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498

UK: Under-16s to be banned from social media, Starmer announces (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 2 days ago by Tarambor@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

287 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Under-16s will be banned from using social media, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced.

Starmer says social media is making children unhappy, making it easier for bullies to abuse children, and is "designed to be addictive". A ban would give children more time, security, and more freedom to grow up - as well as more opportunities, he adds.

"That is all any parent wants. They want to know that Britain will be better for their children, that they will get a fair chance," the PM says in a speech in Downing Street.

Starmer adds that the government is "not prepared to compromise" on the safety and happiness of children - and that includes in the regulation and enforcement of this ban. He says the government has listened to and learned from countries like Australia, where a similar ban has already been introduced.

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[–] bumbling_bee@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If kids want to be on social media badly enough, they will find a way regardless of approval and permission from their parents. They get banned from Meta and TikTok, they just band together and move to an app not on the list. I agree that people need to know if something is harmful. All the effort and money going into a ban, would've been better spent on media literacy and education on how algorithms work, and the addictive nature of some platforms. This is the reason why none of my kids are interested in most social media. Because they know how awful it is. YouTube is a bit more grey, IMO. I filter out shorts for my kids, but they've learned a lot of stuff over the years. Yet Roblox isn't banned? That should've been top of the list. Identity verification is a privacy and security nightmare. People should not be required to provide their identity to participate in discussions, or even worse, use their own device.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 2 points 23 hours ago

If we actually cared about society in general, we would behave differently. This is a result of the fuck-you-get-mine mentality that thrives in America. There are plenty of people here that don't care about their neighbors, at all.

You only see outrage come from people affected firsthand, because everyone else thinks they are too smart/rich/successful to possibly fall victim to the same systems as the stupid/poor/lazy people.

You bring up a great point about focusing on youtube and letting roblox slide right by. Plenty of parents made that mistake, but the truth is that almost no online platform is safe for children to meet strangers in.

I'm not sure what the best way to restrict access to adults only is though, but it does seem the current attempt is the best we've come up with so far. Its incredibly invasive, and I simply won't use products that require age verification, so I'm hoping this leads to a better solution. Perhaps another country will figure out an idea and we can copy it.