AIBU to find a girl's comment about social media quite sad

[FelicityShagsWell]

I just heard the story on the radio about Kier Starmer wanting to tighten up access to social media for under 16s. A few sound bites from some children followed. One girl said it's unfair because there's nothing else to do. Am I unreasonable to find that utterly sad?

Reading, TV, homework.

Not in our village. Different places have different things. Our village hall does nothing for young people. It's all things like over 60s movement, flower arranging, etc. The scouts/guides closed a few years ago. No "open" fields nor parks to kick a ball around since the primary school became Colditz with 6 feet high fences around it's field, etc. Quite sad really to look in the unused balcony of the village hall to see broken table tennis tables etc that havn't been used in years. Even the tennis courts owned by the parish council are locked with the key only being available via membership of the village tennis club. Nothing at all set up for children which is incredibly sad.

So you think kids shouldn't have any "fun" then? I though people wanted kids to be playing outside and socialising with other kids. How does staying in doing reading, watching TV and doing homework achieve that??

I think part of the problem is how society has changed. Most mums work long hours now and don't see their children so much. My mum worked but picked us up from school when we were young and spent weekends with us too. She taught us how to cook, knit and sew. Kids just don't get that these days. They could still do things at home, though, like help out with the washing and housework.

I was talking to a friend who teaches Internet security in a post 16 college. She said young people will have no problem finding ways round the ban as it seems they have in Australia. She said a much better way to improve Internet safety would be to educate young people, make them aware of the dangers, how to recognise and avoid them. This seems to me to be another desperate attempt by Starmer to garner some good publicity. I don’t blame him for that but predict it will backfire.

Sounds...riveting 😕

Whereas scrolling through total bollocks, puerile attention seeking shite, and AI slop, is a rip-roaring way to pass the time.

I’m mixed about this.

One the one hand I think it is a good thing, I was bullied at school at least when I went home my bedroom was my safe sanctuary where nobody could torment me. I used to listen to music and daydream my days away.

On the other hand hobbies are expensive. It costs £150 a month for the dance schools around this way which not everyone can afford, and a lot of the kids that are out playing in the streets are little shits that are out to cause chaos. Not long now until the summer holidays are they will start lighting fires to the wheels bins again.

Also, my friend’s little girl had cancer and was in the hospital for months on end for treatment, and social media was her way of staying in touch with friends. Without it what would she have done? They couldn’t come and visit due to her immune system, and at one point she was in America for treatment so there was a time difference. Her instagram account brought her a lot of joy in the last couple of years of her life as her world became really small. I can’t say all social media for under 16s is bad.

Yup, I don't think people realise how kids pass around their "cheats" etc about all kinds of things. DS got links to foreign streaming sites for premier league football matches, he has got "dodgy" links to download numerous online games for his Xbox and Playstation, has "free" netflix and spotify via "dodgy" foreign links, etc. If anyone thinks Starmer's plan to ban SM will actually work, they're deluded. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

We should be properly teaching modern technology, proper teaching of the risks of the internet, etc., rather than pretending to ban it.

Children need quiet indoor hobbies.

If they can not occupy themselves quietly then they will be in danger of being horrible adults.

Lots of kids actually have the good sense to avoid/ignore all the drivel and use the internet for enriching activities.

...missing the point entirely.

Hang on, I though previous posters said kids should be out having fun with their friends doing things like cycling, walking, playing footie, etc. to improve their socialising etc.

How does staying in with a quiet hobby help them socialise and keep fit & active?

“There’s nothing else to do”?

that is the strongest argument for banning I have heard so far

there's nothing else to do.
For poor people this is somewhat true these days.

Nail on the head. The other day I was gobsmacked to see the admission prices at our local council swimming pool. It's insane.

Our nearby town have a council park, it used to have a free paddling pool, open-access tennis courts (first come first served), etc so something to do even without money. Now, the tennis courts are locked and you have to pay by the hour, the paddling pool was ripped up and replaced by an expensive splash park (fenced off so paying is the only way), even the little train is now a whopping £3 per ride for a 2 minute ride around an oval of track. Pitch N Put is a tenner per person as is the crazy golf. Everything is money grabbing these days, even things put on by the council.

I live in the U.S. in a university town. Most of the students are walking the streets looking at their phones totally oblivious to their surroundings. I've had them walk into the street in front of my moving car. I agree with Mr. Starmer's approach to the matter. Several of our states are looking into similar regulations. I think it's particularly harmful to start having infants and toddlers use media instead of using their imaginations and creativity through play.

They need nice outdoor hobbies too. But to replace hours of endless scrolling they need affordable nice things to do that will occupy their minds.

The outside world is really horrible in some areas.
I don't think youth clubs are the answer. Kids who need youth clubs need better home life.

You played like this when you were 15?

Books? I was a voracious reader as a child. Still am, actually.

It’s pathetic.

Go out with friends. Go to each others house. Read books. Watch films. Listen to music. Literally everything all of us did as teenagers, and then some.

This action is absolutely necessary to stop the rot of young kids staring at bloody IPads and becoming addicted to them. Depressing as hell seeing kids with their own IPad sat in a pushchair. Grim.

They asked a teen girl on the news what she she will do with the nine hours a weekend she currently spends on the phone when the ban comes in. Her completely serious reply was "Stare at the wall"... How sad.

Exactly! Her comic timing was impeccable 😄

It's probably 20 years too late to be honest. I do have that DC who was totally obsessed with gaming and screens from when he was about 7. His fuckwit father would give, and I would take away. The fuckwit won.

I think this legislation very positive. It is also a relief that the campaigning of Ellen Roome has been passed giving the availability of data for parents whose children have died playing fucking dares on fucking tiktok is also - Positive. Her son was 14 when he died.

Oops for the swearing.

I got off my BS and became a parish councillor to improve things. A friend now runs a Brownie group as it was in danger of closing. Instead of moaning about the shortfall, do something about it.