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 like the theory but I don’t see it working.

Things like YouTube you don’t even need to log in to watch so unless YouTube will make you log in that’s already unenforceable.

Tiktok you can watch on YouTube.

There are already underage children on Instagram and Facebook by their own parents creating the accounts so those parents will even help them get around the restrictions.

VPNs to get around being in the uk. Used pretty standardly already.

Unless you’re going to make actual adults prove via their faces or credit cards that they are adults to use social media and ban VPNs you won’t stop it. I also can’t see adults wanting such restrictions on them for going on Instagram or whatever.

Discord isn’t on the ban list which is hilarious.
WhatsApp not banned 😂

Banning twitch won’t work either.

You’re trying to ban tech kids using tech that they know how to use better than a lot of tech departments. The very kids that parents call down to help fix their stuff in many cases.

I’ll watch and wait to see how it plays out because if it’s like most other government plans it will be a shambles.

I think the plan is to do that? Get adults to use facial recognition and digital ID.

Hopefully even Labour won’t be keen, especially without Starmer if / when he’s gone.

I’m not sure that anyone who thinks that giving a 6 year old Snapchat is the type of parent who will listen to a ban.

Then I don’t see it working at all.

Because adults don’t want to keep handing over their information like that anyway.

We as a country don’t even want ID cards yet they expect all adults to want to scan their faces and credit cards to watch TikTok or post on instagram 😂😂

New apps and forums will just be set up to keep skipping around the rules. VPNs will be running on every phone and pc.

Agree entirely. Would they try to ban VPNs?

Or could they rather

Long overdue and for those saying it’s not enforceable - it has the power to change a whole culture.
our kids don’t have SM and never have and are now 16 and 14 and it was the BEST thing we ever did. Even when not easy at times .They still know all the memes etc from friends but not having them posting stuff about themselves for ‘likes’ has made all the difference.
SM has had a devastating effect our some of our kids teens.

I know but I do think in general it could be a good thing. To be honest idk how they would actually enact it. The mum is a nice enough woman from the conversation me and DH have had with her which is why I was a bits suprised when DD came home and asked if she could have Snapchat.

Yes the proposal puts the onus entirely on the platforms to do age verification. We don’t know how they’ll do it yet. I don’t disagree you will need to verify your age to use social media- that is, after all, the whole point.

the internet didn’t shut down at midnight in Australia when they introduced this law 6 months ago.

Just an expansion of the big state for me, discouraging parents to actually think about what is good and bad for their child and implementing restrictions on it.

Banning stuff I am never really in favour of, even if it is nothing to do with me, because sooner or later the government will probably ban something I like.

Justifications in terms of stuff like "it saves lives", well banning alcohol, cars and dogs would save lives. Not sure there is a great case for banning those either.

Suspect Starmer is just rushing this one through before Burham gets on the scene, he has to be seen to be doing something and this is something that makes a lot of noise and doesn't cost the government any money.

That's exactly why we don't need a ban that's unenforceable. You've managed to parent properly and that's the issue. We need parents to actually be parents.

What the government actually says:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-landmark-government-move-to-givekids-their-childhood-back

Although the aim is laudable, I’m on balance against the ban because it feels rushed and not properly thought through by a government desperate to do something popular. I think it would be much better to wait until there is more evidence and analysis from Australia of what the impact has been there. And also I feel it risks letting tech companies off the hook for all the disinformation, propaganda and worse that they are hosting (Grok still generating sexualised deepfakes etc). It’s not just teenagers who are harmed by this stuff.

ICT with Mr P has been good on this thsi morning; it’s about a culture shift.

It won’t fully stop immediately.

It will take a few years to become the norm and undo the last 15 years of damage.

The parents that aren't currently censoring the internet properly for their kids will probably just claim that the government is now going to do everything for them, so they don't need to do anything, which just discourages people taking an active role in parenting their kids further.

Teachers are already complaining that kids are ending up in school without being toilet trained and not being able to use a knife and fork, fed constantly on a diet of junk food. This is just going to encourage more hands off parenting.

I suppose it is the (very) thin end of the wedge but at some point, maybe the State can claim it will do a better job of bringing up kids than parents.

Youve got parents who grew up online and on phone and on SM now.

they don’t know any different.

the tech companies need to be held accountable in the same way as cigarette companies etc

YABU.

Children's screen usage needs strict controls and parental monitoring.

A ban like this wont work and will have other downsides, not just for children.

100%

the issue is that it’s causing a ridiculous amount of wasted time in schools dealing with fall outs from snap chat and much worse and also certainly causing extra issues for the nhs via mental health issues.

I agree not all sm is bad for teens. And not all screen time is bad.

At the same time it’s clear that physical health can be affected by screens.

when the NHS is free the state will be looking at ways to help make people healthier to reduce load on the nhs.

and many children have been injured or dies as a result of SM.

Wonder if they have realised that a ton of free learning materials are hosted on youtube? mainly gcse prep, tons of maths , english and computer science stuff.
I get all the others, but a blanket ban in youtube is problematic (i’m all for a “youtube school” with only verified teaching materials!)

I do think this is the right decision overall. However there will need to be a big culture shift.

I will be interested to know which apps/platforms are included.

As a teacher, WhatsApp is the app that has the highest impact on children in my school. They add each other to large groups full of strangers where really inappropriate things are shared and linked. They share videos of each other in compromising situations and bullying is rife.

I agree that YouTube can be risky but there is a lot of useful educational content on there too - presumably if it is banned for under 16s, I would not be able to use it in the classroom? I am old enough to have taught before screens in every classroom but it had become a really useful resource in many lessons (explaining scientific concepts, exploring historical people/events, showing art from around the world etc). Lots of what we used to pay for is now freely available to educators (necessary in this time of ever reducing school budgets).

It's about time tbh !
If parents were actually parenting teenagers children toddlers wouldn't be on any kind of gadget !
It's bad parenting all round using a screen as a babysitting tool !!
I might get flamed for this but I don't actually give a shit !
If your so engrossed in your on phone to interact with your children your lazy !!!
I hate seeing small tiny toddlers 18 months old on phones it's insanity!!!
Kids should not be using screens or social media full stop !
Everywhere I go everyone has their head in their phone !! Or their filming or taking pictures what the fuck has happened to the world honestly !

Youtube is the fucker, tbh. Kids use it for learning all sorts of stuff. It certainly needs to have parental controls on it and limits set, but this is part of what I mean by heavy handed ban having adverse effects.

The issue is we don’t know about the long term impacts or safe/ unsafe levels of social media use for children. Parents can’t parent “properly” because they don’t have the information.

my gran was given her first cigarette at 11 by her father. He didn’t know it was bad for her. They were controlled by tobacco company propaganda back then, as we are tech companies now.

There are issues that need to be dealt with, for sure. I would say that sm bullying is often symptomatic and part of other wider issues. Children who are parented well with proper boundaries learn how to navigate and manage a healthy usage of sm and screens etc. Which is something everyone needs to learn; tech isn't going to disappear any time soon.

SM is a tool. It is or was a great way to reach children with positive and useful messaging, access support, information, etc, as well as a Wild west with many risks.

We can use our common sense.