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

My DGD, who at 15 has never been on SM, says
her friends will just lie about their age or their parents will do face recognition for them. Quite blasé about it. But I had to have the conversation with her about breaking the law.

Yes, there will always be many that flout the law but conscientious young people, who have these conversations with family and at school, will hopefully abide by the law.

How does it work when it is banned?
Kids make up accounts with dud birth dates?

Facial recognition has been around for a decade. You can chose not to use it if you like, I use it for everything.

you don’t have a right to social media, if you don’t want to abide by their rules you can’t access it.

also lol at someone being paranoid about facial recognition but desperate to use social media 😂

It’s bad for two reasons in my view.
One) it removes parental autonomy. It should be up to us to decide whether our children access these apps, not the government.
Two) if they’re tracking it through government ID’s, it is essentially backdoor digital ID.

I do agree it's a good thing, I'm not sure what I'll do about my 14yo who uses Snapchat to communicate with all her friends, I wouldn't want to isolate her. It will be much easier to enforce with my younger child who hasn't got any SM yet.

I can’t believe anyone thinks it’s a bad idea. Studies consistently show social media is bad for human mental health.

Facial recognition for everyone? It feels like a driver for gaining access to that.

I have a rules compliant dd and I would have said no anyway but this makes it easier. But the ID drive means I have mixed feelings on it.

Facial recognition is another way you can be tracked. I'm not (normally) a paranoid anti-tech type(!). But I don't see this as a good thing. We simply don't know what AI will balloon into in the future, it gives much too much control to parties we don't have any control over. You might think we're taking back control from tech companies, but I think it'll be the exact opposite.

You don't want a picture of your child on the internet? Now, tech companies (and the men behind them) are able to recognise your child.... not to mention what would happen if the systems were hacked.

Parents will just do the facial ID for their kids if that’s the case.

And that;s up to them. But for every 1 parent who does that, there will probably be 3-4 parents who are more willing to say "no" - so if that means that a larger proportion of children stay off the social media, then thats a good thing.

As I say, for me, the biggest thing is the peer pressure "but everyone is on it, why can't i?" and I think this ban eliminates that level of peer pressure.

For my 11 year old, she won't know any different as she's not interested. Shes only allowed to use my YouTube account (so I can monitor what shes watching) and scroll instagram on my phone (again, so i'm in control of her algorithm). But I appreciate taking it away from those who have already had it may be harder.

This is a good thing. Like others, not sure how it is enforced but getting kids off phones can be nothing but positive. Our school has banned phones now (not sure who was taking phones to school as it’s a primary but I want the ban).

“The internet is a night club and phones a class A drug” is a phrase recently shared with me.

I think this is true.

(mn is definitely Gin. )

That’s fine. As I say, parents can choose to break the law. I could choose to break any law I want right now, none of them are completely preventive

My 13 yr old son is a bit disappointed as he’s started to make Lego stop motion animations and load them up to YouTube.

We were very careful however and he was only allowed a few months ago, way past his 13th birthday. He’s y8.

he only got a mobile phone when nearly 13 / in y8 (middle school system so good going as most get them in y5) and it was heavily locked down. No other SM; we finally allowed YT for his videos but monitor.

Im sad for him as it is a creative outlet he’s definitely really good at. He plays two sports seriously and we don’t have x box etc. only went on Fortnite a few weeks ago (we are so strict!)

We’ve said that he can still make the videos and where between friends. Dh might upload them to his own account for him but it does take away the way he interacts with other others.

if I’m honest we weren’t keen on him joining YouTube. It’s impossible to monitor all the time, even though he’s limited to 30 mins a day. But we felt really unreasonable compared to many of his peers.

I’m a teacher and have seen most safeguarding issues linked to screens via YouTube and shared photos/ videos over the last 20 years. It’s actually the camera / video element that is the worst aspect of a mobile phone. We gave an old digital canon slr to my son to play with recently and he’s really enjoyed it.

Taking the option away from kids does mean that the parents aren’t the bad guys.

I think it will take a few years to normalise. I know current y3 parents in my school are totally against phones - completely different to the y8 parents.

Normal childhood things will be normalised again.

This law will kill the free Internet as we have known it for the past twenty years.

I'm not sure thats a bad thing @ThePeppyOpalScroller

The internet has become increasingly toxic and dangerous.

Parents will just do the facial ID for their kids if that’s the case.

This is true. There is zero incentive by the tech companies to limit it.

However, the problem with providing ID here, compared to walking into a shop, is that, suddenly, it's all very trackable and recorded. This level of surveillance should get us all very worried if they were to implement it.

The way I see it, the free internet is an adults only space, and the only way is for parents is to restrict devices/apps. There will always be parents who allow it though, just like some allow smoking or drinking or other "bad" habits.

This is the worrying part for me too, I think it’s like a backdoor digital ID.

Also banning YouTube makes zilch sense. My DS’s favourite things to watch on there are things like Tom Scott and Map Men. He also used it for GCSE revision.

My only concern with it, is the 16 age limit, because I think it's a bit disengenous to say that a 16 year old isn't responsible enough to use YouTube but is responsible enough to vote. That seems too much of a contradiction.

I personally would have said 14-15 for that reason alone.

The guidelines have always said you should be 13 for access to social media anyway, but too many people weren't paying attention to that.

”Will all over-16's now have to provide ID online?”

no it won’t be that old skool. Facial recognition can tell your age fairly accurately.

exit- sorry didn’t quote I was replying to @shinypen

Have you looked at the detail of how they plan to enforce. This law will kill the free Internet as we have known it for the past twenty years. Did you realise that you will have to submit I.D documents to Mumsnet H.Q, or your picture, to be able to use this site once the bill becomes law?

It’s a fantastic idea that will save lives but it needs enforced. I’d make every social media profile verifiable with either a credit card or a photo ID and I’d also make it illegal for an adult to provide a child with a social media profile, in the same way that they can be prosecuted for buying alcohol. As a teacher I see the impact daily and children’s lives are being destroyed by adults allowing free access to the internet especially SM sites.

I am not sure how it will be enforced, but I honestly think that since mobile phones, things have definitely changed, not for the best. not just children but just think how many have been driven to suicide due to bullying on line, sharing photographs not to mention online grooming.
exactly how will they enforce this and what will happen to the phone industry? will children want phones if they are not able to go on FB, X, Instagram, Snapchat etc. How much impact will this have on the phone industry? Jobs for a start?

Any genuine threat to the number of clicks on their platforms might make the sm companies tailor their content and maybe police it properly.
if facial recognition can flag up any random in central London similar AI must be able to spot child porn, suicide videos on SM - just stop it !! And calm down algorithms

But I worry very much HOW a ban by the GOVERNMENT will be implemented. Will all over-16's now have to provide ID??

To be honest, I think a lot of it will be self-serving. As parents,, we can now say to our kids "no you can't have it, it's banned for your age group" rather than "I said no, i'm not being mean"

For a substantial proportion of people, simply getting rid of that peer pressure "but everyone has it" will be almost enough to do its job.

But quite frankly, when we were kids, if you wanted to buy an age restricted DVD, or smoke, or whatever, you always had to prove your age to the person behind the till. I don't disagree with the internet saying you have to prove your age, because you can inadvertently stumble across horrific stuff in just seconds and a couple of clicks. I don't see it as anything different to what we grew up with. The internet has proven it can't be self-moderated.

And as long as the tech bros keep pushing harmful content deliberately, then it's their own bloody fault.