Why do people want teens on social media??

[theprincessthepea]

I have a teen.

Today I told her that by the time the ban comes into affect when she is 16, it won’t make a difference to her life. But it will affect my toddler, and I’m happy that he will be growing up during a time where social media will be banned for children and young teens.

What I realised is that there are so many parents against the ban.

I see it every day. I was the last parent (out of my DDs friendship group of 6 girls) to give her a smart phone and allow her on social media - mainly because I was aware of what it’s like, and I witnessed my friend abuse MSN and Bebo back in the day and end up with older guys and pervs - that’s another story. But I remember a parent (DDs friends mum) telling me “I’ve set up a Snapchat for my daughter” (there were in year 5).
I asked her “why”
she said “I was told it’s good for them to socialise”

WTF!? AIBU for thinking that a lot of the work will go into convincing the public and parents that social media is bad. Just like we had to convince the public that smoking is bad.

If the amount of exploitation, low self esteem, online bullying, literally having an online account that is borderline only fans when you are a minor, whilst mum and dad think you study and love school (me and my daughter are super open about socials, she might have an account I don’t know about - but this is the point - us parents don’t get to protect our kids when they are in a virtual world that could be harmful).

Anyways that’s my rant. I’m all for the ban. Good luck with them implementing it. But I think we will be in a better place 10 years later (if the multiple crisis don’t get to us first).

Im also all for educational videos - but I don’t think this falls under this. As I do tell my DD to find an appropriate video when she’s stuck for revision.

I agree with you but I still voted YABU as I think it's state over reach to start being involved in parenting our children. I won't allow social media, but what others do with their children is their choice.

I also disagree that banning teenagers from social media is the answer. The world has changed since we were young and there is no going back, it's how they communicate, have fun, and interact. How about we hold these companies to account for all the perverts and addictive nature of their apps. It's obscene how they get away with lack of safety and accountability.

I'm also concerned about it from a civil liberty pov. If the government gave a shit about children they'd reopen SEN schools, actually tackle violence against women and girls, invest in leisure facilities and sort out housing. This seems punitive.

I agree with you, but let’s face it, the tech companies are doing absolutely nothing to help our children. Parents that have lost children to unfortunate events triggered by social media have campaigned about this for decades. All they have to do is control the algorithms so they are more positive (in general as I don’t think adults need to see violence unless they look it up I guess …).

I have friends who have pretty innocent accounts as adults, usually advocating for stuff and they get shadow banned in an instance - but the tech companies can shadow ban exploitive content for children (and maybe adults as I don’t want to see that stuff).

It’s like MN, when a post becomes too wild they step in and delete the post if relevant. I think the ban will force these companies to do something - as we know, if it isn’t law, they won’t do anything.

I agree with you.

I also know that so much hate and violence can be spread on social media too as it’s easy to create echo chambers. Even though it happens online, we all agree the manosphere is real.

I agree with you, I volunteer a lot int he community and I’ve seen the public take matters into their own hands to advocate for safety and SEN support - they government need to do more there too.

How is it involving the government in parenting your children? It's placing a mandatory duty on social media providers to introduce a lower age limit. Is banning the sale of cigarettes and alcohol to kids government involvement in parenting your children? How about age limits for viewing certain films at the cinema? Or the age of consent? People are utterly ridiculous sometimes.