to agree, but when it's just going to be yet another unenforceable law, no.

So he’d have ignore government laws anyway? Like kids buying alcohol in the 1990s. We found ways around the law.

Because no one wants their child to be the weird kid who isn’t allowed the thing everyone else has.

The type of kids who go to great lengths to hide accounts and buy burner phones aren’t exactly the type who will listen to a government law telling them they can’t have a phone until they’re 16/18.

We were very lucky, my kids were born in the early 2000s meaning they have grown up with the evolution of social media. They have seen the addictive nature and self regulated because that is what they were used to doing.

Data was bloody expensive in the early days. Imagine paying actual £££ every time you look at a makeup tutorial, or kittens falling over. Meant looking at needs rather than wants....

Data protection was also talked about a lot more (DH and I worked in computing), so WiFi (and other) passwords change regularly. It all made people think about what they were wanting to access, and why.

Perhaps some sort of "cost" per use would return kids to thinking about their access. Doom scrolling insta/meta/snapchat "costing" 200x homework websites and a running total on screen...

How? Even primary schools are struggling with managing with the fallout of all you’ve listed in the first paragraph.

Do people seriously think checking the phone of a 14/15 year old daily is feasible. Have you not heard of hidden accounts and burner phones?

I'd support an official ban to send a message that it is socially not acceptable. As parents however we need to strictly supervise their phone use, read their messages regularly, make sure they don't join large WA groups and not allow them to use insta TT etc. You need to educate them too though show them how tt and YouTube can brain rot and the dynamic that can happen when communicating in groups online. These will be good life skills.

I find it interesting that some young teenagers from very strict families have completely open access to the internet. Even when they just own a dumb phone their parents never check what they're up to on the messaging apps or the browsers search history. So weird. I tell my kids that what ever they are writing to their friends is also likey to be read by some parents and can be screenshot and shared beyond the groups you are in. I have taught them about digital footprint and to be careful what kind of footprint they leave.

I havent read the full thread, but no, it shouldnt be banned.

I have 3 kids, now adult/older teens. One of my children is very outdoorsy, would be out from sunrise to sunset given the chance. Two of my children are not, they are into gaming, and tech, bright brilliant kids, strong in maths and science, they want to know how stuff works, they learn quickly in logical fact based subjects. Its what they love - i am similar. Growing up they struggled in school, as their passions differ from that of their peers. The secondry school they are in is relatively small for a secondry, so small social circles. My kids started gaming on DS's when they were small. Yes game time was limited back then, but they loved it, puzzle based adventure games especially. Games where it wasnt just aim and kill, games where they had to figure out solutions to progress. They moved on from the to Minecraft. Minecraft isnt just this block building game where you can create a world, minecraft is almost fully customiseable, you can create your own game, within a game, and open these worlds up to people. When my kids discovered private minecraft servers, they also found their peers. In the past, i would hear people say "you will find your people at uni" when you enter a subject attractive to people who think and have passions like you. My kids found their people earlier, thanks to social platforms. They play with kids and now adults from all over the world. They turn to these friends for help, for fun. They have school friends, they go outside, they meet up to go to the cinema, they have the social life youd expect from a teenager. But the friends that share their passions, are internet friends.

The internet has evil people on it, no doubt, but the internet is also filled with positivity and acceptence in the right areas. What our job as parent is, is to be approachable, to have our kids share with us who they mix with online, the negatives and the postives. I have spent evenings with my kids online friends, talking, laughing, playing silly party style games, and getting to know them. Some of them i have been chatting to now for nearly 10 years, they are amazing, intelligent people. Genuine friendships can be formed. Some of my own closest friends are people i met on a parenting forum way back in 2002, people i still talk to daily. We need to give our kids the skills to navigate the internet, and social media, and to be there for them to direct and help them navigate through the negatives.

Id highly recommend a netflix documentry called The Remarkable Life of Ibelin to show you just how powerful the internet can be, how the online social relationships can impact a persons life, and how valued these friendships can be. Yes theres downsides, there is to everything, but theres also positives that get cast aside all to frequently.

A six year old won't become addicted to hard core porn if they have no means to access it.

It doesn’t make any difference. You can try all you like but as things currently stand children and paedophiles will get round it.

IMO parents who allow children unfettered access to the internet should be locked up for neglect. Half wits is polite.

It’s a pretty rude and unfair comment. Parents are trying in an impossible situation.

My comment wasn't specifically directed at you.

I’m not a half wit and I did take my son’s phone. Pardophiles and tech savvy kids can get around parents.

A lot of parents are half wits. I read about an 11 year old who was being groomed online and taking nude photos. She went on to meet some men and got sexually assaulted. At no point did her mother take away her phone.

We can't invade their privacy! They need their phone! They get cross if I take away their tech!

Meanwhile primary school children are watching hard core porn and sexually assaulting their classmates.

All you can do is teach them to be sensible. Yeah right.

Yes it’s soooo easy.🙄

Parent removes an app, dangers to children from SM are all gone- except they’re not.

Oh I did. Took phones in every night and after school so they could focus on homework which got increasingly difficult as white board pictures of tasks set alongside everything else they needed was on portals( that needs to stop). Had parental controls and even switched the WiFi off but that proved difficult for our work.Monitored sites too. TikTok wasn’t a thing then.

However in amongst my “parenting” as you put it my dc exchanged info on getting round parental controls and new sites, bought cheap burner phones etc on the school bus.

My son ended up being groomed and sexually abused online by paedophile gangs. I am wrestling with a lot but one thing I’m not wrestling with is knowing I did my absolute best and did parent my child.