Ban on social media for under-16s backed by public, poll finds
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/26/social-media-ban-for-under-16s-backed-by-public-poll-finds/
by vriska1
Ban on social media for under-16s backed by public, poll finds
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/26/social-media-ban-for-under-16s-backed-by-public-poll-finds/
by vriska1
36 comments
How would it be enforced, I know when I was younger I’d just click yes on anything asking if I’m over 18.
Idk how they’d effectively enforce it, but it’s a good idea. I haven’t heard any good, either word of mouth or on the news, from 15s and under using it. I’ve heard plenty of bad though.
I reckon in another ten years or so you’ll need some sort of ID or licence to access the internet or some online services. Not sure how it will work but I have a feeling it is coming.
The halcyon days of the 90s and early 00s internet are long gone.
“Nearly two thirds of eight to 11 year-olds and one third of children aged three to seven use social media, despite the age limit of 13.”
So they’ll just change the age to 16 and everyone will continue to ignore it. The Technology Secretary really earned his money today.
This will not solve anything, if Smartphones were to be banned for U16’s then I would understand. Get them away from devices altogether and let them develop their brain and opinions without social media cancer destroying them
If you ask a group of adults about anything that under-16s do, which they didn’t as kids, they’ll want it banned.
Hardly surprising. If there’s one thing consistent about the British public, it’s that we love the idea of banning things.
If there’s such overwhelming support among the public, then we don’t need a law for it at all, do we?
The excuse I always see for parents not doing their fucking job and looking after their kids is “But if they don’t have a phone, they’ll be bullied because all the other kids have phones! They’ll be socially isolated from all their friends with phones!”
Well now we know that there are plenty of other people who don’t want their kids to have phones/social media either. So grow some balls and regulate your kids’ access like you already should have been and stop pushing for another unworkable waste of time law that will cost us all too much money and end up unenforced anyway once kids find a workaround ten minutes after it comes into practice.
What public is backing this, I am someone who hates this whole kids on tablets and social media and stuff, but everyone around me seems to be the ones doing it. Can people just not manage there children them self
Social media is a convenient boogeyman for us to blame on the all the youth’s issues. Third spaces have practically disappeared. Teenagers are not welcome in public if they’re in a group of more than what, three? Banning social media would be an excellent way to worsen the loneliness epidemic.
Love this in theory. In reality I think it’d be like the early days of social media where they had an 18 or 16 minimum age limit but also extremely easy for a 15 year old to get away with lying and then saying on their profile “I’m 15, LOL” with no consequences
With VPNs, how will this be enforced? Kids will find a way to access social media.
In a poll by _The Telegraph_ whose readers would struggle to describe what a VPN is.
I’m sure they are until you tell them that the only real way to control access would be for everybody to have a Unique ID, basically an ID Card but for the Internet that would allow the Government, Police and anybody else willing pay to monitor and trace absolutely everything you do online.
I’m pretty sure the vast majority of people would then hate the idea..
Terrible, unenforceable idea supported by the gullible
So now everyone has to submit id to go online not just kids and the “public” yet again vote against their own interests because they’re too lost In the issue to see the actual reasons for this
Empower parents to control and shape content that is possible on childrens devices. Forcing everyone to do something silly that register cc details is a recipe for disaster.
Just for theatrics, it’s never gonna be enforced, I have no idea how you’d enforce it.
How would you even define ‘social media’? Let alone enforce this. YouTube is a video sharing service, probably not social media, TikTok is also a video sharing service but definitely social media… its pretty arbitrary.
When does a website with ‘content’ and a comments section become social media? Reddit certainly doesn’t feel very social!
Social media is not the sole problem here, it’s the entire landscape of the modern internet.
Bombarded with advertisements, news media fear mongering at every opportunity, infinite distraction, since it became profitable the Internet as a whole has become an absolute cancer.
Kids need to develop away from devices as a whole. Having the world’s problems at your fingertips is a surefire way of sending you into a depressive pit
Probably unenforceable unless you these sites all adopt a policy where you have to show a form of ID to register as a user, and that’s unlikely to happen anytime in the near future.
But I fully support it. You just need to meet any kid today to see the damage that having the internet and social media in their pockets is doing to them.
My 11 year old niece is obsessed with who has liked her statuses and constantly seeks them out. Have seen her go in some proper sulks because she didn’t get the engagement due wanted on her YT videos or posts. It’s really concerning how fucked up the younger generations are becoming, they’ve got a totally warped view of reality. They’re reality is now almost entirely online.
Whenever I see a poll about anything, I’m reminded of this wonderful scene from Yes, Minister.
https://youtu.be/ahgjEjJkZks?si=QisK19JuE3gn2yL1
It’s indirect, but it would be amazing if there was a ‘definition’ of social media that targets the problems it has, while allowing other services to fill similar roles without the harmful side effects.
I don’t know if this is true, but it would seem reasonable to assume that this was a very simple question rather than providing people with data to support the conclusion and then asking based on that.
Assuming that is the case then the alternative title here is that 2/3 of people are willing to submit others to conditions without having reasonable supporting evidence. I’m not saying there isn’t any evidence supporting this kind of policy. The point I’m making is to highlight how poor people’s epistemologies are. The correct response to a question you have insufficient data to answer should always be “I don’t know”. You don’t commit one way or the other until you have rational reasons for doing so.
Classic bit of further surveillance of the masses disguised as the Helen Lovejoy meme.
1) This is stupidly difficult to enforce, I do wonder if anyone at any government department has heard of the acronym VPN?
2) Why does the state need to do an ever increasing amount of parenting? Just skip these in-between stages and send all the kids to permanent boarding school camps. If we’re going for the dystopian future slowly let’s just get it done quicker!
This is just another mass surveillance Bill wrapped up in the usual “won’t somebody please think of the children”. The only way this could be enforced is forcing everyone to give websites their ids
Nah, this is too far. Nanny state stuff. Let parents parent their children.
I love restricting people’s rights (particulary ones who are vulnerable/dependent) instead of considering the core issues at hand. Surely this is a good idea and won’t be used maliciously at all. I can only wonder!
Good luck, getting all the under 16, who are already on social media…off social media.
There’s a lot of talk about the effect the internet has on kids, and not enough talk about how kids affect the internet. Some of you have probably argued with children right here on Reddit. Tiktok is full of irritatingly gullible teenagers who think every wild animal has rabies and are still impressed by debunked conspiracy theories. You can’t have an adult conversation, anywhere, without some random teen throwing their 2.5 years of worldly experience around like it means anything.
Do kids need a space to socialise and support each other? Sure. Does it have to be the same space the rest of us are having grown up conversations in? No. The internet was better for everyone when different age groups had their own discussion spaces.
Does “the public” know that this will mean they’ll also need to share their identity to prove that they’re over 16?
Please don’t do this, UK. We’ve got this coming in Australia. Nobody knows how it’ll work, what constitutes “social media” (apparently if you can leave comments it is, but YouTube and Instagram are exempt), and what will be required.
We’re promised it will need no ID, but it sounds like it’ll be linked to our MyGov accounts… which contain bank details, medical records, details of family members, any government assistance you receive… in short I wouldn’t trust anyone with that.
Oh, and they want it in place by Christmas. Apparently there was a recent “open forum” on it. It wasn’t advertised, and was only open for about 3 hours to the public, on a workday.
Did anyone tell them that the only way to not allow minors on social media is to upload your adult ass ID for age verification and have a permanent metamarker on your account where they can track everything you do? Basically, forget your privacy because “think about the children!”
Of course the parents (even though absent) should be the law, but of course they aren’t.
I recall a programme about the nation’s watching habits, under 20s weren’t watching the TeleScreen. Anyways, how else is the propaganda going to pumped without the internet?
They’re doing this in Aus but porn hub won’t be effected. It’s not about protecting kids..its about controlling their views and values
This is the same crap they are trying to get into Australian law. Basically everyone who uses social media will need to provide official identity to be able to use social media services. Here though they require people to use biometric data/facial scans every time they log into an app to make sure it is them using it. Utter shite.
Another way to get us into this digital ID bollocks. Always the governments saying ‘protecting the children’ yeah right my arse. Don’t give them phones if you don’t want them online, otherwise sod off with your totalitarian bullshit.
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