Parliament considers ban on social media use for under 16s

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https://www.joe.co.uk/news/uk-government-considering-banning-under-16s-from-social-media-464318

Australia have already announced a ban that should come in to effect around 12 months after the legislation goes through:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gzd62g1r3o.amp

I for one think this is a great idea. I know there are many that will disagree with me. It seems to be well documented at this stage just how damaging social media can be on young children and drastic measures are needed

Excellent idea. Horse has already bolted of course, but I think it would empower parents a bit more to say no to smartphones. And schools etc-part of the problem for my now late teens is that from yr 7 they needed a smart phone for bloody quizzes and lessons at school. I always thought that was a completely ridiculous idea.

There are plenty of laws in place that can come between ‘what parents and their children do’ for the sole reason of protecting children from harm.
I don’t see this as being any different.

I've told DD who is in yr 11 that i may let her have a smart phone when she goes to college, but there will be rules on its use.

@WinterBones How old is college? Does college mean university? If she’s finished high school and is 18yo then good luck with controlling her! Pretty sure you’d have no legal right to do that.

Never happen. Too many parents haven't got a clue what their children are doing online (and blame everyone else for it), they won't monitor it even if it's illegal.

Doesn't go far enough. Both men and under 16s should be banned.

Wtf 😂😂

I think it being illegal would make parents more confident about enforcing the rules, and also it indicates a change in the acceptability.
I think its the right thing to do even if it can't be enforced perfectly from day one.
You can't let perfect be the enemy of good with these things, its best to be making progress and culture changes take a long time, think attitudes to smoking around children for example or seat belts.

Yeah I've seen this at school - give 10yos WhatsApp and Snapchat with zero restrictions then complain about the groups they are added to and content they're shown by other children at school... To the school.

Sounding very much like a totalitarian state. This is a slippery slope.

They started it. Let’s be honest, the net as we know it was built by genx/millenials

It's a good idea in principle.

But why do we keep introducing laws we have no intention of enforcing it's kinda pointless.

And lots of parents won't give a shit anyway. Look at electric scooters lots of kids have them, pretty much illegal everywhere except on your own land.

🙄🙄🙄

Yeah that is ridiculous and changing I hope. It's not on to expect every child to have a smartphone.

What effect do you imagine “no social media” would have?

Then enforce the law.

Lots of company's use VPNs a load of people will not be able to work.

I think it's an excellent idea. Of course there will be ways to get around it, and some parents won't give a shit, but even the idea that it's socially unacceptable will help parents to hold firm.

I am dreading my six year old getting to the age where he's interested in social media. I really hope something has been enacted by then.

I think a lot of the benefit of this would be to make it socially normal for parents to say to their children “no you can’t have TikTok”. At the moment half the threads on here about this have people saying “I would like to keep my child off social media but all their friends are on it and so I feel I’m being unreasonable in saying no”. Of course it is open to people circumventing any ID check but it would empower parents to set firmer boundaries with their young teens. After all, young teens get around age related bans on smoking and drinking but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea to have those restrictions.

clearly you're not in the uk. 'College' here is education yr 12/13, so she'll be 16.

I'm hoping parental pressure will stop schools requiring phones in secondary school. As you say, it's ridiculous - how can they expect teenagers to control their phone use when they need to have them on in lessons. I wouldn't be able to resist checking social media, let alone a 13 year old.

It's been shown to have a link to poor mental health, and impacting emotional regulation and maturity. Excessive use can cause sleep issues. And generally it prevents children from doing other, healthier activities if they develop a reliance on it. And of course is a route for bullying.

So I would hope all of those things would improve for some children.

https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/social-media-teen-mental-health-a-parents-guide#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20research%20study,including%20depression%20and%20anxiety%20symptoms.

Whenever theres censorship or control enforced, something is developed to get around it. Nature of the tech world since forever.

Police and governments could never keep up

If you want to get a provisional driver license and apply online you need photo id verification.

Also here in Australia.

Yes, it's a lovely idea to ban phones and social media for under 16s. I agree completely in principle.

However, I will not agree to handing over even more of my personal data to the big tech companies. How will they verify age? Will we have to send Zuckerberg and Musk copies of our passports? No thank you.

I want to know how it’s going to be enforced. I’ve said it for years you should have to have some form of license to access the internet. In the same way you need ID for alcohol you would need your ID to access certain content or sites. It may also prevent people posting absolute vitriol online if they know their content is linked to their ID. We are all being monitored anyway! So the Big Brother argument is limited. This would require an international approach to internet safety which does not look likely any time soon.