Banning social media for under 16s

I saw today that France are fast tracking a social media ban for under 15s, it does look as though it’s going to be widespread. I haven’t seen this reported in the UK press, but it may have been.
www.cnn.com/2026/01/25/europe/macron-france-under-15-social-media-ban-intl

Additionally, screen addiction is real amongst all age groups. Makes no sense for any parent give even more opportunity to start their kids being glued to screens even earlier.

I think comparing the social media usage/activities of teens to much, much older adults scrolling news is textbook apples vs oranges.

The positives don’t outweigh the negative risks of online exposure for young minds. The overall deterioration of mental health and self-esteem in youth is so much worse than we have ever seen. A 14 year old mind is not developed enough to be impervious to influence. I tend to refrain from being overly critical of parents today, but allowing young kids to have a strong online presence is a failure of the younger generation of parents. Increases in bullying, fear of missing out, incel culture, etc of social media are documented to be major factors in the decline of both self-esteem and attention spans. Not to mention the lack of social skills plaguing the youth due the majority of their interactions being behind screens. The worst part is the unfettered access by predators to children. There is no shortage of incidents of adults using socials to lure children into harmful situations via catfishing etc. 16 is a much more appropriate age for youth to have their own social media access. It’s unfortunate that parents are failing the children so badly that governments have to step in and ponder bans at all. As I said, the owners of the social media platforms don’t allow their young children to have access to social media. Why would anyone ignore that?

I scroll my phone when travelling so guilty as charged.
I keep up with Duolingo, emails, gransnet, WhatsApp, texts.
I seldom look at Facebook or similar.

Why is it any different from reading newspapers or magazines?

My 13 yr old DGS is indignant that his screen watching may be controlled by adults other than his parents.
He is a bright and discerning, creative boy who learns such a lot from social media.

Casdon

Would it be feasible to phase in a ban by age, so ban under 11s now for example, which would mean that in five years you could implement it, on the basis that they won’t have got used to using social media in the first place? Just a thought.

Good idea 👍🏻

Would it be feasible to phase in a ban by age, so ban under 11s now for example, which would mean that in five years you could implement it, on the basis that they won’t have got used to using social media in the first place? Just a thought.

I tend to agree with your son in law Doodledog once something is taken away it becomes twice as attractive and a challenge for kids to find a way around it I m sure

It’s early days but I m not sure Australia is as wonderful as
they d like us to believe
Look how under 18 s are banned from a lot of events but how many manage to attend Didn’t we often get in dances or cinemas when we were under age I know underaged kids would use older kids passes to flash to get into places
A challenge it will become

I don't know what to think. I suppose it depends on how the ban will be implemented. If banning children means that adults are monitored when online, I wouldn't be happy with that, but of course I want to see children protected from predators.

My SIL works in computing, and he thinks that a ban will push more young people onto the dark web, where they will be at higher risk. I know little about that, but he was convincing when he spoke about it. I also feel that if a child is online illegally it might deter them from seeking help if things go wrong.

I'm in two minds about this as well. Banning something immediately makes it more attractive and gives rise to people finding a way round it. Social media platforms have to police their sites more effectively, parents and guardians need to be proactive in educating their children. Maybe not such a stringent method of protecting children. I'm not tech aware enough to suggest an alternative. I don't know truthfully how I would have dealt with this if it was a problem when my children and grandchildren were young.

Mark Zuckerberg and most of the tech titans have openly stated they don’t or won’t allow their young children to use social media. When someone is essentially pushing a product on your children that they know is harmful to their own children, what rational person ignores this?

The dangers of social media to the mental health of self-esteem of youngsters is well documented. Relying on those who run social media companies to protect our children from its dangers is like assuming a drug dealer will ensure their illicit product won’t somehow result in an overdose. They don’t care about the well-being of the youth on social media any more than an illicit drug seller cares about the children they sell to.

Australia social media ban: Firms have come 'kicking and screaming', regulator says - BBC News share.google/9OVlJA5Iz4UdZPE3b

If you read the Australian news or listen to a few podcasts, opinion is that it is quite favourable among many young people interviewed and their parents.
Of course some parents are angry and assisting their young and many young people have set up false accounts.
However all credit to the Australians for trying it out. There are forcing the social media platforms to take some responsibility and apparently a number of countries are watching with interest.
Of course, as ever, you can't implicitly trust any reporting these days but then what can you trust? It used to be the press and social media is part of the demise of honesty in our times.

Well my predictions wasn't entirely accurate, I said a few months ago that all countries will have banned under 16s on social media within a decade. It was quicker than I thought.

Social media is not where people find out about the world online - not anything that matters. That young people are growing up thinking this way is so very wrong.

I wonder just how many young people want to be on the peer-pressured bandwagon of spending hours a day scrolling through rubbish on TikTok etc. They need permission to get off and do something meaningful. Legislation will give them that permission.

Of course, it would help if adults could set an example. I seem to be the only person on the bus, train, in a cafe, waiting room etc reading a book and not scrolling a phone.

Ditto Smileless 👍

I have mixed views too TBH because unfortunately that horse has already bolted and was made even worse when smart 'phones were allowed into schools.

It's too easy to circumvent age restrictions and online sites just seem to be unwilling/unable to make this impossible as well as being unwilling/unable to properly police what's out there.

It also concerns me that legislation is seen to be the only way forward; what happened to parenting?

I think when the internet first became available we missed the chance to put boundaries in place.
It has its place, brilliant technology, however it is now controlled by money grabbers who have little concerns for peoples mental health, especially children.
Im not sure imposing a ban on social media for under 16s would work now as my GS informs me it is easy to get around .