OPINION: Why a Social Media ban for Under-16s isn't the win we think it is
Social media has changed dramatically over the past few years. As politicians push for tougher restrictions on young users, the debate should focus less on banning platforms and more on fixing them.
I grew up with limited features on social media. Not because they had restrictions, because they weren’t invented.
As social media has become more popular and technology has advanced, so has the features we use every day on our phones.
Short form content has taken over; Instagram is now no longer a photo sharing app. In fact, if you just share photos your account doesn’t get anywhere near as much reach as those who post reels. And why? Because tech companies want to keep you on their app, they want to keep you addicted and the best way to do that, is to keep you entertained by showing you hours worth of short form content with just a simple swipe or infinite scroll.
Keir Starmer has said he wants the social media ban to “give children back their childhoods”.
Playing sports, getting exercise outside, reading, doing homework and face to face interactions with friends are all fundamental to a childs development and we need to do more to encourage this. I don’t think banning social media will instantly mean children will go and play outside - it would require some encouragement. So why can’t we give this same encouragement and teach children to avoid the distraction of social media, rather than taking it away?
Sometimes I sit and think that my generation was the last one that actually liked to play outside. I remember spending my summer evenings after school playing with my friends either on the street or at the local park. We had our phones in case anything went wrong - and off we went until it got dark.
This is all well and good, until it hits winter, gets dark at 4pm and is constantly raining.
I remember when I downloaded my first social media platform. It was Instagram and the sole purpose of that was for me to talk to my friends and share pictures on a safe space. I wasn’t thinking about public engagement or reach, I was thinking “this is a nice photo - let me share that!”
Life was simple and the app was simple.
I remember when I first got my Xbox. Again, the sole purpose was to play games and enjoy them with my friends. Long before servers, and long before it was easy to contact strangers online.
I’m not saying social media and gaming should be the only hobbies for children under 16, there is so much more they could be doing. But that also doesn’t mean that social media and online interaction with friends shouldn’t exist at all.
If used in the right way, social media can be a good thing for children. But like anything else, where there is a good thing, there will always be exploits.
But like the Prime Minister said, just because some will get around it, that’s not a good enough reason not to be a ban.
So why, just because some people will get around it, do we need a ban on social media?
If we can have this good tool, where is the harm in instructing these big tech companies to make their platforms appropriate for children?
Now I’m not saying that social media is purely a good place - it isn’t. I do think there should be restrictions in place. Strangers should not be able to contact children, the same way children should not be able to contact strangers. There should be limits to what can be posted online. Nobody, especially children should be seeing inappropriate content online, and that should be regulated. If you want to see it, there are places for that and are restricted under the Online Safety Act, but it should not be shown in the algorithms.
We should also be seeing the end of the infinite scroll feature. It isn’t necessary and purely a tool to keep us hooked. This is not what social media should be about, but what it has become because companies are following trends and monitoring peoples behaviour on their platforms.
If 16 year olds are still going to be exposed to this, are we really fixing the problem?
But there is a difference between implementing restrictions, and imposing a ban.
This is about harnessing what we have. It’s about protecting these safe spaces that can be created online. It’s about keeping a sense of community.
When I was 14, I started to post my photography work on Instagram. It was right in the middle of Covid-19 and I was looking for things to do to keep me entertained and communicating with people that wasn’t just my household.
By posting my work, I found myself in a community of likeminded photographers who I was able to talk to about our passions and ideas for shoots we had. I never met these people, but they were there in a time where we all needed somebody to speak to.
If there was a ban on social media, I would not have had this community and it would have made my time in lockdown extremely lonelier.
Platforms such as WhatsApp and something called Signal (which I must admit, I didn’t know this app existed until yesterday) are not under the ban, so it still gives children that chance to communicate. However some communities can’t be built on platforms like this and it would make it much harder.
Gaming services are also taking a hit and while we don’t know what that will look like yet, I can only hope it brings some authenticity back to console gaming, the same we had when I first got my Xbox.
Of course people are going to have different opinions on this. This is just my opinion and one which you may not share - and that’s okay. With new regulations like this, it’s important we all have our say, whether it’s going to affect us or not, so we can give the new generation the best possible chances.
Because the reality is: social media and technology are ever changing and they are not going away any time soon. We need to learn about these platforms, about peoples behaviour on them and then use this data for good, not shut children out the first chance we get. Children are curious, and we should be opening them up to things like social media and technology. It’s better to know what children are doing on these platforms, rather than allowing them to sneak onto them, and find out themselves the kind of content they could be exposed to without intervention from tech companies.
If these platforms are run right, a lot of parents worries will be accounted for. Let’s hand some accountability back to the tech companies and allow them to make changes to their platforms.
We need to reinvent social media to be a platform for good, because it can be, and not let big tech bosses get away with not actioning things that are completely in their control.
Because let’s be honest, children aren’t hiding from social media forever.