Rishi Sunak considers curbing social media use for under-16s

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/14/rishi-sunak-considers-curbing-social-media-use-under-16s

Rishi Sunak is considering banning Social Media for under 16s (a range of sources are saying this).

All I’m saying is what happened to parents being parents? They ought to be the ones keeping an eye on what their children are doing online, not the state (as in the burden should mainly fall on the parents as opposed to the state).

This policy doesn’t affect me regardless but I doubt that this policy will actually stop under 16’s from using social media (as much as I’d like to see fewer younger teens and tweens on social media).

Call me a conspiracy theorist but it feels like the UK is becoming increasingly authoritarian with these kinds of policies.

That being said there probably does need to be more done to hold social media platforms and online forums accountable for their actions, moderation, privacy and safety of its users etc.

What do people think? Will this policy be successful or will it be “doomed to fail” as some people like to say.

Reply 1

SHallowvale

The party of small government once again demonstrates that they love to control our lives.

Reply 2

Smack

The inner libertarian in me gets very uneasy when I hear about government "curbs" on the things people can do in their private lives, but it's also clear that social media is really quite harmful to young people, particularly girls. Ideally the parents would be modulating their children's social media usage, but I fear a lot of the younger ones may have somewhat of an addiction to it themselves, and older ones who aren't significant users themselves may not understand how it affects children and young people. I can't help but concede that there may be a role for government here, though I don't think an outright ban would be effective.