Wrong Ban?

Various countries are trying to ban particular social media for children, either just in school or overall.

There’s a bunch of debate around this, notably the requirement adults register government proof of age with the social media companies.

But what if we’re asking the wrong question?

The idea is to reduce children’s contact with harmful materials and (cyber)bullying. Numerous countries are debating whether they should establish bans on social media sites, variously during school, or overall.

But what is the right question isn’t whether we use one particular mitigation. “Something must be done. This is something. Therefor it must be done.”

What if the question is, instead, “are there known ways to solve this problem”?

This is a new problem

We didn’t have it before about 2007/8. We started investigating it between 1997 and 2012 https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/73246/html/ and found suicide, eating disorders, grooming and bullying problems.

Why did I say 2007/8? That’s when capable smart-phones became available.

Before smart phones, roughly half of teen had been given dumb phones. The other half depended on their teachers and people like shopkeepers if something scary happened, and they needed their parents.

Before smart phones, the internet was available via desktops and sometimes laptops. The parents I knew tended to have “the family PC” in the living room or a room off it, so they could be aware of what they children were looking at. Of course, some browsing of porn sites happened, but is was embarrassing to be caught and punished. Often by losing access.

The kids might have had phones, they might not.

When their kids got old enough and schoolwork started to assume they had network access, they could be given their own desktops or laptops. By then, they were long aware that they could trip over some very bad places on the internet.

After 2007/8, if they successfully campaigned for a smartphone, they would have had privacy and access to everything. Discussion groups on how to commit suicide, for example. Bullies from their class. Everything they wanted, and more.

With an old answer: go back in time

Back to no phones. Back to dumb phones. And especially, back to the family PC in the living room, where parent could at least tell if their kid was being groomed. https://mfioretti.substack.com/p/on-wrong-things-to-tell-parents-about

If everyone in, for example, Canada, was required to be 16 to have a smartphone, then parents wouldn’t be fighting an impossible war. Just the ordinary one, of keeping their children safe from everyday harms.