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

I think it’s the correct thing to do though I’m not sure how it will be enforced. I think it’s about 20 years too late though, and I think the age should be 18.

The behaviour my dc experienced on sleepovers is deeply concerning too. Girls talking to paedos as a joke and men exposing themselves to them. My daughter experienced this in a very naice friend’s house.Parents think they have it sorted, they haven’t.

Don't be ridiculous.

Well at least we won't have the likes of Victoria Beckham prostituting their children all over social media, setting them up with 'brands' at the age of 14 and trying to sell us shit we don't need, or worse praying on young girls insecurities and trying to sell them crap they don't need.
Win

Is that going to be impacted?

Why do you need to track? Kids have been going to school untracked for decades before phones.

Ok you can't control what your children see on other people's gadgets.
That is a difficult situation.
But that's happened since back in the days of 18 certificate horror VHS videos and top shelf porn magazines. One kid gets hold of some and invites mates around to show them.
What did parents do if they found out? Stop letting their children go to that's child's house.
(I'm not sure what working full time has to do with it).

Isn't that just advertising.
You get that on telly.

Thanks, I didn't realise that. I thought it was just a blanket ban on all YouTube videos.

No, it sadly isn’t average. But it illustrates that taking it away will literally only damage the kids who obey the rules - the others will still access whatever.
So it is a completely useless but highly populistic thing to do. Literally a policy put in place to look good, while knowing it will change absolutely nothing. A bit like saying they would hire 1000s of teachers (but never fid do), and just manifesting that SENDs kids are fine in mainstream (they are not).
Mind you, i completely agree with a total ban on facebook, tiktok, instagram etc!

Sadly, there is a huge amount of disinformation flying around. The government has said that it will follow the Australian model which you can read about here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyp9d3ddqyo

What do you think about the arguments people here have made that it will make it easier to shut down requests for social media from their kids? “Everyone’s got it!” “No they havent, it’s against the law.”

That is a situation I can see being easier for parents if the law is on our side.

I think focusing on the very specific and unusual case of the 9-year-old boy who only watches wholesome and educational youtube videos is a bit myopic tbh. Isn’t it more about social media more widely, and about the knock-on effect of the cultural change on children too young to have any social media at all yet?

I find it hard to believe it will make absolutely no difference in the long term.

(As an aside, kids will still be able to watch wholesome youtube content I’m pretty sure, just logged out)

It won’t work. Teenagers are ingenious at finding the work around.

Starmer is just desperate to find something he can anchor himself to re his legacy.

I agree it probably won’t work for current teens who are all already on SM and highly incentivised to find a workaround since all their peers are on there.

But for younger kids, who are still to reach the usual age of having SM - don’t you think it will make a difference to have the default position be that none of them and their peers have it?

Of course some will find workarounds, some will have parents who don’t care about the law. But that will not be the starting position.

I think there is more to be done, for sure. Hopefully this is just the start of a more thoughtful and effective approach. But I just cannot see how thinking some kids will get around it is a reason not to do it?

Some will find workarounds, some will have parents who enable them to set up accounts with fake ages (as they do on TikTok now). So what? Lots of people drop litter, should we abandon litter laws simply because not everyone abides by them.

I just think this is about responsible parenting and the state should stay out.

I feel this is more of an agenda re gleaning more information on adult individuals as it will be impossible to enforce and a waste of time.

Do you not think that it is the government's job to impose a duty to act responsibly on social media companies? They do it on plenty of other industry sectors: food, alcohol, tobacco, tools (sharps and glue), films and DVDs (age rating). Why do you think social media companies should get a free pass?

I don’t think they should get a free pass.

So what regulations should be imposed on them to protect children (in the same way that other industries have regulations to protect children)?

Looking around you, does it feel like the majority of parents are handling social media use responsibly? If they aren’t, why did you think they are suddenly going to start, unless the state does get involved?

As I’ve said elsewhere in the thread I do take on board the point about data collection and the possible issues there. I will be interested to see how the age verification is managed in practice.

I think, being honest though, normalising no social media for kids is such a huge social good that I don’t necessarily mind having to share personal data to achieve it - especially since most of that data is already out there.

If the data is going to the government - well they already have my date of birth, address, national insurance number and possibly my face due to services like HMRC etc.

Apple presumably have my face as well as all the above since I have facial recognition to unlock my phone.

I understand that is just my case and others may have more successfully protected their personal data. But isn’t that really hard to achieve in this day and age?

Lol if only it was the government dealing with data. The whole uprising on digital ID was due to data gathering and handling being thrown open to the lowest bidder... and most of those in the race had severely breached.

Anyhow... my 2 (now uni) ran with their "Nerd Herd" of techies. Their playground value/popularity would be through the roof.

Watch out for the little-geek takeover.

Yep. Data is hugely valuable these days. The gov / state getting hold of it is no exception.

Newsnight (15.6.2026, 7' 10'') AI and Online Safety Minister (Kanishka Narayan) has confirmed you may have to use your Passport to access Social Media.

What could possibly go wrong?

The state has lots of laws around the appropriate age for all kinds of things, age restrictions on films, alcohol, gambling, driving, voting, smoking - this is no different.

Some kids will smoke & drink alcohol when though they shouldn’t too, but we will have laws in place because it’s the right thing to do.