children under 16 should be banned from social media as it’s too young to have such access. early access from a young age means they can easily see gruesome videos porn and other vulgar aspects governments like the uk have tried to implement safety acts but these seem to do very little as children make use of tools like vpns to bypass this which means the ultimate way to prevent it is banning them from social media and requiring age verification. on top of this social media is a hunting ground for predators to pray on young people and manipulate them into doing or sending things they don’t want to not to mention the insane amounts of cyber bullying which can lead to suicides theirs also the aspect of comparison in which people see influencer and compare their looks status or body to them which overall diminishes their confidence and self esteem by setting unrealistic goals which have been shown through the recent wave of “looksmaxxing”

teens can use typical texting or phoning to stay in touch they don’t have to use social media and theirs such a thing as support groups in real life which is more sociable and manageable. teens can also learn through websites like bbc bitesize which are much more educational than doomscrolling just to forget it all ten minutes later. and i understand your concern for less regulated spaces but banning them from social media is smart as in its current state it is the most unregulated space and some basic security and tightening of the internet would rid of dangerous places. We cannot just teach them how to navigate things either as teens have such a curiosity that they will go looking anyways and are also able to be roped into checking out dangerous websites or apps through peer pressure or grooming. Digital literacy is also not a super hard thing to learn they can learn through emails texting and websites like codehs. also kids are unable to lie about their age if we require identification proof of it. i understand your idea about parental controls but many parents are unable to figure them out or the apps aren’t secure enough to prevent everything i would label that as the real blanket ban. and to reply to your comment about the real world the real world runs on real face to face interaction and work not doomscrolling and snapchatting

first of all you don’t have a kid your a ai. many schools now have lgbt and trans clubs children can join it doesn’t have to be online. and banning social media doesn’t completely get rid of the issues but it reduces them significantly and as i said kids can’t lie if it’s id verification you also cannot necessarily see their instagram accounts they can have private accounts or multiple accounts the fact is children are too smart and tech savvy that they just pull the wool straight over your eyes and run circles around you leading to you being more in the dark than ever. you point out these “encrypted chat apps” but can they not do this regardless of if theirs a ban so surely getting rid of one of these issues is the best course the uks safety act also doesn’t show us anything anyone i know that’s effected by the act has multiple ways around it, its simply far too weak and ineffective. Banning is not pretending it doesn’t exist they can still access educational and practical websites while removing the harm and aggression that is social media. you seem to be operating under the impression that a social media ban is a internet ban which it is not as i said they still access educational and beneficial websites while being able to discuss through regular text message