To think Social Media should be banned for under 16s

[Halfmanhalfcake]

Off the back of Esther Gheys campaigning about phone use and social media,
I was thinking how bonkers it is that we (as a society) haven't put in stricter controls over social media / internet use for kids yet.

It's as if the technology has developed too quickly, and parents have been left scrabbling around trying to control whatever they can, in what is essentially a completely unregulated cyber world.

I realise that some people are anti nanny-state, but imagine if CBBC started showing snuff films or porn in the middle of some teen drama. When mental health problems in children are soaring, and there is some evidence to show a link to phone / social media use, it seems totally nuts that regulation isn't being enforced at a higher level.

I see grown adults lose all perspective just from being on twitter, how on earth do we think kids can handle it better?

What benefit is it for children under 16 to be on social media? So they can do some tik-tok dance craze? If you want to do a dance just do it in your front room with your mates. To post posey-influencer style images at 13/14? For whose benefit?

I've heard people argue that its unrealistic to think that it can be changed now. Why? My kids are still young so maybe i dont understand.

Put more activities out in the real world and make sure teens can access them - and they won't always need to seek out an online life

It doesn't work that way imo. The two things are in no way incompatible. No teenager is so booked up with real life activities that they lose the desire to connect with each other or consume content online.

My dc are late teens and I teach teenagers. If I'm honest, I probably wasn't as vigilant with my dc's internet use as I should have been, but we talk quite a lot about that stuff and they are surprisingly sensible. I just don't remotely see how you could possibly police the banning of social media to under 16s. And as for primary schools banning anything but brick phones... plenty of parents simply wouldn't support that.

same way as most things, society regulates itself they want a better society then they have to help create that society, rather than just assuming the govt will solve it all

There were pro-ana sites back in 2000, back when I had a brick phone and the PC was a shared family desktop. 'Clear history' exists.

Is there violent hardcore porn with restraints, choking and anal in your pub? With teenage-looking girls getting slapped around and calling the men “daddy”? Must be quite some place.

I’ve no doubt that doing that in the pub is banned. Your 13 year old girl can easily see it on Discord though or read fantasy versions of it on AO3. Daft analogies about CBeebies and the pub and TV are incredibly asinine, because we’re talking about content that would be banned anywhere else, but is unregulated online.

But I guess it’s better that we’re all very “cool girl” about it though, yes? Are you happy for someone to send your young kid that kind of porn? Or get them talking about it it and swapping fantasies about it on WhatsApp or any other chat app? You cool with child porn fantasies, snuff stuff, watching rape videos being shared, swapping sex tips and self harm suggestions with older men pretending to be teenagers?

As I said earlier, anyone who thinks it’s all a bit of a joke and no problem is incredibly naive and gullible.

printed media: 50 shades of grey by any chance ? various other books along that theme

tv shows: dexter, csi, homeland, spooks, james bond, criminal minds, hannibal, various news media showing various conflicts and violence etc ?

they all add influences

Oh, on the OPs mention of AN, 'the best little girl in the world' from the local public library, and 'wasted' is as triggering as any website.

@CaptainBeekeepers you are massively missing the point. What’s allowed to be shown on tv and when or published in print is very precisely and heavily regulated! None of the things you mention is remotely like hardcore porn, is it? That’s why porn sites and swapping videos online exist - precisely because they can show things that aren’t going to be available in conventional media.

These kind of points only make me think you’re incredibly naive and have very limited knowledge of what’s out there. If you think 50 Shades is equivalent to stuff that can be found online, you must be very sheltered and credulous indeed.

My 11 year old makes money on social media. I highly monitor it. That was always the deal.

jigsaw films ? how do we justify those ? human centipede horror etc ? again how can any civil society justify those,

Oh yes, the sweet denial. I had the same thoughts when my daughter was 4. She’s now 15 and social media is bigger than ever.
Scary to think what will be the new problems and issues with teens in another 10 years. AI I suspect and wearables.

Oh my god wtf 😳

So just because something is unsavoury online, people are crying out for regulation. Perhaps you need to ask why your kids would want to look at this stuff in the first place, if at all. If they are raised to question, and think critically perhaps they'll turn it down. Society has some twisted fetishes, but most people understand it's fantasy, and if not it would be more prudent to get those conversations going. Heck I remember kids at school talking about the best way to torture a human being. But never in a million years would they have done it. But if you want a porn filter, I think we aren't far away from having an autonomous AI running as a daemon on a phone that could spot and block. Rather than having some top down regulatory nightmare, that puts everyone's viewing habits under the microscope. I have days where I don't want to look in my brain, I certainly don't want anyone else.

If TV is a reflection of reality. Every other child is about to be abducted and raped by a stranger. These twisted deep fears and emotions are pushed and prodded continuously. Why is that? Do humans lack any innate moral compass without education?