Ban on Social Media for Under 18s

Stephen_Maturin

Would you support a ban on the use of public social media e.g. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat etc for people under the age of 18?

Why/why not?

For my part I see very little positives to allowing children use these platforms.

They destroy attention spans, promote unhealthy body images and trends, provide a platform for grooming and bullying, make children obsess over their “worth” as measured by numbers of friends, followers likes etc. Promote a superficial and shallow view of life, destroy individuality and self expression in favour of crushing conformity etc etc

As far as I can see the negatives far outweigh the positives. Obviously it’s 2022 and children are going to need some kind of access to messaging/social media hence I would be okay with them using instant messaging services such as WhatsApp. You might say bullying etc can still happen on WhatsApp. While this is true, at least it isn’t a public forum and there are also no “likes”, friend/follower numbers to be teased over and most importantly no damaging vacuous influencers.

How would this be policed? The exact same way online gambling is policed. If you wish to open a ladbrokes/paddy power/whathaveyou account you must submit your drivers license/passport along with a verification photo of your face. Simple enough.

Would such a thing ever be possible?

rob316

Absolutely. Its thrash, society would be better off without it.

c.p.w.g.w

In relation to attention spans, any screen time does that. Not only social media

ancapailldorcha

Never going to happen. These companies are bigger than some countries now. I see a lot of merit to the idea but it's pure fantasy. The cancer has metastasised at this point.

Stephen_Maturin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578314#Comment_119578314

True enough.

But the likes of TikTok, Instagram reels etc where the child is scrolling through hundreds of 9 second videos at a time is that on steroids

Jequ0n

I absolutely hate these calls for anything controversial to be banned. Personal accountability doesn’t seem to exist any more.

Pauliedragon

How would it be implemented? A passport photo could be an older sibling/ friend etc. We can't even stop under 18's drinking and smoking under our noses let alone put in place restricictions on companys who as mentioned are a world onto themselves right now and can be acccessed anywhere.

Gatling

The horse has long bolted ,

There is no real way of bringing in a ban ,it's like banning smart devices for under 18s

BagofWeed

The Irish solution always seems to be to ban stuff. Fairly laughable, just sweep it under the carpet like it doesn't exist ! BTW Social media is generally just shite anyway IMO.

Stephen_Maturin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578438#Comment_119578438

I would agree generally but you can hardly expect a 10 year old to have personal accountability for themselves

eggy81

Crushing conformity?? Have you seen the get up of some of the kids going around these days. I don’t think kids have ever been more individual and non conformist. Would lgbt trans movements and all of that freedom of thought and expression ever have come about without social media? Has its negatives alright but really I think parental and personal responsibility is what should be the controlling influence as well as the companies themselves being better at banning and removing bully’s and predatory elements using the platforms.

Stephen_Maturin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578448#Comment_119578448

The account would be linked to the identification document provided. If sibling/overage friend has their own account already underage friend/sibling can’t use already provided documents for their account

Sam Quentin

Absolutely.. we(as adults) have no idea what the kids are getting up to. We can kid ourselves all we like and keep burying our heads in the 'sand'. Hoping and wishing that when they are constantly on their phones, that it is for the better and that our kids are being educated in a good respectful way.. but this is not the case.. the non functioning and laziness it brings to children is absolutely shocking.

Stephen_Maturin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578500#Comment_119578500

Yes they’re a lot more conformist than prior generations - you see sfa goths and other nonconformist subcultures amongst the youth of today, it’s a noted phenomenon.

LGBT and trans liberation movements were not promulgated by children - social media was helpful in spreading these movements but it was nothing specific to childrens social media? Children can’t even vote ffs

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578498#Comment_119578498

Its the parents/ guardians job to set up boundaries.

EOQRTL

It's too late unfortunately. The genie is out of the bottle.

Social media is used as a tool by governments to control events and as we seen recently in the US to get Biden over the line in the election. There is no way governments will relinquish that power now especially on young minds/future voters.

sasco

Way too late for this, at least 5 years too late and lockdowns just pushed more kids to these platforms as they were a means of remaining in contact and engaging/gaming with friends.

Montage of Feck

Ban TikTok anyway, the Chinese have been using social manipulation tech for some time now and so should not be trusted.

3d4life

"Would you support a ban on the use of public social media e.g. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat etc for people under the age of 18?"

Might be better to ban over 18's

eggy81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578551#Comment_119578551

Im probably thinking in terms of late teens here as opposed to children. Was focused on the under 18 part of the thread title. My kid won’t even have a phone until he turns 15 and won’t be on any open social media until at least that time. I’d support banning kids under 16 tbh.

Glaceon

This is a big reason why I couldn't have kids. I'd be inclined to not allow them on social media at all. So yes, I would support such a ban.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058262165/ban-on-social-media-for-under-18s

The problem with your “simple enough” solution is that it relies on evil empire social media companies to keep very important documents secure and not to misuse them.

j2

There's an issue when you have multi billion dollar companies employing every resource at their disposal to get kids (and adults) hooked on social media. They know what, and more importantly how, people think and use that knowledge to keep them addicted their pestilential websites. There doesn't seem to be anything that can be done about it other than the usual vague bleating about "mental health" etc. these companies have woven themselves so deeply into the day to day life of so many people while not seeming to care much about their wellbeing, rather they are concerned that you come back again and again. I'd like them restricted at a structural level, reduce the number of features these websites can actually display for people under a certain age, but that ain't happening. Hopefully they'll just keep getting more gross and superficial that people realise they suck and stop using them.

osarusan

Impossible to enforce.

It needs to be adressed at home and in school, as part of a focus on safe and judicious use of devices and internet.

Sunny Dayz

Issues like those in the opening post were around before mainstream social media was. You had magazines, tv, music, word of mouth (gossip). There was still plenty of bullying and nothing done about it, issues with body image and diet culture and comparison with other people and their lives and popularity.

Banning social media for under 18s makes it more desirable, brings it underground where there is less monitoring or regulation. Consumption of alcohol and cigarettes is already banned for under 18 - how many of us here had our first drink or smoke before 18?

bladespin

No, by all means limit time on SM etc but when you start to ban stuff it conjures images of book burnings which is a far more creeping evil in the world.

NiceFella

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578554#Comment_119578554

That's not realistic though, because irresponsible parents who give in to their kids every desire put pressure on all parents by extension. First it's a handful of kids that have it, then the next parent rolls over until your kid is the only one in class who doesn't have it.

It's very difficult to be a responsible parent without making your child the odd one out which can impact a child's mental health.

Sometimes banning is worth while. It would be difficult to achieve.

thegame983

When it comes to tech your kids will always be able to outsmart you.

Whilst I'm not in favor of banning in general if social media disappeared over night the world would be a better place.

Strumms

Would it be legal ? Probably not.

would it be practical to restrict ? No.

parents just need to parent… but as we know that’s not exactly in fashion these days…too much effort.

NiceFella

Social media is a drug at this stage. Carefully curated to make sure you stay on it and ignore your own life.

It's not fit for anyone to be honest, not in it's present anyway. The truth is if it vanished tomorrow I'd saw the majority would be happier without it.

The thing is we cannot expect our kids to not want to go on it if we are on it ourselves.

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578927#Comment_119578927

The whole idea isn’t implementable anyway because both children and adults would actively circumvent any ban.

As for enforcing/ giving in/ kids being singled out…tough, it’s part of growing up.

Brussels Sprout

Ban Facebook for the over 60s while you're at it.

Silentcorner

Imagine the amount of energy we'd save if we removed social media and broke our addictions to our phones!!

We'd see a fairly immediate improvement in mental health I'd imagine!

NiceFella

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578987#Comment_119578987

Its not that parents would be the ones to circumvent a ban as this would more than likely be a pretty popular ban. Look at other commenters calling social media trash. As other above have said, people would be in favour (that's the easy part). However the hard part would be going up against multi billion dollar companies along with political corruption so getting a ban would be a tall ask.

Your second point is pure nonsense. So you'd continue with your "responsibility" even in the knowledge your child was being actively bullied over it? Do you have kids?

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579044#Comment_119579044

You mentioned irresponsible parents who make it difficult for other ones to uphold any boundaries with their own kids. By this logic the same irresponsible parents would circumvent the ban to appease their offspring. The whole idea isn’t enforceable.

joseywhales

Same as every other period, the best you can do is model for your children. If you don't consume trash, they are less likely to. Obviously they will be curious and might do it anyway, influenced by friends but at least they will see that their family does not value that kind of thing. What else can you do really? They are autonomous and have to figure things out for themselves. You could ban sites on you wifi firewall but you won't control their phone network and there are ways to circumvent with VPN or other proxies. By trying to ban something you make it more exciting also.

NiceFella

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579143#Comment_119579143

We might have very different views on how people generally think, but imo alot of bad/irresponsible parenting is just out of pure laziness. It's why bad parents "give in", because they don't want to deal with their childs complaints. If the matter was taken out of their hands completely by a ban it would take away responsibility. Parents like that aren't going to turn stones so their child can be on social media! And as well many of them know it's plain bad for their kids but see that there is very little they can do.

The responsible parent is left between a rock and hard place we're it becomes the lesser of two evils in choice. Allow them on social media like everyone else's child or allow them to feel isolated. Both are undesirable tbh but I'd feel awful if it isolated my child.

Ham_Sandwich

sure how would you ban things ridiculous thing to say let kids have something ffs

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058262165/ban-on-social-media-for-under-18s

So you want to give these corporates like TikTok access to you/your kids personal documents like passports etc. I can that going very well indeed.

kevthegaff

Listening to newstalk breakfast and they couldn't figure out what to do. Just ban mobile phones for under 16s, cost for parents for phone and phone plan. Simple as that but people say what can we do??

DoctorEdgeWild

In order for the social media companies to 'verify' your ID is authentic, they would have to have access to a list of all Passport holders in order to verify against.

This would be impossible. And crazy. And just generally a bad idea.

rob316

I didn't think for a second it was implementable or possible but I think most would be in agreement. Its just advertising, ridiculous levels of advertising you are exposed to, whether it is through direct ads or "influencers". In its original form facebook was great albeit annoying but the companies quickly realized ya can't make billions without ads.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578498#Comment_119578498

The age cut off here is 13.

People used to complain books were ruining the youth too. And dungeons and dragons. And video games. And Roblox. Now this.

As to ID verification -dead on arrival. How many people right now, of age, would give their ID to a site like boards? And would boards really want the expense and risks associated of managing that privileged data

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579707#Comment_119579707

They could take a credit card payment and remove the vast majority of kids.

Arguing something is hard so we shouldn't bother seems a little lightweight.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579749#Comment_119579749

People already don’t do that for their porn. As someone else said this horse has bolted

DoctorEdgeWild

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579749#Comment_119579749

Why would they, a private business who wants to make money, deliberately make their service more difficult to access to their customers? They have an age limit, I would suggest that those under 13 maybe shouldn't be accessing the internet without parental supervision? If that proves hard for parents to do, refer to your last sentence above (which I agree with).

El Gato De Negocios

Two words.

Parental

Control

Without that anything else is futile.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119580024#Comment_119580024

The argument was it wasn't technically possible.

Now its that it will hit profits. Guess we have to decide which is more important.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119580033#Comment_119580033

It's not possible for parents to control all of this. The infrastructure hasn't got robust parental controls. Often you need to access this infrastructure for education, sports and similar activities.

DoctorEdgeWild

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119580179#Comment_119580179

The question remains - Why would the social media companies want to limit their success? They have already set an age limit, the next bit is up to parents surely?

freshpopcorn

I grew up with social media. Well from about 12ish we had Bebo and then people moved onto Facebook.

I know it's developed and changed a lot since then.(I'm nearly 30).

However I did see some people trying to ban social media from there kids lives.

In my experience those were the people who were meeting strange men in their thirties they met on Facebook once they turned 18 at college.