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UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s

bbc.com

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Re: UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s

#31
post #5

Probably going to illicit some bad responses, but hopefully here, people might see what I am trying to say. While I am annoyed a "ban" has to come into play for social media, it seems to be the only thing we can do in the short term, but as a person in the IT industry, I do wonder if we are missing doing an RCA on the issue. Even as an adult with a child, I can't see us ever letting our kid actually use social media…

> Locking people out of good information means that you are essentially stopping them from seeing the wider picture.

Good information is impossible to define, not least because it's different for every person. There is no single wider picture, certainly not one any two people could agree on and certain not one that can be legislated.

> Moving closer to sensorship.

Censorship for children is an absolute and unabated good. We should be censoring what children can see. We already do in other forms of media and communications.

> For me, its frustrating that this the direction we are going in, but it doesn't actually solve the issue. It just passes it along to later on, further time away, for it to then cause more damage later on.

No, unfettered access to obscene, extreme, & traumatising information, and unfiltered communication with a globe's worth of predators, is orders of magnitude more damaging to children than to adults. Delayed access until both biological and psychological processes mature dramatically reduces overall harm and introduces no new harm.

Re: UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s

#32
post #5

Probably going to illicit some bad responses, but hopefully here, people might see what I am trying to say. While I am annoyed a "ban" has to come into play for social media, it seems to be the only thing we can do in the short term, but as a person in the IT industry, I do wonder if we are missing doing an RCA on the issue. Even as an adult with a child, I can't see us ever letting our kid actually use social media…

> I can't see us ever letting our kid actually use social media till they understand it

The social pressure to get on those platforms grows rapidly, well before they are 16. It starts with group chats, and who wants to be left out, where kids start posting funny things from tiktok or whatever, and then it's game over.

We kept ours a bit tight: first phone at 12, no internet, but everyone in the vicinity had whatsapp. Not much later we succumbed. Recently, my daughter told me she felt isolated, because the other kids in her class had access to much more. And that's 12 years ago. I cannot image the current levels of pressure.

Regulation is the only way. Meta, ByteDance, etc. are only moving forward with ever more addictive patterns. And it's killing society.

Edit: I recently was in a conversation with young parents, and one of them said: I do hope there's a ban soon.

Re: UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s

#33
post #5

Probably going to illicit some bad responses, but hopefully here, people might see what I am trying to say. While I am annoyed a "ban" has to come into play for social media, it seems to be the only thing we can do in the short term, but as a person in the IT industry, I do wonder if we are missing doing an RCA on the issue. Even as an adult with a child, I can't see us ever letting our kid actually use social media…

Social media are detrimental for a young human being under development. A child's brain works in no way the same as our adult brains, so we cannot apply the same caring logic as you would with adults. I see this in the same category as cigarettes, drugs and alcohol.

Until you are old enough and we can assume (or hope) there is mental capacity to properly contextualize life choices and being able take a stance for / against these things, a ban is appropriate.

Re: UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s

#34
post #7

What is it about this 16 y/o cutoff that seems to be the focus everywhere? Why not 18? It almost seems like this will make SM attractive by making it a kind of forbidden fruit and/or a social standing status indicator for impressionable, malleable minded, underdeveloped minds of teens seeking to feel like adults. In other words, if I didn’t know any better, I would have guessed that it might actually be the likes of…

You think Meta secretly wanted to remove 4.7m Australian users while saying:

> "We call on the Australian government to engage with industry constructively to find a better way forward, such as incentivising all of industry to raise the standard in providing safe, privacy-preserving, age-appropriate experiences online, instead of blanket bans,"

because ultimately they think it will attract more users to their platforms?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-15/social-media-ban-data...

https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-social-media-ban...

Re: UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s

#35
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly I don't think these are unpopular policies. At least not before they are implemented. The British public love a good ban.

If it's for a positive outcome, yes.

You can present anything as positive. Ever since Lady Chatterley's Lover.

Re: UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s

#37
post #5

Probably going to illicit some bad responses, but hopefully here, people might see what I am trying to say. While I am annoyed a "ban" has to come into play for social media, it seems to be the only thing we can do in the short term, but as a person in the IT industry, I do wonder if we are missing doing an RCA on the issue. Even as an adult with a child, I can't see us ever letting our kid actually use social media…

> Even as an adult with a child, I can't see us ever letting our kid actually use social media till they understand it, and that comes down to parenting properly, teaching them the right way, and letting them know of the dangers

Just answering to this part explicitly: Proper parenting is not doable in a lot of modern societies. There are so many children being neglected by their parents. So we'd have to go for a mix of parenting and regulating.

Re: UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s

#40
post #24
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK has had a great firewall for decades - try going to a kiddie porn site or a torrent site and you will be unable to connect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_blocking_in_the_United_Kin...

What amused me is shortly after cutting the UK off from pornhub etc, the UK then tried to ban porn sites from porn with strangling -- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyk3qzq7k7o If they had instead gone on a "porn sites that would obey the ID law need to flag themselves via this system and ISPs/phone providers should block them by default and only the account holder can enable it", then they would actually have…

Or they could consciously choose to not bypass the restrictions and to not consume pornography.

If they are seeking out vile material like incest, animal rape and sexualised murder then the blame lays entirely on them, not the government.

I mean what is even your point? Male depravity is unavoidable, and men are mindless ejaculators with no free will to curb abnormal sexual behaviours?

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