Yes, children under 16 should be banned from social media. Younger teenagers and children may not be developmentally prepared for the risks of social media. Research has suggested that heavy social media use can contribute to anxiety, depression, cyberbullying, and unrealistic comparisons, especially among younger users. By shifting the age banned for social media to he under 16, we are essentially protecting young people by prefrnting exposure to these harms on social media platforms.

But your and I know children these days may not be able to regulate their screen time by themselves, so only through imposing of a ban will we be able to protect these children from addiction. Regulation takes time, by banning, children will be exposed to less screen time, eventually, they will be able to acclimatise and mitigation of addiction will thus be achieved. Also, banning children under 16 from social media isn’t just to prevent or say ameliorate addiction, rather, we are also making a concrete step to minimise the harms children face from social media. The pervasiveness of social media is one of the driving factors for cyber bullying and body shamming. The Cyberbullying Research Center recorded lifetime cyberbullying victimization rates for middle and high school students at 58%, with 33% targeted in the 30 days prior to their survey. The Pew Research Center highlights offensive name-calling (32%) and rumor-spreading (22%) as the most frequent occurrences for US teens. Reports indicate that 42% of teens experience harassment on Instagram and roughly 30% on TikTok, largely through direct messages and comment sections. Are these statistics not a red flag to you, are these cases of online bullying and body shaming not serious enough for us to take action? I acknowledge that banning of social media platforms may be too extreme a stand, but if we don’t do so, these innocent teenagers will only be ensured into the very insidious traps laid by social media, and by then, it may be too late. I believe a little sacrifice of teenagers freedom, may go a long way to protect them in the long run. Also u mentioned that children may end up using illegal websites or overcoming the firewall of the ban, i know this is possible. This is indeed a flaw of banning of social media platforms, but I believe a tougher approach is impending. Banning of social media in some countries already require ID verification, and children are already finding it harder to bypass the ban, this is seen in countries like Australia.

You have not gotten the gist of this argument. The key idea is this, the ban is for children because they still have a developing mind, their brains are still developing, and they should not be exposed to that much of harm at this development stage, or else this harm will be detrimental to them in the long term. More so, the harm the children experience will be much large scaled than that of what adults will experience. Adults have a matured mind, they are conscious and aware of their surroundings. They know how to discern the truth from the falsehood. However, children are not very well equipped with such a skill yet, at their very tender age. Hence, should the authorities not step in to ameliforate this pressing issue at hand, before it spirals out of control? Banning of the children under 16 will be more urgent that that of banning social media for everyone. Education and better platform will not come into handy, unless children are willing to learn how to be discipline. Despite education, there may still be a handful of children, who are very unfortunately, unwilling to listen or do as they are instructed. It is often a few black sheep that make education not as effective. Rather so, we should use a full proof method that cannot be halted by a few black sheep, that is to ban social media usage for those under 16. Better regulation, better control, better preventive method.