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.

The examples I'm talking about are not selling goods or services in the UK. They are accessible from the UK, but they are not based here and not subject to UK laws.

That's what a lot of these people commenting cannot accept. Banning it would, for the vast majority, mean they don't access it.

I think there has to be a line between the freedom to have opinions and speak them and harmful content.
take the pictures that were on mumsnet recently they needed to be removed.
properly removing harmful content is a must

Just like the vast majority of teenagers don’t drink alcohol?

I think social media in its current form is used for more than it was a couple of years ago and depending on who they follow it can be away to engage in common communities such as booktok or GCSE revision tiktoks. However, how are we to know this is what they are using it for.

We need to not ban social media and phones but create a culture where they use it responsibly - if we completely ban it, they might start going behind our backs to use it! Think of it as - children don't know to wait before crossing a road before we teach them - we never taught them how to use social media respectfully, moderately and safely.

We support The Buddyhood who are a publisher who have created graphic novels that creatively show young people the effects of social media - the first book is called The Dark Side of Food and their new one is called The Dark Side of Fashion that can support children in understanding the effects of social media in a different way.

They have also created a new safe and fully monitored social media wellness platform called Imprint.Live. Industry professionals, teachers, students can all this platform to do good with the ability to do good in the community - they can do this by reacting to certain posts and each theme will be linked to a charity and that charity will be given a donation. The platform starts at 99p per month but this comes fully monitored and screened.

I think we need to adapt with the times as social media isn't going away! but we can restrict and monitor - give them the opportunity to go out and play like we did when we were kids!

Let me know your thoughts!

I know it’s an extreme comparison but the arguments here seem to be similar for the pro-gun arguments in America.

Everyone already has one. If we ban them, it puts the good people at a disadvantage. We need to teach responsible use.

It’s actually the perfect comparison.

It’s the combination of the easy/constant use of the smartphone and the social media and other addictive apps that makes it such a problem. I really don’t think children of any age should have that sort of access. Doesn’t mean they need to be oblivious to what it is or never have any sort of access at all.

Or is the perfect comparison prohibition? Didn’t stop people drinking and in the long term ended up being overturned

I don’t think it’s quite the right comparison because prohibition was for everyone.
We’re not talking about banning social media for everyone, just children.
Similarly, guns wouldn’t be banned for everyone. Police, farmers etc. would still have need for them.