To think we absolutely have to ban social media for under 16s.

[Bitethehandthatfeedsyou]

I just don’t understand with all evidence that we have to say how awful it is for young people why we’re not banning in for under 16s. I’ve not spoken to 1 parent who wouldn’t be in favour of it.

I do know it’s not a silver bullet and there is ann idea that young people would be penalised for big tech not taking responsibility for exploiting children.

Quite rightly smoking, vaping and alcohol are out of bounds for under 18s and arguably access to social media and a young age is as harmful / more harmful than any of these.

On a cynical note too, surely it would be a huge vote winner for whichever party goes about implementing it too.

*vaping

Wait, you'd restrict the entire Internet for under 16s?

how exactly do you suggest this ban is policed? for whatever reason, children get access to smart phones, laptops, tablets.. and some parents are great at keeping a check on what their kids are doing, sadly a lot of parents dont really care, its keeping the child quiet and out of their hair... until it all goes tits up!

there are already loose rules in place, you have to be 13 for facebook and snapchat i think, yet plenty of 10 and 11 year olds have it?

i think things would be different if social media was a paid subscription service

So many problems with social media one video of a baby being dangerous treated on mainstream account. And social media will do nothing as not classed a violence. Which show why so much bad some happens on social media!

DD is 13 and still can’t download her own apps(even free ones) because she doesn’t actually have the password to her apple id account and it asks for it every time so she has to ask first. I’m sure things will change once she gets older .

You don’t see how allowing 13 year olds free access to social media already IS a disaster?

This is a very good point.

There are plenty of children who aren’t addicted to smartphones. The difference is often the attitude of parents. Why are children even taking smartphones to school if they’re banned on school premises? Some schools have banned smartphones altogether, allowing only brick phones which have to be handed in at the start of the day. Yes, some try to break those rules, but they are in the minority. Parents need to take responsibility for this and not just expect government to legislate. We can’t say that children should be given free rein at 16 or 18, having been banned at 15. That will create even more problems as they won’t have been taught to use it sensibly.

Completely agree with OP.

A SM ban would be completely unenforceable. They’re not going to send parents to prison because little Johnny or Jenny lied about their age to get on TikTok.

I agree any regulation should be on the SM companies to proactively identify and take down illegal content while referring matters to the police if it’s a criminal offence like hate speech, cyberbullying, sexual grooming, etc.

The genies out the bottle. In my day, it was all too much tv watching by kids. Parents gave the ability to limit what sm a child goes on , they need to do this.

13 year olds haven’t all got free access to social media. Many parents already don’t allow them free rein at that age. It’s a case of parents monitoring social media use. Just because a 13 year old is legally allowed access to certain apps doesn’t mean that parents should let them.

I'm with the minority here - I strongly disagree with the ban. No, we should not ban SM to under 16s.

There are several issues together.
People who propose the ban include Whatsapp and YouTube to SM. Banning YT to under 16s is like banning books for previous generation. YT has a huge amount of high quality educational material.

We (people) already have a massive power imbalance with governments and corporations. By asking introduce age-restriction you give even more power to them - you are effectively asking them to check ID of every internet user (or SM user, but the step to internet is actually very small). Do you really want all those corporations to have a record of who you really are? Or who your children are? Their IDs, dob, address? They already have the phone number. I love this site because I can freely express my views here.

There can be improvements without the ban. For example, to stop SM being 24/7 for children. Say, a child's account set by the parent with a block for the night time and school times. The block means the child cannot post and nobody can interact with that account. Say, if you post in the evening you don't wake up to any nasty comments. And you don't worry about it while you are at school. (The timing of course should be set on the SM server, not the device. Otherwise the children will be changing time zones.) Imagine all work emails would be limited to working hours - children should have that peace.
There could also be some closed groups for children to interact only with the parent-approved friends. Say, a parent could mute or block a 'friend' who mistreats the child.
One could think of all sorts of other measures that do not worsen already existing power imbalance.

I can't believe how many are saying that it's impossible for parents to do this alone. We choose to have children, which makes them and their upbringing OUR responsibility, not that of the government. If you're out somewhere and another person were to tell your child off for doing something, just about everyone would say 'how dare you, what my child does is nothing to do with you', and yet, you all expect the government to do the hard stuff for you. FGS, parents, do YOUR job and PARENT!

There are many comments on parenting.
I understand many parents are too busy, too tired to spend enough time with their children.

If you then say life should be more affordable for the parents to spend more time with children - I'm with you.
If you want to give away a bit more of your privacy to governments and companies who exploit you that you dont' have time to parent - I say wake up!

13 year olds can and should be introduced to social media with guidance and support from parents. There should be an open relationship to discuss any issues that may come up.

16 year olds who are going to parties, having sex and working aren’t going to be amenable to that. This policy would set a bunch of 16 year olds (who of course would have no idea how to use social media) free. It would be a total disaster.

It would be like keeping DC indoors until they are 16 and then setting them free. Totally reckless.

I totally agree with this. Children need to in the real world learning how to negotiate life but too few parents let them experience this without helicoptering/lawnmowering

What would those suggesting a ban suggest teenagers do with their time instead?

I suspect that decades into the future people will look back in horror at the fact social media was freely accessed by kids.

You think 13 year olds are currently being given guidance by parents about social media use? 13 year olds and under are already posting and seeing awful things. We have to let our kids outside and learn how to navigate roads / strangers etc.. no one HAS to be on social media. Maybe they will choose not to use it because they’re not addicted to it and haven’t been conditioned at a very vulnerable age to think what they see on social media is real life. Many parents do not take the risks seriously and this is why young kids are glued to phones till 1/2 am even on school nights.

You think 13 year olds are currently being given guidance by parents about social media use?

Some are (as they should be). Parents should not be letting children blindly sign up to social media. Those that do probably wouldn’t abide by any change in the law anyway.

I honestly think we will look back on this period where social media is freely available to children with absolute horror.

The social media companies will scream blue murder at any prospect of regulation, but then so did the mill owners in the 19th century when faced with the prospect of a ban on child labour.

Here’s an idea. Pass a law which make it illegal to sell a smartphone to anyone aged under 16 and make parents responsible if their kids are caught with a smartphone.

No need for any restriction on dumb phones, so kids can stay in touch with their parents.

And play Snakes.

There’s loads that teens can be doing apart from spending their days on social media! As a society, we should be encouraging things like art, music, dance, sport, drama, Duke of Edinburgh, Cadets etc. Unfortunately our state education system, on the whole, doesn’t provide enough of this to get children interested. Letting teens spend their days on social media is far easier for parents as well.

So the sensible parents and children who use smart phones sensibly, learning how to use them safely, have to suffer because some use them irresponsibly? For all the parents who are calling for a ban, they are surely capable of parenting their children and stopping them from using it irresponsibly?

It’s a smartphone, not crack cocaine 😂. Would you have police searching 15 year olds for smartphones on the streets?

It’s absolute madness to say that someone who is 15 years, 364 days old cannot be trusted at all with a smartphone, and then given them free rein the day after.