Report commissioned by French government recommends children be banned from social media until 18 to protect them from tech industry monetization

[Archaic]

Stop children using smartphones until they are 13, says French report

Children should be banned from most social media until 18 amid attempts to ‘monetise’ them, says Macron-commissioned study

www.theguardian.com

Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they are 18, according to a report by experts commissioned by Emmanuel Macron.

The French president had asked scientists and experts to suggest screen use guidelines for children with a view to France taking unprecedented steps on limiting their exposure. It was unclear how the government might now proceed after the report’s publication. Macron said in January: “There might be bans, there might be restrictions.”

The hard-hitting report said children needed to be protected from the tech industry’s profit-driven “strategy of capturing children’s attention, using all forms of cognitive bias to shut children away on their screens, control them, re-engage them and monetise them”.

Children were becoming “merchandise” in this new tech market, the report said, adding: “We want [the industry] to know we’ve seen what they’re doing and we won’t let them get away with it.”

Normally when you see these kinds of recommendations being made, it's (at least ostensibly) about health and well-being of youth having lots of screen time. Some of which is justified, but some of which can be a bit silly, reminding me of parents worried their kids were listening to too much Rock & Roll. This is a very different take on things though, and one that I can get behind to some extent, as someone who did a PhD on privacy. Mind you, banning kids from these things seems like you're going after the victims to some extent. I'd much rather see stronger regulation on the companies themselves, that prevents them from exploiting children and their data. Heck, why limit it to just children. Adults are just as vulnerable. The mechanism of addiction isn't the same as with something like nicotine, but social media is intentionally designed right now to be psychologically addictive, and it should go without saying that this widespread addiction is not a good thing for society in general.

 

[Greninjaman]

We both know that there will be parents who would let their kids use it anyway.

 

[Archaic]

Oh, I’m sure there would be. Just as there’s parents who publish their kid’s embarrassing photos publicly for everyone to see on the internet, for them to be found years later by bullies, and ripped for AI image generation. But just because some parents are going to be careless about their kid’s safety doesn’t mean we all have to be.

 

[Aozora]

I have mixed feelings on this, and I'm not sure where to start so this will probably sound kind of rambly.

On one hand, yes, I'm all for regulating online advertising. But why only focus on social media? Google for example (or any other search engine, or any traditional media company, which definitely view social media as competitors) relies on targeted advertising as part of their business model too, and I think that can be just as harmful as social media.

I guess another question I have would be how children can be monetized so easily. Do they have a lot of disposable income? I'm not really inclined to believe that many children would be so willing to spend their own money on basically anything that catches their attention. So I think in that case it would be an issue of advertising for children's products working too effectively for adults. If you're an adult, you don't have to buy your child whatever they want...

Ideally I would say a lot of responsibility should lie with parents, but in reality that doesn't happen. I'm all for governments making recommendations on what people should let their kids do, but not every parent will be responsible (nor should they necessarily follow any sort of recommendations blindly - there probably sre children who can use social media responsibly).

I'd be in favor of schools teaching kids more about how the internet economy works (from the standpoint of how to survive in such a world, not in a way thay trains them for jobs in that field). I think teaching basic computer/internet literacy in schools is also helpful.

There's also a part of me that doesn't like the idea of monitoring kids unless there's a really serious problem. I think part of growing up is doing things on your own and figuring things out yourself. Part of that involves exploring the environment you live in, and for most people it's a reality that that includes the internet. My parents in the early-mid 2000s didn't really 'get' the internet, and them trying to monitor every little thing I was doing (whether that would have been online or offline) would have been unbearable.

I think it's also important to acknowledge that the internet isn't only a tool for information sharing and academic/professional purposes too. It's a source of entertainment, and that can be a good thing as long as people acknowledged it's not real and don't take it too seriously. I think it's a good thing to have some sort of separation between online life and real life, using any platform where your identity on that platform is the same as your real life identity sounds miserable.

So I guess to summarize, I would say regulate advertising/monetization as much as possible (whether on social media or anywhere else), encourage parents to parent responsibly, but don't treat children like they are completely incapable of thinking for themselves.

 

[indigohex3]

I believe that we need to restrict access to social media to those who are at least 15 years, and even then, we need to increase the level of media literacy and digital literacy among students and teach these in schools. The reason why we need to teach media literacy and digital literacy in our schools is because a lot of social media (such as Facebook, X, YouTube and TikTok among others) are indoctrinating young people with misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories (the best example was during the coronavirus pandemic in which people stayed home, and sadly many were exposed to dangerous conspiracy theories, as well as the "documentary" Plandemic, which I discussed on the forums at the time) that are promoted through social media, and this has led to people going down rabbit holes and these conspiracy theories tore families apart, and this had been more pronounced during the 2020 Presidential Elections in the United States of America, which led to the insurrection at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on January 6, which saw people killed, and sadly I am fearing that this could happen again.

In addition, there are people who are promoting misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories online in regards to the current conflict in the Middle East, which has increased the level of both Islamophobia and Antisemitism throughout the world; and there has even been conspiracy theories involving people such as George Soros that has led to an increase in Antisemitism, and this has been promoted by those on the extremes of the political spectrum, especially in regards to those on the extreme right (such as Alex Jones of Infowars or Michel Chossudovsky of Global Research).

As you may be aware, there had been a debate on "freedom of speech" in regards to the attacks at Westfields Bondi Junction and a church in Sydney in which a sixteen year old boy stabbed a Bishop during a webcast, and the Australian government ordered their removal; with Elon Musk complaining that blocking these videos would be affront to free speech (he claims to be a free speech absolutist, but if you attack him, you get banned). I believe in free speech, but there is a line that should not be crossed, and allowing these videos to stay on, let's say X (formerly Twitter), then it crosses the line in my honest opinion.

However, what should be noted is that misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories has not been limited to social media or the so-called "alternative media" online (such as Black Agenda Report and World Socialist Website on the extreme left or Infowars or Global Research on the extreme right), but there has also been spread through the real world, such as through magazines that are readily available in a newsagent (when I go to the newsagents on a Monday to buy a CREDIBLE magazine like The Economist, I often see magazines such as Uncensored, Nexus or New Dawn that promote conspiracy theories) and there are even people in the mainstream media (such as Outsiders on Sky News here in Australia) promoting conspiracy theories.

But honestly, banning social media for under 15s (such as what I am proposing) could be a double-edged sword, as the conspiracy theorists and neferious actors online could work their way around and try to reach young people through other methods. And even if people are over 15, some people may not be able to tell the difference and could actually be just as vulnerable to misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories as people under 15. And because of this, there are limits to advertising to children through television here in Australia (such as no advertising allowed in "P" rated programs, and restrictions on advertising on "C" rated programs, especially in regards to junk food), as well as moves to ban gambling ads on television (especially in regards to sport, which children will associate sport with gambling).

Oh, and remember that many of these people who create these social media outlets don't actually let their children use becuase of the addictive nature of such outlets, as well as the potential for danger as highlighted throughout this post. But even for us, the users of such applications, we need to use it responsibly as well as teach children to be responsible for it, and not use it for things like "revenge porn" or "online bullying".

I might sign off this post before it becomes as long as my Masters thesis from when I did a Masters of Asian Studies at university (which had nothing to do with the discussion that is being discussed in this thread).

 

[Aozora]

The misinformation issue is definitely a tricky one. It certainly is a major problem on social media (and on any other sort of media that involves advertising, or honestly any sort of opinion/persuasion work) with real consequences. Ideally that would be solved by having a society that's responsible and educated enough to use social media in a way that misinformation doesn't influence peoples' views and actions on things in the real world. I think addressing the issue through the education system has potential to help, but there are also a lot of people who are pretty far removed from the education system. How do you "re-educate" a society in a way that they'll take it seriously?

People are right to be skeptical of governments, official positions, and any other sort of authority. For example, the way "traditional" US media garnered support for the Iraq War - I think you could make the case for that being one of the most devastating misinformation campaigns of the 21st century.

It sort of brings back the questions of who gets to decide what's true, whose "fact checking" should be taken seriously, etc.

There is also the ethical question of whether any sort of misinformation is acceptable. For example, let's say a government is dishonest about the potential side effects of a vaccine because they calculated (perhaps incorrectly) that being open with that information would cause the public to misinterpret that information and respond in a way that ends up resulting in more disease burden. What would be the most ethical way for them to handle that? Who is responsible for fact-checking people with authority? Who is responsible for fact-checking people with no authority, but a lot of influence? Again ideally society would work in a way that these wouldn't be issues, but that doesn't happen and isn't going to change any time soon.

 

[indigohex3]

10 News First here in Australia is reporting that South Australia is contemplating an age limit for social media (no one under 14 and parential permission required for 14-16). I think this a good idea in theory, but could be hard to police due to the potential for people to lie about their age. But I feel that there needs to be better education to counter the problem of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories, especially with a more impressionable audience that relies on social media (thereby making it easier for misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories to get disseminated through social media), and I believe that the teaching of media literacy and digital literacy is important to distinguish what is fact and what is fiction.

However, the problem of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories are not just the realm of the so-called "alternative media" that I cited in my post, but also the so-called "mainstream media", in which the ownership of the latter has become more concentrated in recent years (for example, five conglomerates control the media in the United States of America, while here in Australia, we only have a handful of conglomerates control our media, and it is worst with newspapers with only two conglomerates owning most of the newspapers, and in some states, only one conglomerate owns all the local papers, and that being News Corp), and there is a possibility that some have ties with the military (such as General Electric who at the time of the War in Iraq owned NBC). So it could be argued that all media (both "mainstream media" and "alternative media") has its own biases, and therefore should be taken with a grain of salt, especially if said media conglomerate has a conflict of interest (like a media outlet being pro-war and at the same time owned by a military contractor such as NBC at the time of the Iraq War). But at the end of the day, most media outlets, and in particular the commercial media outlets, are all about turning a profit for the owner of said media outlet.

 

[Princess Viola]

The extreme part of me would say the solution would be to completely ban social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. because of the consequences of these sites has been completely disastrous to society but also I do not want that kind of power in the government's hands and it is far too late to put that shit back in the bottle completely.

 

[Millefeuille]

...It's a very tricky subject. Here's my 2 cents.

As with any addiction, social media can lead to harm without question; especially as it affects young developing brains. >.> But my biggest fear isn't that social media can be addictive and harmful to our mental health, it's the feedback loop it causes that makes it more addictive in the first place.

Think people are becoming more addicted to social media, video games, anime and TV shows etc not only because it's more stimulating than having real conversations, but also because the lack of social interaction increases social anxiety and insecurity to begin with. It also feels like other activities have become less of an option. Where are the hangout spots or third places for teens and young adults? Why aren't children more willing to initiate conversations with their peers and why do people struggle to have conversations? These are HUGELY important social problems not being solved...

SM can also interfere with our lives to the extent that we put other hobbies aside, which makes it harder for us to find common interests to bond over. Many of us want friends but find it hard for various reasons to make friends. That is one reason.

The society we live in today is also not healthy, and people aren't being treated for their mental health problems. Parents are overworked and don't have enough time for their children. Children are growing up without positive role models in their lives, and a greater sense of purposeless than before. Many people are not learning healthy coping mechanisms to deal with their struggles either, and learning has become less appealing. Work environments are also pretty alienating and more often than not don't foster any real sense of community among co workers. I'm really sad to say all of this because I care deeply about this issue.

I see social media like tiktok, youtube shorts, twitter, insta and all these things as fast food of the internet. The world is just changing too rapidly and we're struggling to keep up with it, and we're handling it in some of the worst ways possible. We're being taken over by addictions to social media, fast food and substance use and replacing real conversations, more varied hobbies (including outdoor hobbies), nourishing food, exercise, sunlight and mindfulness. I also believe that TV and the entertainment industry is sending us the wrong message and only contributing to all these problems.

So sure, banning children from social media is probably a step in the right direction, but it's only one of many important measures we must take as a society in order to improve our collective wellbeing. (I guess you can call that a 'holistic approach').