Social media ban – is it working?
Posted by: RazorFish
It's been nine months since Australia became the first country in the world to ban under-16s from social media. Since then, eSafety has found that more than eight in ten under-16s are still using it, with most online just as often as they were before the ban came in last December.
Some say that proves the ban was never going to work, and that education and holding the platforms to account would have been the better path. Others say it's early days, the platforms aren't trying hard enough on age verification, and the message it sends to families still matters.
What do you think - has the ban made any real difference in your household, or for families you know? Is it worth persisting with, or is there a better way to keep young people safe online?
Some say that proves the ban was never going to work, and that education and holding the platforms to account would have been the better path. Others say it's early days, the platforms aren't trying hard enough on age verification, and the message it sends to families still matters.
What do you think - has the ban made any real difference in your household, or for families you know? Is it worth persisting with, or is there a better way to keep young people safe online?
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Comments 5
site77
Drastic laws serve as an excellent "reality check" for society and technology companies. However, keeping young people truly safe requires going beyond the "block" button; it demands redesigning the way the internet is built for them
dvdlcs
I doubt it.
Something that interested me at the time was that the ban only seemed to apply to English-speaking sites, Facebook etc.
Having spoken to Asian colleagues about this, even if their children can't be bothered circumventing the ban on the English-speaking sites, they can still spend their time on the non-English, usually Chinese, social media sites.
lucylavender
I don’t think it is working. I still many teenagers on their phones and toddlers being handed phone by their parents as they go round the shops. Unfortunately parents use these devices as a shut them up tool.
abarnes
I don't have a family to protect, so it's had no impact on me. If it saves one child from exposure to bullying, predators, cat fishers, and anything else that may lead them to think suicide is the answer, then the answer to 'is it worth persisting' is self-evident. Yes, it's worth persisting.
Sadly, the 85% of under 16s that are circumventing the law are their own worst enemy. The intent of the legislation is failing because those affected are doing their own workarounds, not that they're particularly hard to work around. A birthdate, selfie photo, or a parental approval checkbox as proof of age are a joke. At least I think it's funny. A real, effective, and long-term solution would need to be seriously workshopped in consultation with the under-16s.
As I said earlier by ignoring the law, they are their own worst enemy, how do you make someone stop speeding? I don't know... do we build it into their school curriculum? I just don't know...
pauline50
I think its like everything that gets banned i dont think it has made a difference kids will find other ways to use social media if they are determined.
Maybe it's up to the parents to teach there kids the dangers .Glad it wasn't around in the 80s we just had fun without it . Seems technology can be used for good or bad these days