Adults around the world have spent the last year desperately trying to get children to put down their phones. Concerns about kids’ screen time aren’t new (you could argue that they are Almost a century old), but in recent months, high-profile experts Concerns have been raised that social media use among young people is not just a boring pastime but a real public health crisis.
Instead of relying on parents to limit kids’ phone time (which many parents can attest to, sometimes Easier said than done), a growing number of lawmakers are taking matters into their own hands by passing laws that seek to keep children off social media altogether.
Australia made headlines late last year With laws banning children under 16 from social platforms. The law would require platforms like TikTok and Instagram to take “reasonable steps” to verify that their users are 16 or older or face a $32 million fine (it’s not yet clear which platforms will be subject to the law, but YouTube and WhatsApp are excluded). can, According to the New York Times)
Meanwhile, A Florida law Set to take effect this month, the platforms will have to verify that their users are over 14 and that 14- and 15-year-olds have parental consent. Act, which Does not mention specific social media sitesChallenged in court.
Similar restrictions are in place or under consideration Utah, Texasand elsewhere. They join some voluntary efforts to limit children’s use of the platform, such as Instagram teen accounts, as well as increasingly widespread school smartphone bans.
The Australian law was inspired, at least in part, by psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book 2024 Anxious Generation: How the Great Remodeling of Childhood is Creating an Epidemic of Mental Illness, which Argues that smartphones and social media Growth is behind Report depression and anxiety Among young people in the last 10 years. There’s no conclusive research linking social media to this increase, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that scrolling on phones makes kids (and adults) feel bad, and smartphone critics warn — including US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who last year called Warning labels on social media platforms — reached the ears of lawmakers.
“Social media has a social responsibility,” Australian Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said Told the country’s parliament Last year “so we’re making big changes to hold platforms for user security.”
It’s not at all clear whether Australia’s law, which gave social media companies like Meta and X a year to set the age limit, or other social media bans developing around the world will actually work.
Experts say there are better ways to reduce some of the potential dangers of social media than imposing age-based restrictions. These methods include reporting requirements and restrictions on tracking to improve the online experience for everyone, not just kids. “We should all get less algorithmically driven content,” says Devorah Heitner, author of the book Growing up in the crowd: Coming of age in a digital worldtold me.
Social media bans can be impossible to enforce
Every law banning children from social media must reckon with one fundamental problem: it’s notoriously difficult to tell how old someone is on the Internet. One approach is to show a government-issued ID every time they visit a website, but this is a “serious trade-off in terms of privacy and surveillance,” said Melbourne University senior lecturer Shanan Cohney. Those who study the intersection of technology and law. Forcing people to show an official ID to access social media platforms would destroy online anonymity for adults as well as children and make it easier for companies, hackers and themselves. Govt Spying on people.
Because of this concern, researchers are working on ways to determine people’s ages without asking for ID by analyzing their faces, hand gestures or other features. But these technologies aren’t ready for widespread use, Cohney said. Some facial age matching algorithms, for example, have been shown to be less accurate for darker-skinned faces.
Many studies also ignore the fact that teenagers can try to get around any age-verification system: “A 14-year-old accessing social media is trying to put on makeup and try to match their hand gestures. As old as possible to defeat the technology,” Cohney said.
If kids can easily skirt the verification system, experts say that could leave parents with a false sense of security and companies with little incentive to secure their platforms because they can simply claim that kids aren’t using them.
“Age restrictions can actually let companies off the hook in some ways,” Heitner said.
Social media can have benefits for children
Enforcement issues are only part of the ban’s problem, some experts (and kids) say. Even if they work as intended, the laws will distance young people not only from negative social media experiences, but from positive ones as well. For example, social media platforms can help LGBTQ+ youth Connect with people who understand what they’re going through, something that’s especially important for kids in rural areas who don’t know many other openly queer or trans people.
Social media platforms have also become a key part of our news and political environment. “We’ve seen internationally known and locally important activists at 14, 15 years old,” as well as influential teenage journalists, Kittner said. Banning them from social media will silence their voices.
“I always use my Instagram for suicide prevention,” says Anjali Verma, an 18-year-old high school senior and President of the National Student Counciltold me. “For me, social media has been a vehicle for change.”
Verma Campaigned with the ACLU Against the Kids Online Safety Act, a federal bill that many advocacy groups feared would prompt platforms to censor content about LGBTQ+ people and their rights. But he’s not against all regulation of social media companies: tech platforms need to be held accountable to make sure “things that are toxic or harmful aren’t being over-promoted on these platforms” to young people, he said. (Recent decision of Meta Abandon third-party fact-checkers An X-style “community notes” approach is less likely to help matters, and may expose adults and children alike to more misinformation.)
Some experts say the best way to hold tech companies accountable is to treat all their users better. Targeted weight-loss ads on Instagram may be more harmful to teenagers than adults, but “I would say we shouldn’t be targeting anyone with those things,” Heitner said. By the same token, platforms need to develop better reporting and enforcement mechanisms to root out sexual harassment and threatening behavior.
During this time, it’s important to teach kids how algorithms and targeted ads work, as well as how to handle conflicts that start online, Hytner said. Verma has done some of this teaching himself, training middle school students to be “digital first responders” and report unsafe content or behavior.
“Regardless of these social media bans, we’re going to have social media in the future,” he said. For her, it’s important to teach kids “how to navigate it and be educated, so it doesn’t seem like a scary, scary thing.”
what i’m reading
California lawmakers Introduce two bills Making it harder for federal immigration agents to enter schools is in response to incoming President Donald Trump’s pledge to launch a mass deportation campaign.
More cities are being built Playgrounds that double as flood control zones In efforts to adapt to climate change.
End of Gen Alpha; General Beta is here. here is something Among the first Gen Beta children born on January 1, 2025.
My toddler is discovering now tar beachA classic by the artist and author Faith Ringgoldwho died last year at the age of 93.
from my inbox
In December, I asked for your thoughts on the positive aspects of social media. A reader, Nicole, reached out with three book recommendations, which I’m passing on to you now:
Growing up in the crowd: Coming of age in a digital world By Devorah Heitner. This reader recommendation inspired me to interview the author!
Digital for Good: Raising Kids to Thrive in an Online World By Richard Culata. An expert in educational technology offers tips to help kids become good digital citizens.
Please unsubscribe, thanks!: How to reclaim our time, focus, and purpose in a relentless world By Julio Vincent Gambuto. Well, it might be less about the positives: the writer and filmmaker gives tips on how to get to a “Technology eliminates food“
I love book recommendations, for kids and adults too! Please keep me posted at anna.north@vox.com.
