AIBU to think banning social media for under-16s is a good idea?

[LizardLore]

Just being announced now - social media banned for under-16s.

My instinct is it’s great, but I am interested in other views. My kids are very small so not an issue here yet.

YABU - the ban is bad
YANBU - the ban is good

We did all that.

I agree with it. My daughter is starting secondary school and they’re banning smartphones on site. I understand this too but how can I track her as been using life360 on her iPhone. All us mums been talking about brick phones but how do we track. Apple tags only locate reliably if nearby a smartphone!!!!

It clearly isn’t easy otherwise this law wouldn’t be happening and so so many parents wouldn’t be clambering for it.

the Tories were pushing the ban but Labour wanted to wait to see what the impact was in Australia.

Im not pro Tory at all. Actually I think on the one hand waiting to see the evidence from Australia would have been sensible.

on the other hand, too many children have been harmed and died.

one thing I’ve noticed is that there’s confusion over why.

Theres not actually much evidence that it will help mental health amongst teens - Haidt et al haven’t been proven to be right there.

But there is evidence it’s a safeguarding risk in a huge range of ways.

On that basis I support a ban.

No one with any conscience can allow more children to be physically harmed without doing something.

And in reality, it won’t make a huge amount of difference as the kids who want to, will.

But it sends a very powerful message to parents, tech companies and children.

nail on head

There’s a new ban in schools as of September.

I don’t get the tracking thing. I don’t track my son.

But some I know use some sort of smart watch for kids

It’s great news.

Of course some will slip through the net.
Of course it will take time to navigate the complex waters as to how to police it.

But it’s a big step in the right direction. And it worked with smoking, and seatbelts. People said they couldn’t be policed either.

Social media is absolutely toxic for young people. These basic social and personal skills aren’t being developed because of the sheer amount of time they spend on screens. And what they do to their brains.

I catch a bus sometimes at school rush hour, and every single teenager is silent, just staring down at their phone. It makes me so sad - when I was a teenager the bus was a social hub- lots of chat, joking, hoping to sit next to this or that person.

I actually feel so sorry for kids now. I feel like parents are fighting tooth and nail for their kids to keep screens as they’re themselves addicted to screens and having a child cooped up on YouTube eating crisps saves them any complex parenting around curfews, independence etc. It makes them dim and more manageable and quiet - until the rot sets in then, then it’s panic stations and phone calls to CAMHS and ‘why is nobody supporting them’

I'm on the fence. My 15 year old uses you tube but none of the other sites on the list. But he will be 16 by the time the ban comes in anyway. My 13 year old who has learning disabilities is going to struggle as he uses YouTube videos a lot to do things like cooking etc as he finds reading instructions difficult. My 12 year old doesn't watch YouTube anyway.

This can only be a great thing. Children deserve a proper childhood and a chance to grow without the appalling influence this brings to them. They need space to grow and develop without this.

The phone ban just means putting them in phone pouches in most schools that unlock by magnet when you leave. Although my sixth former tells me stories of kids not actually locking them or dropping old phones in the pouches.

I think a lot of us would have been the same as children mind. Give these teens a task and if they really want to they will find away around it. If only we could harness that umpth for better things.

The idea that a ban will would work, shows just how little the government understand tech and teenagers.

The main thing it will teach under 16 year olds, is to break the law.

Agree with most of this, but not sure it’s true that parents are fighting tooth and nail to keep screens.

Based on the consultation results (90%+) and vote here, it seems most who feel strongly really support the ban.

Maybe there are plenty too who are indifferent, who wouldn’t bother to fill out the consultation or post here about it. But (maybe too optimistically?) I’d say those who actively want social media for their kids appear in the minority!

Everything that society wants to ban ends up "going underground". Drugs, alcohol, p, etc
Doesn't mean we shouldn't do it

The government already tells you how to parent your child in loads of ways.

Alcohol rules, tobacco, age restrictions on driving, classifications on films, the 9pm tv watershed, age of consent for sex, getting married, joining the army or police, gambling laws.

I just looked through my 9 year olds youtube videos watched the last month (we have locked things down)

• Royal Ballet (loads of it)
• English national ballet
• Corbett maths
• chess programs
• national geographic (loads)
• 2 minecraft videos on how to build a rollercoaster

All free for him to watch. We don’t need a blanket ban on youtube, we need proper controls that allow them to access educational stuff but not the crap. I completely agree in tiktok etc, but youtube just needs decent controls, a blanket ban is doing more damage than good

They will still be able to use YouTube. The social media companies will simply be banned from offering accounts to under-16s.

He’ll still be able to watch all of this. He just won’t be able to have an account. You can watch YouTube without an account.

@SadiraOfTyr let’s hope so. But if it will indeed be banned for under 16s, they’ll have to introduce mandatory age verification, which means no account - no access

And if YouTube get themselves organised so their content is organised into age appropriate categories then that’s entirely possible, at the moment the issue is there’s nothing but a few clicks between those videos and some really disturbing content.

This doesn’t happen with the current age limit of 13. Why do you think it will happen with the age limit being raised to 16?

Youtube has age controls and filters. They have parental control accounts and a separate account for younger children.

Don't most children that watch YouTube etc just use their parents accounts anyway.
Who pays for the WiFi? Parents.
Who pays for a TV licence if watching TV/iPlayer? Parents.
Who pays the phone bills and packages? Parents.
I mean my daughter has her own email address (she's 18 now but had it for a few years) but the Google account is mine.

You do realise this is not a normal 9 year old YouTube video content history and your post smacks of middle class privilege devoid of any thought of the huge number of children viewing hugely damaging material. My child’s fine and dandy in his MC bubble f*k the rest of them.

Why are these children watching "hugely damaging material" though?
Who is letting them?
Their parents presumably.

It’s so easy to slip through and they only need to see something once for it to be deeply traumatising. My son was showed a beheading on the school bus. Parents can not keep ahead of every site and continuously go through history day in and day out. Most are working full time.