AIBU to think banning social media for under-16s is a good idea?

I think its a great idea.

Agree. My DS enjoys Map Men, Tom Scott, Hannah Fry, TRIP. Plenty of great educational YouTube content out there.

Exactly! It is making me quite angry to read ‘how will they police it’ ‘it won’t work’ blah blah. We have to at least try. How anyone can think under 16’s having full access to everything is beyond me. It’s madness. Well done Labour bringing this in. They’re not perfect in my eyes at all but this is long overdue.

i also believe it’s parents who should be policing this too! I know a lot of teenagers will try and get around this ban and I understand that in the same way they do with smoking and vaping and alcohol. But the point is when this becomes law, it is much easier as a parent to tell your child you can’t have/do that because it’s the law. Also makes it way easier with younger children just getting first phones etc.

i have two dc’s (12 and 14) we already have a social media ban in this house (for them) but obviously 90% of their friends don’t. It’s been up to us to ‘police’ it but by having it as a legal requirement it makes the plight of parents who care easier. You’re not the ‘only one’ not on snap chat because now 90% arent.

And those saying ‘it will get rolled back in a few years’ - so we do nothing until then? Ridiculous comment. We have to keep moving forward and improving things for our kids. If the policy is popular with parents it will most likely stay.

There is good stuff. Quite difficult science concepts that an interested dc can learn from. Veritasium is one.

Funny how Bluesky, the peado paradise, isn’t included in the ban 🙄

Left-wing brainwashing - good
anything else - baaaad.

of course it’s the right thing. We all know as adults that social media isn’t good for you. Comparing yourself and you’ve life to others, seeing harmful images etc.

The key thing is that parents need to follow through with it. Children don’t need smart phones or unsupervised access to the internet.

I’m in australia - both DDs have bypassed It and the genie is out the bottle for them and their friends - it may work for younger kids though

I agree with a ban, but I’m a lazy parent so I’m annoyed that there’s another thing that I have to police now. I know that my DC will expect me to help them get round the restrictions because “everyone else does”. I wish there had been a phased implementation, it’s going to be difficult to enable for the older age groups.

I don’t agree with a social media ban. That is not to say that I think children should be allowed unfettered access to social media. In my opinion, it should be the responsibility of parents to monitor this. I do agree that phones should not be allowed in schools though.

I think it’s much better to teach young teens (say from 12/13 onwards) how to use social media safely rather than totally ban it. 12/13 year olds are much more likely to listen to parents than 16/17 year olds. Assuming the ban is enforceable (which it won’t be), we will be letting 16 year olds loose on the internet without having had previous experience or being taught how to use it safely. That is utter madness. We wouldn’t give them keys to a car at 17 and say “off you go”. They need teaching.

Why are so many parents keen to rely on legislation to ban social media? Why are they not capable of monitoring social media use? Presumably because it takes too much effort. It really isn’t hard to parent your own children and lay down ground rules.

My children (mid teens) have never been given free rein on the internet. They didn’t really have screens when younger so didn’t watch things like You Tube. It wasn’t difficult at all; they were kept busy with other things. As they hit the teenage years, they do have smart phones. However, their school have a very strict no smart phone policy (they are allowed to take brick phones which we don’t bother with) until 6th form. This means that none of their peer group are on phones during the day which helps; it means that children talk to each other and don’t become overly reliant on social media. Mine asked for instagram at around 13, which they do have. However, they are set as teen accounts so I can see followers etc. They have been taught how to use it safely and, for example, know only to accept followers who they actually know in real life. They don’t have Snapchat or Tik Tok. They’re not interested in it and a fair few friends are the same. They have been made aware of the dangers and prefer to avoid those platforms for now.

As for enforcing it, I can’t see how a ban will work. The type of parent who happily lets a 5 year old on Tube for hours on end probably isn’t going to listen to a ban. They’ll find a way around it. The social media ban hasn’t worked in Australia as teens have found a way around it.

We are turning into a nanny state. I don’t need the government telling me how to raise my children. I agree that children with irresponsible parents need protecting somehow, but a ban won’t help with this. Irresponsible parents won’t listen to a ban.

You maybe being tracked already but the government will be able to track anything you post on SM and link it directly back to you including mundane criticism of the government and we've already seen parents wrongfully arrested for criticism of schools and schools policies, for factually accurate statements including men cannot be women, so the question becomes how long until we see people arrested for criticism of the government.

Yes being able to tract death and rape threats back to the men making them but not at the cost of wholesale government censorship

I agree. I use YouTube rarely, only when I am directed there as a credible source and then I get off. No scrolling on YouTube for me. Scary!

I agree with it, but there will be some parents who help their kids get round it and we'll ne back to square one in terms of kids risking social isolation of they don't have access to it

Well I’ll disagree with you on this. There’s plenty of great educational content on YouTube including the aforementioned but also daily dose of internet which we all love watching as a family and still very much will.

But I would guess that more underage/ young people don’t buy alcohol, drugs and vapes than do. A significant minority perhaps?

I don't understand why YouTube is being classed as social media.
My daughter uses it to watch specific broadcasts/programmes the same as using a TV.

YouTube is awful. Horrible adult content is mixed in with what is meant to be ‘kids YouTube’. I’m so pleased there’s going to be a ban.

Surely there are other ways a child can revise?

They’re legal drugs and they kill millions of people annually so a tad different. Yes you’re going to highlight the minute number of incredibly sad stories linked to SM bullying but it is a tiny proportion of teens who use it. Completely different to drugs.

In the same way, some kids have always found ways to buy alcohol, cigarettes or drugs, doesn’t mean those things are appropriate for under 16s/18s (or, on drugs, anyone!)

But parents aren’t appropriately educated on the risks and harms of SM, they aren’t child development psychologists blah blah and a large number don’t give a shit so long as their kids leave them alone. Sadly any idiot can reproduce and I don’t agree with parental astronomy when people aren’t educated.

my eldest is 14 and a large number of kids (in a nice area, at a nice school) have been drinking, vaping, bunking since the end of y7. Their parents allow them on their phones until midnight every night (no doubt scrolling TikTok) - tell me how that’s healthy? Unfortunately you’re coming at it as a parent who sounds like they’ve done some research; the vast majority have not either due to ignorance, being addicted to their phones themselves or lack of time to do the work.

How is it different to alcohol or cigarettes having legal age restrictions?

Its digital ID via the backdoor, every 16yr old will be signing up for digital ID so they can use social media.

I agree it’s a good thing to ban social media- i couldn’t get on board the ‘smartphone-free childhood’ initiative, it was focusing on the wrong aspects of the issue. Doom scrolling and social media are the problems, not having a phone for independence, making payments etc.

I have a DC finishing primary at the moment, we allow limited access to WhatsApp and YouTube… mainly because most of the class have it and I felt it was better to learn to use it with guidance and supervision, eg dealing with comments etc, as there was going to be exposure hanging out with friends regardless so it was better to be educated in how it works.
If it’s going to be banned, that sets a clear boundary and it will at least be harder to access.

However, adults now need to also look at how their own phone addictions over the last 5 years

Facial recognition has been on phones for over a decade. Google, Apple, META know some of us better than we know ourselves. This would be a much more cautious and responsible use of the (currently existing and already widely used) tech than many other cases.

Thing is. Since they don’t spend 24/7 with their parents the parents doing facial recognition is going to hugely reduce their social media use anyway. Most teens would only be able to access their parents face 5pm- 10pm or weeeknds

"The ship has sailed" argument means everyone is complacent and allow it to get worse. It can get VERY worse....