The Under 16 Social Media Ban

As I posted, I don't know what is the best solution to stop garbage being garbage to others and neither do you with your negative posts. I suppose concrete and HTFU is one way but maybe the parents of those kids who have taken their life may not see it that.

Suggest a solution which is workable at all levels.

In short I can see a definite problem with social media in society but I don't trust government to not stuff this up spectacularly and/or use it for nefarious purposes.

In no particular order, some of the problems I'm seeing include:

Blocking a means of communication between young people and the parent, usually father, the custodial parent is denying them access to.

Blocking relatively harmless cultural and entertainment content. Eg it's the equivalent of if someone had banned pop music magazines in the past, their modern equivalent being to follow the relevant artists online.

Blocking educational content. Between forums and YouTube there's plenty of sensible, informative content on everything from sports to what an aircraft captain actually does on the job. A lot of that's actually useful for young people.

That a database linking individuals to their accessing perfectly legal online content becomes hugely problematic for anyone with even a slight public profile if hacked or, worse still, used as a weapon by government. One doesn't need to become the PM for that to happen, even someone like a school principle could find themselves caught in that one. Not for doing anything wrong, just because they watched some adult content 20 years earlier.

More broadly I've a concern with the idea that someone's a child right up to age 16 and then is thrown into the adult world real quick. Thinking about all the changes that occur in life around that age, it seems like an incredibly steep learning curve to go from child to adult virtually overnight. It's already a very steep curve at that age, which does cause various problems, and this would only make it worse.

I also have doubts about the effectiveness since if there's one group in society that's really good at getting around the law, and especially with technology, it's teenagers. Let's face it, I doubt there's even one adult who can honestly say they didn't do something they weren't supposed to do at that age.

And finally I just don't trust what's going on. Misinformation regulations, age restrictions on a good portion of the internet, All seems a tad dystopian to me.

I do agree social media is a problem but I'm not at all convinced this is the right solution. I'm thinking it needs to be more nuanced in detail and that false name forums such as this one and primarily one-way communication such as YouTube definitely should not be included.

Plus I'd outright ban betting ads. I'd put gambling in the same category as tobacco and just ban advertising outright. Penalty = enough to break them so they don't do it.

macca said:

At present, the bullies pursue their victims at all hours of the day and night, there is no let up and many teenagers simply cannot cope.

The mental damage is very obvious to those who are dealing with the victims and many will take years to recover.

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Agreed that bullying's a huge problem but it's by no means limited to social media.

I knew someone who took their own life a few years ago. Male, aged about 50 and the attacks didn't come via a screen.

What I'd like to see is a broad approach to stamp out bullying, one that wasn't focused on only social media or stereotypical scenarios but which addressed the issue directly. There's a broad problem in society there, best explained by saying it works. Bullying your way to the top does indeed work unfortunately, it's one path to reasonable success.

wayneL said:

Even eKaren is equivocating about this.

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I bullied her so hard on X she went normal.

I don't know why they didn't make banning people for bullying easier?
Just make it easier to report someone. They already do it on roblox. My daughter got banned off there for running around someone in circles, Calling someone a "big back", there was some other stupid reason I can't remember. But they were on it with a very low tolerance.

I don't see why it's not achievable with ai on the other platforms around under 16yo. This generation lives and dies online.

The government will fck whatever it is they think their doing.

Maybe we need to get tougher on Internet bullies.

Name and shame them, the children and their parents.

Pick any mainstream non-forum social media platform and look for comment on any real world issue that's even slightly important.

Now read the comments.

It's an undeniable reality that it does spread a lot of utter nonsense by giving fools a voice on subjects they know nothing about. Trouble is, the government's ideas won't fix that since it's not an age-specific problem.

Smurf1976 said:

It's an undeniable reality that it (social media) does spread a lot of utter nonsense by giving fools a voice on subjects they know nothing about.

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Just the same as MSM.

Smurf1976 said:

school principle

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Who hopefully would get it right and spell it principal.

moXJO said:

This generation lives and dies online.

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Bad choice of words there.

The crux of this issue is children committing suicide due to online harassment.

Macquack said:

The crux of this issue is children committing suicide due to online harassment.

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It is although it's another example of only dealing with a small portion of a problem.

Eg only dealing with bullying when it's online, and only if the victim is under age 16.

I'd be a lot happier if government came down hard on bullying outright no matter what the circumstance.

Disclosure: Somewhat personal as a friend took their own life a few years ago due to sustained bullying. Age about 50.

Macquack said:

Bad choice of words there.

The crux of this issue is children committing suicide due to online harassment.

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Yeah I've heard about some cases.
Hence banning. Other platforms are doing it. Roblox is seriously strict and enforce it quickly.

moXJO said:

Yeah I've heard about some cases.
Hence banning. Other platforms are doing it. Roblox is seriously strict and enforce it quickly.

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From what I have seen and experienced there is major support from parents, Shrinks, etc for the ban but doubt there will be anything that's really effective.

Still gives parents another reason to try and enforce bans but know from many conversations its a big issue getting teens offline lots of blazing arguments.

IFocus said:

From what I have seen and experienced there is major support from parents, Shrinks, etc for the ban but doubt there will be anything that's really effective.

Still gives parents another reason to try and enforce bans but know from many conversations its a big issue getting teens offline lots of blazing arguments.

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I get it, why some would support this.

But, where is the parenting? Why do parents need an authoritarian government to do their parenting for them? Why cannot parents do the parenting?

Why can't parents curate a a safe social media environment which is beneficial, and not harmful to their children.

As I understand it, there are means whereby parents can create a firewall between their children and harmful content... Indeed, I have friends who do exactly that, without invoking the nefarious goals of the state as a backdoor to overall censorship.

As someone said above, why can't the government regulate bullying rather that al the negatives involved in an overall ban, as discussed above.

John the dots, Komrades.

wayneL said:

I get it, why some would support this.

But, where is the parenting? Why do parents need an authoritarian government to do their parenting for them? Why cannot parents do the parenting?

Why can't parents curate a a safe social media environment which is beneficial, and not harmful to their children.

As I understand it, there are means whereby parents can create a firewall between their children and harmful content... Indeed, I have friends who do exactly that, without invoking the nefarious goals of the state as a backdoor to overall censorship.

As someone said above, why can't the government regulate bullying rather that al the negatives involved in an overall ban, as discussed above.

John the dots, Komrades.

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@wayneL I am of the opinion that the tail of the dog (children) is doing the waging and the parents just look on, as if it is just too hard to lay down some ground rules.

farmerge said:

@wayneL I am of the opinion that the tail of the dog (children) is doing the waging and the parents just look on, as if it is just too hard to lay down some ground rules.

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Yeah agree

wayneL said:

As I understand it, there are means whereby parents can create a firewall between their children and harmful content... Indeed, I have friends who do exactly that, without invoking the nefarious goals of the state as a backdoor to overall censorship.

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Probably not all that many parents are tech savvy enough to be able to do this.

However an outright ban seems hard to enforce, it seems a sledgehammer tactic that affects everyone for the sake of a few.

But it's probably worth a trial to see how it goes, if it doesn't work then think of something else.

SirRumpole said:

But it's probably worth a trial to see how it goes, if it doesn't work then think of something else.

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I'm of the view it won't work and kids will find a way around it. The draconian way is for them not to be allowed to have phones or laptops and only use those those under parental supervision. Yeah, that'll fly. As for parents there is a wide spectrum. Some are good, some should be prevented from breeding.

As I've said, I don't know the solution.

Bellcose said:

I'm of the view it won't work and kids will find a way around it. The draconian way is for them not to be allowed to have phones or laptops and only use those those under parental supervision. Yeah, that'll fly. As for parents there is a wide spectrum. Some are good, some should be prevented from breeding.

As I've said, I don't know the solution.

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Maybe kids only get dumb phones, no internet, sms and calls only, have a PC at home for schoolwork

That way they can identify where the bullying is coming from and address it.

The anonymity of tiktok and such like means people can say whatever they like and not be traced