On Banning Social Media From Young People
From what I read, most people who want to ban young people from accessing social media platforms are politicians, and not scientists. That alone probably already give us clues on how well these bans are achieving their apparent objectives.
Michal Luria, Aliya Bhatia, & Danah Boyd, in MIT Technology Review:
Social media bans suppress kids’ access to information, including information that’s essential to their development, identity formation, and socialization, especially during adolescence. Worse, further restriction is likely to backfire. Closing loopholes in age gates could harm kids by pushing them toward less-moderated, higher-risk corners of the web. It also degrades privacy and security for everyone by forcing people to submit sensitive personal information to prove their age.
[...]
Age gates won’t bring about the desired change, nor will they simplify parenting in the digital world. At best, they will only raise thornier questions and postpone the conversation to a child’s 16th birthday. At worst, they’ll leave kids with no guidance as they make their way through the online world.
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Links:
- Kids Are Outsmarting Social Media Bans. That's Not a Problem We Need to Solve, by Michal Luria, Aliya Bhatia, & Danah Boyd, in MIT Technology Review
- The Hottest New Hangout for Middle Schoolers is NPR’s Comment Section?, by Connie Loizos, TechCrunch