AIBU to find a girl's comment about social media quite sad

“There’s nothing else to do”?

that is the strongest argument for banning I have heard so far

Hang on, I though previous posters said kids should be out having fun with their friends doing things like cycling, walking, playing footie, etc. to improve their socialising etc.

How does staying in with a quiet hobby help them socialise and keep fit & active?

...missing the point entirely.

Lots of kids actually have the good sense to avoid/ignore all the drivel and use the internet for enriching activities.

Children need quiet indoor hobbies.

If they can not occupy themselves quietly then they will be in danger of being horrible adults.

Yup, I don't think people realise how kids pass around their "cheats" etc about all kinds of things. DS got links to foreign streaming sites for premier league football matches, he has got "dodgy" links to download numerous online games for his Xbox and Playstation, has "free" netflix and spotify via "dodgy" foreign links, etc. If anyone thinks Starmer's plan to ban SM will actually work, they're deluded. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

We should be properly teaching modern technology, proper teaching of the risks of the internet, etc., rather than pretending to ban it.

I’m mixed about this.

One the one hand I think it is a good thing, I was bullied at school at least when I went home my bedroom was my safe sanctuary where nobody could torment me. I used to listen to music and daydream my days away.

On the other hand hobbies are expensive. It costs £150 a month for the dance schools around this way which not everyone can afford, and a lot of the kids that are out playing in the streets are little shits that are out to cause chaos. Not long now until the summer holidays are they will start lighting fires to the wheels bins again.

Also, my friend’s little girl had cancer and was in the hospital for months on end for treatment, and social media was her way of staying in touch with friends. Without it what would she have done? They couldn’t come and visit due to her immune system, and at one point she was in America for treatment so there was a time difference. Her instagram account brought her a lot of joy in the last couple of years of her life as her world became really small. I can’t say all social media for under 16s is bad.

Whereas scrolling through total bollocks, puerile attention seeking shite, and AI slop, is a rip-roaring way to pass the time.

Sounds...riveting 😕

I was talking to a friend who teaches Internet security in a post 16 college. She said young people will have no problem finding ways round the ban as it seems they have in Australia. She said a much better way to improve Internet safety would be to educate young people, make them aware of the dangers, how to recognise and avoid them. This seems to me to be another desperate attempt by Starmer to garner some good publicity. I don’t blame him for that but predict it will backfire.

I think part of the problem is how society has changed. Most mums work long hours now and don't see their children so much. My mum worked but picked us up from school when we were young and spent weekends with us too. She taught us how to cook, knit and sew. Kids just don't get that these days. They could still do things at home, though, like help out with the washing and housework.

So you think kids shouldn't have any "fun" then? I though people wanted kids to be playing outside and socialising with other kids. How does staying in doing reading, watching TV and doing homework achieve that??

Not in our village. Different places have different things. Our village hall does nothing for young people. It's all things like over 60s movement, flower arranging, etc. The scouts/guides closed a few years ago. No "open" fields nor parks to kick a ball around since the primary school became Colditz with 6 feet high fences around it's field, etc. Quite sad really to look in the unused balcony of the village hall to see broken table tennis tables etc that havn't been used in years. Even the tennis courts owned by the parish council are locked with the key only being available via membership of the village tennis club. Nothing at all set up for children which is incredibly sad.

Reading, TV, homework.

No. You are not unreasonable to find this sad. Kids these days don't play outside, don't do their homework and God forbid they should ever read a book. I'm a teacher in an FE college. The kids are on their phones all the time even in lessons. They are totally addicted. You see kids walking along the street completely unaware of their surroundings because they're on their phones, on the bus everyone is on their phones, you see mums pushing the pushchair along, ignoring their child because they're on their phones. We've created a monster and we can't control it. It scares me to be honest.

This is simply untrue though. There are still all of those things. My kids go to scouts and a youth group, there are parks and friends within walking distance, there is a cinema, Lazer zone and bowling. The last 3 we didn't have when I was a kid. They have regular sleepovers and gaming nights.
People have been bleating on about 'there's nothing for the kids' since I was one in the 90's. We went to a youth club which we then followed with cheap cider and underage sex on a field.
My eldest is 12 and doesn't have smart phone or SM and I'm glad that this will not remove the conversation.

Sorry for any confusion - that was a separate comment relating to all children being routinely punished for the actions of a minority who can't behave, and tarred with the same brush of very low expectations of behaviour and/or parenting.

Wasn’t just youth clubs, you could play on school fields but now they’re fenced off, there were church halls with things like junior discos, youth clubs and societies, lots of scouts/brownie groups have closed, etc., used to be commonplace to live close enough to school friends or cousins to hang out at each others homes - mostly all gone now - there’s no “local community” for kids anymore.

@Ventress parents having money obviously hasn't helped her have a range of hobbies. Money doesn't mean good parenting, as the Stately homes thread shows.

They were definitely a thing in the 80s and 90s when I was a kid, and they were great.
Think somewhere everyone can all hang out. Maybe a bit of table tennis or something, that's about all I can remember of it 😁
A shame that they don't really seem to exist anymore.

There was a headline on the front page of the Telegraph today to that effect - whether it was strictly accurate, I don't know.

It seems to me that it would be the obvious thing for them to do - much, much easier to force people to prove that they are allowed, rather than that they aren't. That's what happens now when buying alcohol and cigarettes if there's any doubt at all; it's not up to the supplier to prove that you aren't a child.

I never understand the youth club thing. They didn’t exist when I was a kid in the 00s either… we wouldn’t have gone if they did.

My dd seems to be under the impression tech companies will require ID to evidence you're over 18. I don't know if that's accurate?

I think like with anti vaxxers there has been a growth in anti rules parenting.
Many intentionally showing young kids very inappropriate films etc.
So you cant rely on parents to even try to moderate what kids do or see on SM.

I think the ban is focussing on the wrong issue.
FB etc is probably only mostly used by over 13 anyway.
The bigger problems in schools are

bullying on and offline and in classes

kids unable to behave
kids unable to socialise

Schools and parents are pretty weak and the kids are running rings around us all.

School need to show how to work well as a team they group kids up then leave them to it.

Yes, this is what I really don't get. If we're going to ban under 16s from social media "because some teenagers bully others on it", why don't we also ban under 16s from going to school - seeing as a great deal of bullying goes on there?

It's not even like most schools actually care about bullying or preventing or stopping it; many schools will point-blank insist that there is no bullying happening in their school - often furiously gaslighting and belittling it as 'friendship issues' or 'lack of resilience', and leaving victims firmly convinced that they have nobody fighting their corner or wanting to protect them; and they have no choice but to come to school and be subjected to it every day.

At least with bullying via social media, you can escape it by turning a phone off.