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

The devil is in the detail and I’m not really sure how it will all work. However as a parent of a year 6 child who’s whole class seem to be allowed unlimited access to phones/social media I am relieved. I agree it will just help take the pressure off that it is the norm for children to have access to this stuff.

Exactly, so parents can make a choice of whether their child would be ok at watch a 12/15 film at 10 - but I think most people would agree allowing unrestricted access to 18+ films, bottles of vodka and cigarettes to under 10s would be madness.

At the moment, with no restrictions that’s pretty much what the internet is for kids, even if you’re watching a cartoon on YouTube, some pretty shocking stuff is literally a couple of clicks away.

This ^^ are parents also going to step up and model that they too won’t be on social media? We’ve all seen parents ‘out’ with their kids - the parents are glued to their phone while not engaging one iota with the kids.

Someone on Radio 4 today prog said that there is evidence that DCs who spend a lot of time on SM are happier than those that don’t DUH !!! Maybe the ones who aren’t on SM have no friends or are being bullied online ?? Can’t believe she said that

Personally think it’s out of order. It’s removing the autonomy from parents to make parental decisions about their own children. It should be up to me to decide whether my 14 and 15 year old DD’s use social media. As it goes, I have never allowed TikTok and I monitor Instagram and Snapchat - they also have private accounts. They are not allowed to access apps without my permission through parental settings on Apple. I also implement screen time. A blanket ban is ludicrous at that age. I understand for under 13s but not 13-15 year olds who communicate with one another largely through these apps.

There will always be a work work around... And why does the government have to enforce it, when the parents can stop it at source?

Exactly.
A ban is daft.
Those that allow their children to use social media will still allow them. It won't make a difference.

On balance it's a positive thing. There will be a lot of angry loud internet people who say it isn't. Not all of those will be genuine opinions from people actually based in the UK.

A good idea implemented in an imperfect way (which this will be, as its a pretty new idea) is much better than doing nothing.

The social contract has torn apart in the last 10-15 years - cinema/theatre etiquette, general civic mindedness, pride in place, patience etc. And young people being able to engage strangers in small talk, answer phone calls. Basic life stuff. It's been accelerated by Covid, but phones were the engine of that change and it's encouraging to see the shift from behaviour to research to policy.

I agree its a good idea in principle however so is assisted dieing but look at the bill they tried to make law.
I fear that this new bill will be the same with it being put before government by December and starmer already saying a bad bill is better than no bill (im paraphrasing his actual words were "it might not be perfect") and they are going further than any other country including Australia.
I also note that he says that we dont not make laws just because some people break them yet his own MPs say the opposite about banning men from womens single sex spaces so yet again it shows that the labour government only move on ideological grounds

I agree with it 100% I have a 13 year old. There is a phone ban in schools, it's just changed from voluntary to mandatory

Parents should ban it for under-16s - no doubt. It should be highly discouraged, like smoking. There should be no access in schools.

But I worry very much HOW a ban by the GOVERNMENT will be implemented. Will all over-16's now have to provide ID online? That will basically ban ME because no way am I providing ID. Wil there be fines? This government has already proven to act more like a police state than a democracy, all in the name of "good".

Our generation are responsible for phone zombies and fucking up out children’s lives with social media- we were the ones who made and allowed the algorithms.

i don’t understand the point about parental autonomy- parents are still free to break the law aren’t they?

I'm on the fence, I can see both sides.

I use TikTok and Snapchat with my DC/SC who largely won't be affected by this anyhow - it's fun, keeps us connected when we're not all in the same place and we have a laugh. But social media has never caused any issues for us in anyway over the years and maybe we've been lucky. Undoubtedly it has its downsides.

As others have said though, it won't stop the parents who allow their kids on YouTube now will it? My DC watches YouTube but he does it on my iPad. How are they going to police that 👀 It would be up to parents, and some are not going to stop their kids. I already police what he watches but I don't see the harm in letting him watch football skills videos on YouTube!

But I worry very much HOW a ban by the GOVERNMENT will be implemented. Will all over-16's now have to provide ID??

To be honest, I think a lot of it will be self-serving. As parents,, we can now say to our kids "no you can't have it, it's banned for your age group" rather than "I said no, i'm not being mean"

For a substantial proportion of people, simply getting rid of that peer pressure "but everyone has it" will be almost enough to do its job.

But quite frankly, when we were kids, if you wanted to buy an age restricted DVD, or smoke, or whatever, you always had to prove your age to the person behind the till. I don't disagree with the internet saying you have to prove your age, because you can inadvertently stumble across horrific stuff in just seconds and a couple of clicks. I don't see it as anything different to what we grew up with. The internet has proven it can't be self-moderated.

And as long as the tech bros keep pushing harmful content deliberately, then it's their own bloody fault.

Any genuine threat to the number of clicks on their platforms might make the sm companies tailor their content and maybe police it properly.
if facial recognition can flag up any random in central London similar AI must be able to spot child porn, suicide videos on SM - just stop it !! And calm down algorithms

I am not sure how it will be enforced, but I honestly think that since mobile phones, things have definitely changed, not for the best. not just children but just think how many have been driven to suicide due to bullying on line, sharing photographs not to mention online grooming.
exactly how will they enforce this and what will happen to the phone industry? will children want phones if they are not able to go on FB, X, Instagram, Snapchat etc. How much impact will this have on the phone industry? Jobs for a start?

It’s a fantastic idea that will save lives but it needs enforced. I’d make every social media profile verifiable with either a credit card or a photo ID and I’d also make it illegal for an adult to provide a child with a social media profile, in the same way that they can be prosecuted for buying alcohol. As a teacher I see the impact daily and children’s lives are being destroyed by adults allowing free access to the internet especially SM sites.

Have you looked at the detail of how they plan to enforce. This law will kill the free Internet as we have known it for the past twenty years. Did you realise that you will have to submit I.D documents to Mumsnet H.Q, or your picture, to be able to use this site once the bill becomes law?

”Will all over-16's now have to provide ID online?”

no it won’t be that old skool. Facial recognition can tell your age fairly accurately.

exit- sorry didn’t quote I was replying to @shinypen

My only concern with it, is the 16 age limit, because I think it's a bit disengenous to say that a 16 year old isn't responsible enough to use YouTube but is responsible enough to vote. That seems too much of a contradiction.

I personally would have said 14-15 for that reason alone.

The guidelines have always said you should be 13 for access to social media anyway, but too many people weren't paying attention to that.

This is the worrying part for me too, I think it’s like a backdoor digital ID.

Also banning YouTube makes zilch sense. My DS’s favourite things to watch on there are things like Tom Scott and Map Men. He also used it for GCSE revision.

This is true. There is zero incentive by the tech companies to limit it.

However, the problem with providing ID here, compared to walking into a shop, is that, suddenly, it's all very trackable and recorded. This level of surveillance should get us all very worried if they were to implement it.

The way I see it, the free internet is an adults only space, and the only way is for parents is to restrict devices/apps. There will always be parents who allow it though, just like some allow smoking or drinking or other "bad" habits.

Parents will just do the facial ID for their kids if that’s the case.

This law will kill the free Internet as we have known it for the past twenty years.

I'm not sure thats a bad thing @ThePeppyOpalScroller

The internet has become increasingly toxic and dangerous.

My 13 yr old son is a bit disappointed as he’s started to make Lego stop motion animations and load them up to YouTube.

We were very careful however and he was only allowed a few months ago, way past his 13th birthday. He’s y8.

he only got a mobile phone when nearly 13 / in y8 (middle school system so good going as most get them in y5) and it was heavily locked down. No other SM; we finally allowed YT for his videos but monitor.

Im sad for him as it is a creative outlet he’s definitely really good at. He plays two sports seriously and we don’t have x box etc. only went on Fortnite a few weeks ago (we are so strict!)

We’ve said that he can still make the videos and where between friends. Dh might upload them to his own account for him but it does take away the way he interacts with other others.

if I’m honest we weren’t keen on him joining YouTube. It’s impossible to monitor all the time, even though he’s limited to 30 mins a day. But we felt really unreasonable compared to many of his peers.

I’m a teacher and have seen most safeguarding issues linked to screens via YouTube and shared photos/ videos over the last 20 years. It’s actually the camera / video element that is the worst aspect of a mobile phone. We gave an old digital canon slr to my son to play with recently and he’s really enjoyed it.

Taking the option away from kids does mean that the parents aren’t the bad guys.

I think it will take a few years to normalise. I know current y3 parents in my school are totally against phones - completely different to the y8 parents.

Normal childhood things will be normalised again.