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

Well I’ll disagree with you on this. There’s plenty of great educational content on YouTube including the aforementioned but also daily dose of internet which we all love watching as a family and still very much will.

I agree with it, but there will be some parents who help their kids get round it and we'll ne back to square one in terms of kids risking social isolation of they don't have access to it

I agree. I use YouTube rarely, only when I am directed there as a credible source and then I get off. No scrolling on YouTube for me. Scary!

You maybe being tracked already but the government will be able to track anything you post on SM and link it directly back to you including mundane criticism of the government and we've already seen parents wrongfully arrested for criticism of schools and schools policies, for factually accurate statements including men cannot be women, so the question becomes how long until we see people arrested for criticism of the government.

Yes being able to tract death and rape threats back to the men making them but not at the cost of wholesale government censorship

I don’t agree with a social media ban. That is not to say that I think children should be allowed unfettered access to social media. In my opinion, it should be the responsibility of parents to monitor this. I do agree that phones should not be allowed in schools though.

I think it’s much better to teach young teens (say from 12/13 onwards) how to use social media safely rather than totally ban it. 12/13 year olds are much more likely to listen to parents than 16/17 year olds. Assuming the ban is enforceable (which it won’t be), we will be letting 16 year olds loose on the internet without having had previous experience or being taught how to use it safely. That is utter madness. We wouldn’t give them keys to a car at 17 and say “off you go”. They need teaching.

Why are so many parents keen to rely on legislation to ban social media? Why are they not capable of monitoring social media use? Presumably because it takes too much effort. It really isn’t hard to parent your own children and lay down ground rules.

My children (mid teens) have never been given free rein on the internet. They didn’t really have screens when younger so didn’t watch things like You Tube. It wasn’t difficult at all; they were kept busy with other things. As they hit the teenage years, they do have smart phones. However, their school have a very strict no smart phone policy (they are allowed to take brick phones which we don’t bother with) until 6th form. This means that none of their peer group are on phones during the day which helps; it means that children talk to each other and don’t become overly reliant on social media. Mine asked for instagram at around 13, which they do have. However, they are set as teen accounts so I can see followers etc. They have been taught how to use it safely and, for example, know only to accept followers who they actually know in real life. They don’t have Snapchat or Tik Tok. They’re not interested in it and a fair few friends are the same. They have been made aware of the dangers and prefer to avoid those platforms for now.

As for enforcing it, I can’t see how a ban will work. The type of parent who happily lets a 5 year old on Tube for hours on end probably isn’t going to listen to a ban. They’ll find a way around it. The social media ban hasn’t worked in Australia as teens have found a way around it.

We are turning into a nanny state. I don’t need the government telling me how to raise my children. I agree that children with irresponsible parents need protecting somehow, but a ban won’t help with this. Irresponsible parents won’t listen to a ban.

I agree with a ban, but I’m a lazy parent so I’m annoyed that there’s another thing that I have to police now. I know that my DC will expect me to help them get round the restrictions because “everyone else does”. I wish there had been a phased implementation, it’s going to be difficult to enable for the older age groups.

I’m in australia - both DDs have bypassed It and the genie is out the bottle for them and their friends - it may work for younger kids though

of course it’s the right thing. We all know as adults that social media isn’t good for you. Comparing yourself and you’ve life to others, seeing harmful images etc.

The key thing is that parents need to follow through with it. Children don’t need smart phones or unsupervised access to the internet.

Funny how Bluesky, the peado paradise, isn’t included in the ban 🙄

Left-wing brainwashing - good
anything else - baaaad.

There is good stuff. Quite difficult science concepts that an interested dc can learn from. Veritasium is one.

Exactly! It is making me quite angry to read ‘how will they police it’ ‘it won’t work’ blah blah. We have to at least try. How anyone can think under 16’s having full access to everything is beyond me. It’s madness. Well done Labour bringing this in. They’re not perfect in my eyes at all but this is long overdue.

i also believe it’s parents who should be policing this too! I know a lot of teenagers will try and get around this ban and I understand that in the same way they do with smoking and vaping and alcohol. But the point is when this becomes law, it is much easier as a parent to tell your child you can’t have/do that because it’s the law. Also makes it way easier with younger children just getting first phones etc.

i have two dc’s (12 and 14) we already have a social media ban in this house (for them) but obviously 90% of their friends don’t. It’s been up to us to ‘police’ it but by having it as a legal requirement it makes the plight of parents who care easier. You’re not the ‘only one’ not on snap chat because now 90% arent.

And those saying ‘it will get rolled back in a few years’ - so we do nothing until then? Ridiculous comment. We have to keep moving forward and improving things for our kids. If the policy is popular with parents it will most likely stay.

Agree. My DS enjoys Map Men, Tom Scott, Hannah Fry, TRIP. Plenty of great educational YouTube content out there.

I think its a great idea.

You haven't read the proposed have you?

It will apply to all peer to peer communications platforms. That's all social media, including this site. It will mean app development will abandoned the UK. The proposal is fines up to 20% of the global turnover for a single breach. The UK's Internet will effectively shut down at midnight on the day the regulations come into effect. We will all have to submit either our I.D or a selfie to almost every useful website you can think of. Any site that has a possibility of communicating directly or indirectly with others on the platform will be affected.

This is giving Orwell.

it's good, but it won't be enforced. I worked in youth work 15 years ago and the 10-12 year olds were always trying to get us to open Facebook accounts for them, many of them had them due to siblings or parents. we banned them from using them in session but even back then, with kids having generally less access to tech, it didn't stop it

I totally support the ban, my 13 DD is feeling the pressure to join platforms. It will be much easier for us parents to push back on that. I hope this debate widens - this is also about online safety and addictive media use - both are connected.

I hope parents start to question device use in general a bit more.

Many MNs know it's hard bringing up kids with less screen time.

A generation of parents have, quite understandably, built finely-balanced livelihoods around kids being 'occupied by screens'.

And by this I mean streamed addictive, sophisticated, targeted digital content content for a good chunk of their childhood.

It takes a huge investment in parent's time and money to replace this content-use, especially for lively kids, it generally means going outside, supporting interests activities, setting up playdates, going on little adventures and so on. It's exhausting, expensive and maybe reflects the actual cost of parenting IMO.

Finally, this is not just about social media, I know the ban touches on AI chat, but AI chat / smart audio is now a ubiquitous part of many operating systems.

Most parents do not know their kids phones have access to AI chatbots and smart audio features, there are many workarounds and it takes a good deal of hacking to strip these out (as I have had to do for my DD).

My DD's brand-new Android, set up with parent-link and setting age-restrictions on everything imaginable, on the very first day an invisible Chrome-powered AI chat bot asked her 'what makes you sad?' and then 'I hope you don't disable me, I like talking to you'??!!!! After no small amount of hacking I disabled all chat functions (not as easy as it first looks BTW).

Every day parents need to support their children to make good choices about streaming content safety and addictive media use. This takes energy and focus from parents, we need to all support each other to do this too, and not just rely on a slow-moving gov.

And provides millions of jobs. You do realise it wont just affect children. It will force all adults to submit their I.D or a selfie to access most Internet sites.

Reddit is included in Australia so I assume it will be. I agree on messaging apps. Not sure on the plan there but personally in our house we haven’t allowed WhatsApp / large groups until 16 either, probably pretty hardline but as you say having it as the law will help so many parents (and the children of course) and behaviour in school, this policy is well overdue!

Geez

So, effectively, digital ID. Which most people are opposed to.

SM posts will no longer be anonymous. It makes it easier for bad parties to track you if you say something they don't like.

Fine by me to protect the kids! Why is it different to showing my ID in a bar or supermarket?

How is Youtube ‘awful’? I’ve never once seen anything even approaching inappropriate on there.
I use it to show my 7 year old Grandson all sorts of random stuff - History, Space shuttle launches, monster trucks, dragster racing, old kids tv programmes, it’s an invaluable resource.

Apparently Bluesky is given special privileges. Oh dear. Our leaders are idiots.

and there really isn't that much difference in how A14 and 16 year old look. at 18 I needed iD cos I looked young. my mate, nanny a year younger, got served because she's clearly looked older.