AIBU to think the social media ban will be impossible to enforce?

[Viviennemary]

I'm not totally against this ban on social media for under 16's. but I don't see how it can be enforced. It's on BBC news now. One boy spent 14 hours a day. Another girl 9 hours. Crazy.

This is what worried me too. It will be the forbidden fruit. Then after 16 it will be allowed. And I dont think social media is inherently bad. It's like banning paper because it can be used to print porn. Whereas I can see why gambling, smoking amd drinking are bann for underage teenagers.

They did hold a consultation and spoke to parents and children, plus kept an eye on the Aus situation. Interestingly 62% of children asked were in favour of restrictions.
One minute people are moaning about change not coming fast enough with this government, the next minute people are whining that the government are changing things.

Our school provides devices for each child to do that homework at home.
. And the device is strictly monitored and locked down by the school. That’s how it should be. So outside of that we have
a family iPad and all use it. Nothing else. My ds is Y5 and not walking home anytime soon so need for that too

Maybe they’re hoping the parents will enforce it?

YouTube are perfectly capable of organising their content into age appropriate sections, they just previously haven’t bothered to because it’s not been necessary.

They have the technology to do it, they should’ve done it before and they haven’t, now maybe they will so people can access the content they want to and kids can watch age appropriate stuff without easily clicking on something horrid.

In Australia pretty much all the older children are getting around the ban pretty easily.

I personally support the ban, the tech companies could have sorted this out themselves but failed to take action and our children are bombarded with things chosen by the algorithm. This means children who have looked at self harm or suicide posts get to see more of the same, over and over.

I’ve seen it mentioned that it could be linked to NI numbers as these are issued just before the 16th birthday which would be relatively easy to put in place.

It needs to be way way easier to stop your kids getting on the social media. It’s like saying kids have to wear seatbelts but then the car manufacturers not installing them or giving children secret keys to unlock them or the car manufacturers do install them on some seats but in others they only do half and you have to jump through a hoop to get the other half….
Phone companies should make phones that you can say “this is a kids phone” and then you can’t get on SM, you can’t use between x and y hours, you can’t download a VPN etc etc EVER.
My son has a phone, I’ve got the family thing, the screen time works to go off at night but the app limiter just straight up doesn’t work. I’ve tried to limit him to an hour a day on TikTok and it just does not work. He’s not getting round it sneakily, it just doesn’t prevent him. Why?

There are over 18 limits on lots of adult content now which require age verification and although not fool proof it definitely makes these sites less accessible and so not as appealing and addictive as just tapping on an app and it popping up. A bit like when you have to use a separate authentication app for sites at work- it’s more of a faff and I wonder if this breaks up the dopamine hit effect or something ?

It's the same for driving at 17 and going to bars at 18 though. I don't think doing it by school year would be sensible as how can people prove what year they are in?

Yes true but the fact remains, that many GCse resources are on you tube so those who turn 16 at the start of the year have access to them all but those who are younger in the year don’t. That is unfair advantage

also I can’t imagine what it will be like for younger children in the year who get things written about them online by the older ones and they can’t view it. Everyone older laughing at them and they have no way of seeing that so written. It’s cruel. It’s a bullies charter honestly.

and why is it difficult to do it by age at 1st September so will be clear what school year you are in?

Agreed, people never thought that banning smoking would work, or that it was particularly bad for you, or making people wear seatbelts was necessary, or putting age limits on gambling, or films but here we are.

YouTube can put content into age appropriate sections, they have the technology and money to do it.

It shouldn’t be down to the government or social media companies to implement the safety of teens/children but they’ve been forced to do so because parents are incapable.

Most children are smart enough to get around any ban introduced whereas most parents are technologically illiterate and have no idea how to actively protect their children when using devices/websites/social media/gaming consoles.

I don’t believe this ban will change anything unless parents learn how to keep their children safe. The children and social media companies aren’t the problem.

They could just use their parents' account for school resources though? I don't think it would be a disadvantage in that regard. It's not really a ban on them using it as I understand, but rather a ban on them having their own accounts as far as I know. WhatsApp isn't included in the ban, so there will still be kids saying things about others behind their backs anyway.

Then what is the point of the ban? That would place the responsibility back on the parents which is what the government is trying to stop.

The UK version has stated it’ll go further, no doubt having taken this into account.

If you don’t understand why some of the content available online to kids is problematic then I think you’re incredibly naive.

There’s age related laws around all sorts of things that society have decided aren’t suitable for kids, this is just no different.

Indeed, I agree. It will be fairly easy to get round I imagine. I suppose it gives more weight to make parents enforce it at home, and teachers to be able to act upon it if discovered at school, and helps entrench a general view that under 16s should not be on these platforms.

Its impossible to enforce what young children have access to tv after the water shed or are able to watch 18 rates movies but those things to hugely limit the number of children who have access to inappropriate content on traditional media.
The social media ban will something similar online, there will always be the parent buying an 18rated game for their 13 year old birthday and there will be the parent allowing their child to still access TikTok but it will vastly limit it. Even those who allow their children to use the platforms will hopefully have considered how damaging they can be and perhaps not allow it to be as unrestricted.

I am fully supportive of the ban. Phones and social media are addictive and kids’ developing brains can’t handle it. In many cases it stops them doing real life as the dopamine high from phones always wins. Many parents do not want their kids on social media apps but it is very difficult to be the one mean parent who says no when the norm is to have access. Yes some parents will help kids get around the law change but I’d hope that what it does mean is that the norm becomes no social media and this will make it easy for most parents to enforce. It’s too late for my oldest who has suffered huge teenage anxiety and depression but hopefully will help my 10 year old

That's not really relevant though is it, the UK doesn't have to do age verification in the same way as Australia and can learn from their experience.

No reason for implementing a system that has flaws in other countries and also no reason not to try

That’s on parents.
They all perhaps shouldn’t be so quick to blame social media companies when their children are the ones who end up the victim.

I think it is a good thing. Children tend to want social media because friends have it, if fewer children had it they wouldn't be as bothered.
My children are both adults now but grew up with these platforms being launched. I did not even know they existed until my children had already got accounts. I've always been behind and not really aware of what new things were coming along. So it would have prevented my children from signing up for things I didn't know about.
I understand they can still watch Youtube but not have an account. My children used to watch physics videos on Youtube, but I think they will still be able to do that.

Exactly, it’ll slowly change people’s mindsets over time.

In a few years instead of someone starting a thread complaining their 13 year old at a sleepover was allowed to watch an 18 film and now has nightmares it’ll be someone saying they’d been given adult level social media access with no filters and wft is wrong with these parents.