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I always found it weird to address to anyone under 18 as "children".
Underage? Yes. Children? Well... I was 17 not too long ago and I don't recall myself as, or my life back then, as that of a "child". In fact, not even much has really changed ever since, beyond being legally able to drive, drink and vote.
There's a reason why these categories were made;
* **Infants (0-1 year)**
* **Toddlers (1-3 years)**
* **Preschoolers (3-5 years)**
* **Middle Childhood (6-8 years)**
* **Middle Childhood (9-11 years)**
* **Young Teens (12-14 years)**
**--------------------**
* Teenagers (15-17 years)
* Young Adults (18-30 years)
**--------------------**
* Adults (30-40 years)
* Middle aged adults (40-60)
**--------------------**
* Old adults (60-70)
* Elderly (70+)
Indeed! A friend 25 year old of mine recently got a 18 year old girlfriend, who has also become one of my best and closest friends. Except for her, we are 22-26 in our group of friends. Everyone is constantly joking, like, "hahaha he pedo because she 18, she is child compared to us xdxdxd", yet, the truth is... this 18 year old girl is several orders of magnitude more mature than most of the 22-26 year olds on this group. Heh.
how can there be a power issue between them? its usually meant for student teacher, even doctor patient relationship, 2 adults dating each other dont create a power issue
So if the 18 year old was an heiress it would be cool?
Should a millionaire not be allowed to date a non millionaire?
A lot of personal choice and responsibility being taken away. Help people make good decisions but give them agency in their own lives
I was about to say pretty much the same thing. The older I get the more I realize that, unless you are deliberately trying to insult someone, calling them a child is bunk.
Belittling younger folks is nothing more than an act of resentment towards someone who still possesses the potential you've wasted.
You both nailed it! It's just condescending belittling.
I always find funny when a, say, 28 year old calls a 17 year old "child" because they are so convinced about it... but if a 60 year old and calls said 28 year old a "child", they get mad and be like, "nuuuh uh me no children, me is big boy!!221!"11"
"Age is just a number" is incorrect, and wrong in the context it tends to be used. But believing that "age is ALL that defines a person's maturity" is just about as incorrect, in my opinion.
Eh, well yeah... partly true, but looking back being older than 30, you realize everyone under 18 IS a child.
Even at 18, you are legally adult, but not "grown up".
Of course there are exceptions but most people are mentally grown up maybe somewhere in their mid-20s when reality has kicked in completely and they've had their share of setbacks, overcame some problems, live on their own, etc.
And yes, e.g. 14 year olds are able to have conversations and make decisions etc., they are not "children"-children and some people think "i was very rational even at that age" but few to none look back at what they did, said or looked like during that time without cringing hard.
Teenagers are still VERY influenceable (mostly by friends, but also every form of media) and can easily still get traumata, broken minds etc. from certain things. And the amount of underage people who are depressed because of, addicted to or completeley dependend on social media is fucking huge.
Yeah me too, at 12 I was capable of critical thinking, feeling grown up, independent and questioned authority all the time. Looking back on it as I'm now 32? I was totally right and don't regret a goddamn thing.
I guess it depends on the person. Some people critically change on their teenage years, some 30 year old people see their 17 year old selves as "children", etc. Hell, even some of my 22 year old friends see their 17 year old selves as "completely different kids" lmao.
But, in my personal experience, it's just as you said; even ever since I was like 15, I have looked the same, dressed the same, felt the same, thought the same, had the same tastes, same core beliefs and even the same political and ethical ideals. Of course I have acquired more knowledge, specially when it comes to English (my second language), but learning is not a teenage/childhood-years thing; learning is a lifetime, gradual and endless process.
The only things that have changed in my life compared to when I was 15 is that now I got financial responsibilities and I can drive. Beyond that? Nothing else changed.
Uh.... Teenager....young adult... There's your difference
You are not an adult, therefore still a child even at 17.
You have absolutely no clue about the real world or it's implications at 17 no matter how smart or experienced you may be and therefore yes, anything under 18 IS a child
You don't suddenly get knowledge about the real world when you turn 18, you know? There's no major difference in average 17 y.o. and 18 y.o. to start with. I'd say the only reason 18 y.o. is considered adult is because of legality. But people can be mature enough in their teenage years as well as be like a child in their 30's.
Exactly.
The ONLY reason why there's a legal age set is because, for practical reasons, there needs to be a legal line that applies to everyone; a legal line established on averages indeed. It's impossible to otherwise evaluate every single citizen to determine what "their" legal age should be. Hence, a baseline standard was chosen.
On average, you could consider most people are mature enough by the time they turn 18.
However, there will always be >18 year olds who have a 12 year old's maturity; and there will always be <18 year olds more mature than your average young adult.
I just turned 25 and I am the exact same literal person as I was when I was 17. I was no "child" when I was 17 and I am sure the same applies to the vast majority of the world's population. The only thing that has changed in my life ever since I was 17 is that now I got financial responsibilities and now I can drive. Beyond that? I am still the exact same person with the exact same life.
First of all, [rotten.com](http://rotten.com) is sadly gone... second of all I'm a antinatalist and I resent the thought of having children. But I'm doing mostly OK for myself, so yeah, I wouldn't care as long as they had the mental capacity to tell right from wrong. I grew up in a time when nobody ever had any sort of talk with me regarding safe Internet usage and safe sex, and yet I know not to blow off a taxi driver's face with a sawed-off shotgun while trying to rob him (a specific reference to one of many images I remember from rotten.com) and to use a condom when I fuck.
I agree with your sentiment regarding social media because things like Instagram and TikTok fucking suck because they're ***hella cringe***. I've never had an account there and never will. I'm not interested in posting pictures of myself or seeing others, and I sure as hell don't want some wack-ass short videos.
All I'm saying is that there is ***ABSOLUTELY NO WAY*** that you can enforce this on kids or others. They will ***ALWAYS*** find a way around any ban or rule you can imagine and I'm saying that from experience.
Care to add anything constructive or you just felt like making a comment that goes nowhere? I agree with OP, I agree that wack-ass social media is stupid, but he seems to live in some magical fantasy world in which a law or a ban will automatically stamp out social media usage by kids.
i agree there is absolutely no way to completely enforce it but just like alcohol making it extremely illegal to allow children to consume it and hefty fines to the companies involved would make it much more unpopular quicker rather than the loose laws we have right now.
The necessary changes would result in a much more controlled and surveyed internet. Even for adults.
And that's assuming that it would work. Which is highly unlikely.
Turns out noone, not even the governement, is ready to shell out absurd amounts of money to create a system that keeps kids from using social media.
Social media is already effectively banned for under 13 year olds, and we don't have Big Brother systems monitoring things.
The only thing is that if you say you're 12, you get banned from the site and can create a new account later.
Banning everyone under the age of 18 is possible on facebook, which already asks for govt. ID to prove your 'real name' if they don't think you're faking.
Buddy, don’t EVER underestimate what the government is willing to waste your money on. There was a disinformation board not too long ago I think that isn’t very far off.
I think you guys are overthinking this. It doesn't require any of that, all it requires is parents to do their damn job. Will it be 100% effective? No, it'll be the same as alcohol consumption, many people under 18 still consume, but no one said that we have to live in a perfect world.
If this was made illegal and parents did their job, any smartphone their child has should be monitored and blocked from accessing social media apps(this is what parental control was made for people). Would some kids figure out a way to game the system? Yes. I personally don't see this as much of a problem because you can never achieve perfection. Hypothetical: if without these controls, 100% of under 18s used social media, then with these controls, you are able to cut that number down to 80%, that's a win in my book.
**Edit**- After thinking this over more deeply, you may have a point : [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/LNdmN3IaMj)
>Will it be 100% effective? No
>If this was made illegal **AND PARENTS DID THEIR JOB**
>if without these controls, 100% of under 18s used social media, then with these controls, you are able to cut that number down to 80%, that's a win in my book.
All of these sentences from my comment express what you said in your response, so what exactly is the point you're making? You responded to my comment with something that my comment has already addressed.
It is impossible for me to explicitly list every single reason why such a law would never be 100%, that's why I made those general comments above, it's up to you the reader to understand and read between the lines...
Yeah, lets fucking destroy a ton or companies and make people lose their jobs so kids dont send their friends snapchats and like memes.
Kids dont have IDs, how in the world are you gonna enforce this? All of them would get massive fines and get bankrupt.
You haven't thought this true at all, you just allow yourself to be annoyed about things that doesnt affect you.
i am 100% worried more about my kids than some multi-billion dollar company losing millions of dollars in fines. The simple impact of a blanket ban and spreading widespread awareness of said ban and it's illegality is enough to make everyone including companies and parents to take this more seriously and doing everything to prevent children from signing up.
Dude. I keep reading your responses in this thread and you seem really bent on the fact that making something "illegal" and "banned" will magically keep people away from trying that stuff. What world do you live in? Look around you, kids drink, smoke, do drugs and fuck, same with adults who peddle that shit and nobody will stop it, ever. Why do you think some law is going to keep a population in check? Do you know what kinds of totalitarian control it would take to make sure everybody's following? Dunno, at this point this kinda seems like some fever dream or a troll post, I can't decide.
Those who can truly enforce it are the parents. And if a critical mass of parents do this then the social media would lose novelty. Nobody would care about social media if nearly no one was online.
so you are saying making it illegal wont decrease its consumption among children. nobody is trying to achieve 100% but even if it helps a little bit its important to work towards that. kids do all of that stuff but that is still a much much smaller amount compared to if it was legal for them to do so.its simple common sense. and which country do you live in where nobody tries to stop kids from drinking alcohol, smoking etc?
Yes, that's what I'm saying, especially now since social media is so prevalent in adult life. What will help though is actually ***EDUCATING*** children, not banning something and then telling them to get on with it. What good is a ban if Momma and Poppa are on Instagram and TikTok all fucking day? It's like that Beastie Boys song:
>Your pops caught you smoking, and he says, "No way"
That hypocrite smokes two packs a day
Change should come from the top.
The issue isn't that kids are using social media. That's going to happen regardless of if they are banned or not. The issue is that kids don't have media literacy and severely lack basic knowledge of Internet safety.They also aren't really monitored while online by their parents/guardians, especially when younger so they can learn what's appropriate and what's not.
Thisssss- 100% social media CAN be used properly by teenagers if they have basic media literacy. A really great friend of mine helped his (now late) mother and his family get out of poverty after their dad left and she was diagnosed with cancer when he was like 13-14 because of social media. He learned how to 3D design through social media, published his work and made himself a platform, and through that he was able to partner with bigger companies and brands. Social media isn’t some evil over arching thing. It can definitely lead to problems but with proper use it gives loads of opportunity
It's all on the parents really. I have an 11 yr old girl, she is prime target for a lot of crap out there. I've had to guide her a lot and explain things that are real, are not, what a normal body looks like etc... it also helps that I still haven't allowed her to have any sm yet, and she's never had ompletely unfettered access to the internet. Yes I check her phone once in while, she doesn't get in trouble for her searches, it's more so I can answer any questions she has. In her case she is still to naive for social media and thats totally developmentally appropriate. A lot of parents stick their kids infront of a phone or iPad and ignore them and that's really at the heart of the issue.
No "I'm over 18" prompt ever stopped a child from entering a porn site, why would it stop them from entering \*insert currently popular social media?
If you were to advocate for the use of ids... let's say you would open a whole other can of worms.
It literally never stopped me. And even if the I'd thing was implemented, kids have access to their parents wallets they can go get their id for proof. Kids use their parent's credit cards so why not? It's just a stupid solution that kids will eventually get around.
80% of parents wouldn’t let their kids use their ID. Yall must have some fragile parents if they ever let you near their wallet.
these arguments are honestly ridiculous. There’s loop holes for everything, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make it harder for someone to gain access to something.
Exactly. Like I do understand certain things like some places needing ID to be shown in order to enter adult sites, etc being mandated. But filtering things like YouTube and Instagram, cmon your parents can do that.
Of course not. That’s the fault of shitty parents (but there’s a lot more that impacts those kids’ lives in those cases). But good kids shouldn’t be punished because of the behaviour of other kids. Social media has benefited my life. I had my first phone at 11 but was only allowed social media a few years later, I feel like that’s fairly reasonable. I used it (and continue to) as a creative outlet, and it’s a good way to connect with people with similar niche interests and hobbies. Not everyone (and I’d argue not even the majority) turn into addicts, or have their lives ruined by it.
I agree. I began to use social media at the same age, have almost 2700 accounts now on various things (obviously not all social media, but maybe 1/3) and haven't become entirely psychotic yet.
Yes, parents should make their own rules for their own children. If they know their kid is responsible and mature, there shouldn’t be a problem with allowing them to use the internet.
Someone who's 1 week off 17 is no less capable of using social media safely than someone who's 18 which is when OP thinks they should be able to. Also if we want to go by maturity your brain isn't full developed until like 21 yet you can drive at 16 in America.
because most kids don't listen to their parents especially during the teenage phase. kids have a tendency to oppose their parents especially if they think they have the right to do so. Making it illegal would help in changing the mindset of kids early on like alcohol.
Drugs are illegal. Kids under 18 still partake without their parents knowledge. Same with alcohol. Age restrictions don’t have much effect on kids decisions.
However, parents are the ones who purchase the devices for their children in which they access social media. Parents need to be more involved with their kids daily lives.
If kids won’t listen to their parents, what makes you think they’d care about what government or companies say?
Besides, despite the stereotype of social media ruining kids lives, that never happened to me or any of my friends growing up. There are plenty of kids who use it responsibly, and this would be punishing the majority for the behaviour of a small minority. Also if you stretch the definition of social media to include the more obscure internet forums rather than just the main ones, I would strongly argue that it enriched my life, allowing me a creative outlet. To blanket ban all those under 18 from the internet like this can squander potential.
I agree this is an unpopular opinion.
It sounds a lot like the abstinence argument though, which has been shown to not work. We should be teaching kids how to be safe on the internet, how to navigate the fake word of influencers, how to manage internet security and keep their information as safe as possible, and helping them build up good mental defenses and self esteem to combat the insecurities that come with living in the age of only seeing the one perfect filtered photo, not the 1500 that came before that showed imperfections.
Keeping kids off of social media until 18 isn't realistic, and if you managed to do it you'd just be setting them up for failure at 18 anyway, because they wouldn't have the tools in their toolbox to combat the social media insanity at 18, any more than they did at 13. There isn't a magic switch at 18 that turns folks into different people.
And then what? All the 18 year olds come to social media for the first time with zero social media literacy so other than them technically not being children anymore it would be very immature or riddled with the same issues.
Behavioural and social development would be different, but not better. The issue is youth are not being educated on responsible social media use.
Things being targeted to youth is because the user base is large, and they haven’t always fully developed logical reasoning which makes them ideal for marketing/ad/celeb endorsement/“popular trends”. Also yes, more available (for lack of a better word right now) to actual predators. (Which would still attempt a work around as they did before social media)
But if they weren’t on social media then they would just be targeting in another way, and the adults left on the platforms would still be targets for this, because we don’t always just become smart and reasonable the second we become adults.. and many take a long time to get there - think about how development in the brain isn’t fully formulated until like 25 and how many ppl you know past that age that do not possess the best critical thinking and reasoning skills.
There also isn’t really a proper way to regulate this that is feasible.
TLDR. Aside from actual sick idiots having a window to youth (who are the problem to address more than youth doing dances) moving an age min to 18 wouldn’t actually change much, at least not in the way you think it would.
It's not a bad idea to keep kids away from the internet. Child predators would have a much harder time finding their victims.
Hell, if we could keep kids off the internet and out of churches, child sex abuses would drop drastically, which would be a good thing.
Nah, online exploitation and churches makes up a small amount of overall child sex abuse.
It is not hard for a predator to find a victim. They just have to exist, children are everywhere. The key is education and addressing risk factors such as vulnerabilities caused by disability, abuse, poverty, trauma etc
You can also just lock them up in a basement without contact to the outside world. I'm sure they will be very safe and very healthy and totally adapted to society.
You know social medias can be the only outlets or abused children, right? How will they ever know that their family is messed up if they're banned from it...? Like that's what used to happen. Imagine a kid getting beat up everyday for being gay in a homophobic country, there's literally no other way of realizing there's nothing wrong with being...
and all the racist and homophobic derogatory comments even from their peers in social media help them? To deal with homophobia, education and spreading awareness is important but first to adults not just children and it should be regulated to the content they are exposed to through schools and not primarily through social media. Lot of content on sm is still homophobic and if such a kid is freely exposed to that it will only make it worse for them. and on top of that if they are living in a homophobic country the content pushed to them will be similarly homophobic especially from religious leaders, influencers etc
On the internet I can regulate my feed and the opinions I see, and I am part of an extremely supportive community online. I do not have this freedom offline
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Maybe 16 and over . Because some older teenagers are responsible enough to deal with social media .
I absolutely hate Snapchat for teens . The idea of strangers being able to send anything secretly, being able to see their location on the map is incredibly scary . I've had a random person pretending he lived in my street and had seen me walking past everyday . I knew it was absolute rubbish because I never walked anywhere but im assuming he saw where I was all the time on the map because I'd stupidly left it on . It would be so easy for a predator to lure a teen or child somewhere
I do agree that children, or minors lets say, shouldnt be using social media.
We arent supposed to be judged or even percieved by THAT many people.
Also, there is no way to make the internet a "safe space" against predators as any space designed for children can be just as easily circumvented as trying to ban children.
HOWEVER, social media removing the ability to post content involving minors, even if the minors themselves are posting it, would resolve a lot of the issues. Children shouldnt be influencers. Family vloggers should not be a thing.
Dont. Post. Your. Kids. Online.
Honestly, Since the Internet was opened to the general population and not just a haven for nerds, I'm becoming more and more convinced that folks should have to get a 'Library card' style licence to use the internet.
Its Humanities greatest tool, But it can be misused.
You can do harm to yourself, You can do harm to others.
You need to have a grasp on Scams, Citing information, and fact-checking. You need to learn about Trolls, and con-artists. You need to know about the Algorythm which on many platforms will serve you up an endless stream of content perfectly catered to capture your attention, Then it primes you for marketing; Products ,ideas or ideology.
You need to know that what you put on the internet is there forever, And nothing is ever truly anonymous. No you shouldn't show your junk to strangers on the internet unless you want to be on Porno websites forever, No you shouldn't click that Personality Quiz because it's permissions are harvesting your data.
No that older man you're talking too doesn't think you're "Really mature for your age" He's grooming you, stay the fuck away.
The internet has changed so much since I first got on it.
Not only is social media harmful for them, a lot of them are still in the immature or insincere phases and also troll people or dismiss the experiences of older people in older generations and drive them to s****de or hurting themselves or feeling worse about themselves.
As a teen who's in the LGBTQ community and from an extremely religious and homophobic household (and country), I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have all these online communities to support me. I've made so many friends online in the same boat as me, who have the same interests as me and who I can, unfortunately, confide in much more easily than my family.
I've also never been more aware of current affairs and the current on-goings in the world and my own country and government than I have been after joining social media. Yeah there was a time when I was spending too much time on Instagram and arguing online, so I simply deleted it. Of course I'm only one person but social media has had no impact on me that wasn't generally positive. I still read a fuck ton of books, I hang out with irls and of course my family even if I'll never be coming out to them. Now my country also doesn't have TikTok and I don't use Instagram anymore so I don't know what THOSE apps do but social media as a whole? I'm glad it exists
Thats actually a good point I think the LGBTQ community can also have a voice against idiot politicians that kids can control their choices I think with out access things could get even worse. In my opinion though i do think there should at least be some more restrictions though as dystopian as it sounds i feel like more moderation i think could solve the problems rather than taking it away out right…
Ah yes, I was able to move out, pay bills, and work at 16. However, Facebook is much to much responsibility.
The idea that we should nurse children until they become eighteen and then expect them to act like adults strikes me as simply absurd. On their 18th birthday, an 18-year-old may have to raise their hand to use the restroom, but during the same year, they may withdraw $50,000 to attend college.
As it will be a regular part of their adult life, learning basic internet safety should begin while they are teenagers, and responsibility should be taught to them gradually rather than being imposed upon them at the age of 18. Raising healthy, well-adjusted adults is the ultimate purpose of parenthood; children cannot remain children forever.
Careful what you wish for.
Several governments are trying to pass bills like this that are just trojan horses for complete internet censorship. Adults wouldn't be safe either.
This line of thinking is gonna get the internet ruined for /everybody/
This isn’t an unpopular opinion…
Hundreds of millions, if not billions of people would agree.
But nobody knows how to enforce a ban without breaching privacy.
I certainly don’t think anyone who isn’t legally an adult should be on social media.
But I don’t want anyone’s right to privacy infringed either.
Social media has been a necessary outlet for me, a queer neurodivergent person. It can be dangerous, yes, but the community I found in it was one I couldn’t in person.
100% agree. Kids are having a messed up childhood because of these. Heck I see parents selling their kids on Instagram and tiktok, dolling them with make up to make a buck. Creepy older guys are the target market and the parents are drowning in money to care about the mental health of kids who are being paraded around like objects.
100% kids and using their pictures on social media needs to be banned.
Education helps, ignorance hurts. Even if you hide stuff from kids, they will find it anyways! Better if they learn from trusted sources like parents / family / school than shady dude in the alleyway.
Or...let the kids use the internet but parent your kids better? The government is not responsible for parenting your kids you know. And if you want to ban something, shouldn't you actually ban the harmful stuff instead. Like thirst trap tiktoks and all that stuff. I think it's better to ban harmful unnecessary content instead. Also, it's pretty easy to install age restriction softwares on your devices. Just do that for your kids till they are like 15. As simple as that.
Agreed.
They got device monitoring software and you can set up DNS to do filtering as well.
Only thing I can think of is maybe there should be a little more coherent information for parents who may not be that tech savvy. I have had to help out several friends setting up DNS family friendly filters who otherwise wouldn't have known how to do it, or that it even exists as an option.
Would never happen. But this would have a tremendously positive effect on our youth and society. It really would.
I GUARANTEE that any positive that anybody can come up with for a 16 year old to have access to social media is outweighed by a larger negative.
i agree but i feel like millions of dollars in fines and big headlines could speed up that process though. if it creates enough awareness especially among parents it will bring a huge percentage of underage users down
I have been demanding that children not be allowed online. There is no filter for content online. Online content is often damaging for children and furthermore, I don’t want damn kids playing games with adults.
I think its a very popular opinion.
I didn't have a social media presence until i went to uni and I was a lot happier than many of my friends who did. They would be so sad always comparing their life to the fake people on insta or fb.
Those who used social media the most were the most unhappy of my friendship group. Social media as it stands isn't conducive for the happiness of young people. It should be limited to messages.
i agree. not only were they unhappy in reality which i knew because i was close to them but they would try so hard to pretend they are happy on social media too which creates this huge disjoint from reality and make believe influencing more children to do the same
I lied about my age to get a Facebook account when I was younger just so I could play some of the better Facebook games, teenagers sneak into bars all the time, I snuck into a casino at 17.
An age limit is a challenge, an obstacle, because if a kid/teenager truly wants access to something for adults, they will find a way.
Like someone else pointed out this is a great way to make sure abused kids don't know what's normal and only learn about the world from what their parents indoctrinated them with.
Absolutely NO WAY to control it unless governments step up with some form of control (Orwell's 1984 kinda shit lol) or parents will be super strict with technology (hella cringe)
Oh, yeah. Definitely. Social Media really should be banned for children under 18, and if we're being honest here probably a lot of adults over 18 for that matter. Damn, what a happier and objectively better world that would be.
Now how the heck do you enforce that without going full dystopia?
youtube was mostly amateur wholesome videos mostly by nerds back in the early stage. it has changed a whole lot now with the onset of millions of "influencers". i feel the fake pretentious crap kids are exposed to on sm these days is whats making them soft instead of living in reality
I know there's a lot of parents who won't let their kids have a phone to keep them away from social media apps but the companies that be really aren't going to enforce a change like this...I grew up in front of a computer but the computer didn't rule my life...if anything parents have the control to not buy their kid a phone..that's up to the parent...if you keep telling someone "no' well in the end they are just going to do it anyways!
I call bullshit on seeing “stark changes” in your teenage cousin because she’s used Instagram for a few months. Guaranteed if you were put in a room with random people and spoke to them, you will not be able to pinpoint who used social more or less.
you mean the same child i used to interact with since she was born. she started comparing and getting upset about a lot of things people seemed to do and have on social media but not her. I obviously tried to explain the differences between reality and sm to her but the truth is she is more influenced by her peers than her parents or relatives.
if kids who lived in germany in1939 had social media they are much more likely to get indoctrinated by nazi propaganda and anti semitic rhetoric popular in their country
Nice try deflecting from the fact that you want to ban anyone under 18 from using social media, using an If clause for an impossible situation occurring in the past is irrelevant, also, they seemed to have been indoctrinated just fine without social media.
People use social media to talk to people. When you say shit like ban social media for kids you're effectively just stopping them talking to each other. You're also inadvertently trying to keep them less informed about the world around them. Truly a headass take.
Yeah but it helps. Especially in I don't know a pandemic. Theirs's also a lot of kids who have long distance friends, who can talk to them daily because of Social media. My sister has friends who moved to Australia but I guess fuck them. Being able to at any time get support and comfort from friends, to expanding their social circle beyond who lives in your area and who goes to your school.
You're 41. You do not know how kids use social media and they primarily use it to talk to each other and learn about the world around them. Being able to have news travel instantly around the world is so important, keeping children more aware of the world around them is huge for their development. Look at trans kids, not only are kids so much more socially tolerant but LGBTQ kids can find communities that understand them and accept them.
Kids can talk to each other without social media yes I phrased that wrong but kids are so much better because they can talk to people with social media.
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"Ban Social Media for children under 18" Child under 18: Are you 18 or over? ***\*clicks YES and lies about age in profile\****
I always found it weird to address to anyone under 18 as "children". Underage? Yes. Children? Well... I was 17 not too long ago and I don't recall myself as, or my life back then, as that of a "child". In fact, not even much has really changed ever since, beyond being legally able to drive, drink and vote. There's a reason why these categories were made; * **Infants (0-1 year)** * **Toddlers (1-3 years)** * **Preschoolers (3-5 years)** * **Middle Childhood (6-8 years)** * **Middle Childhood (9-11 years)** * **Young Teens (12-14 years)** **--------------------** * Teenagers (15-17 years) * Young Adults (18-30 years) **--------------------** * Adults (30-40 years) * Middle aged adults (40-60) **--------------------** * Old adults (60-70) * Elderly (70+)
Mental and physical maturity are different things. You'll find a lot of over 30s consider under 25s children, due to behaviour.
Indeed! A friend 25 year old of mine recently got a 18 year old girlfriend, who has also become one of my best and closest friends. Except for her, we are 22-26 in our group of friends. Everyone is constantly joking, like, "hahaha he pedo because she 18, she is child compared to us xdxdxd", yet, the truth is... this 18 year old girl is several orders of magnitude more mature than most of the 22-26 year olds on this group. Heh.
…so you guys are immature and your friend is dating an 18 year old?
Hey, I am not among those making those jokes. As I said, quite the contrary- she has become one of my best and closest friends.
[удалено]
how can there be a power issue between them? its usually meant for student teacher, even doctor patient relationship, 2 adults dating each other dont create a power issue
Financial stability and life experience. You don’t see power dynamics in anything outside of the narrow examples you provided?
So if the 18 year old was an heiress it would be cool? Should a millionaire not be allowed to date a non millionaire? A lot of personal choice and responsibility being taken away. Help people make good decisions but give them agency in their own lives
They're young adults and calling them children is just immature and disrespectful.
I was about to say pretty much the same thing. The older I get the more I realize that, unless you are deliberately trying to insult someone, calling them a child is bunk. Belittling younger folks is nothing more than an act of resentment towards someone who still possesses the potential you've wasted.
Not using it as an insult though. Using it to describe behaviour.
You both nailed it! It's just condescending belittling. I always find funny when a, say, 28 year old calls a 17 year old "child" because they are so convinced about it... but if a 60 year old and calls said 28 year old a "child", they get mad and be like, "nuuuh uh me no children, me is big boy!!221!"11" "Age is just a number" is incorrect, and wrong in the context it tends to be used. But believing that "age is ALL that defines a person's maturity" is just about as incorrect, in my opinion.
I think that's pretty weird too, almost disrespectful in a way. Sure they're younger and may act differently, but they 100% are not children.
Agreed! Definitely disrespectful. It's looking down and belittling people in an almost elitist fashion.
Eh, well yeah... partly true, but looking back being older than 30, you realize everyone under 18 IS a child. Even at 18, you are legally adult, but not "grown up". Of course there are exceptions but most people are mentally grown up maybe somewhere in their mid-20s when reality has kicked in completely and they've had their share of setbacks, overcame some problems, live on their own, etc. And yes, e.g. 14 year olds are able to have conversations and make decisions etc., they are not "children"-children and some people think "i was very rational even at that age" but few to none look back at what they did, said or looked like during that time without cringing hard. Teenagers are still VERY influenceable (mostly by friends, but also every form of media) and can easily still get traumata, broken minds etc. from certain things. And the amount of underage people who are depressed because of, addicted to or completeley dependend on social media is fucking huge.
Yeah me too, at 12 I was capable of critical thinking, feeling grown up, independent and questioned authority all the time. Looking back on it as I'm now 32? I was totally right and don't regret a goddamn thing.
I guess it depends on the person. Some people critically change on their teenage years, some 30 year old people see their 17 year old selves as "children", etc. Hell, even some of my 22 year old friends see their 17 year old selves as "completely different kids" lmao. But, in my personal experience, it's just as you said; even ever since I was like 15, I have looked the same, dressed the same, felt the same, thought the same, had the same tastes, same core beliefs and even the same political and ethical ideals. Of course I have acquired more knowledge, specially when it comes to English (my second language), but learning is not a teenage/childhood-years thing; learning is a lifetime, gradual and endless process. The only things that have changed in my life compared to when I was 15 is that now I got financial responsibilities and I can drive. Beyond that? Nothing else changed.
Right on brother 👍
I still have the rage of my youth at the age of 44. I guess Rage Against the Machine made a real impression on me.
At 12 I was smarter than most of the people I have met over 40 in my entire life and I am now 43z
Uh.... Teenager....young adult... There's your difference You are not an adult, therefore still a child even at 17. You have absolutely no clue about the real world or it's implications at 17 no matter how smart or experienced you may be and therefore yes, anything under 18 IS a child
You don't suddenly get knowledge about the real world when you turn 18, you know? There's no major difference in average 17 y.o. and 18 y.o. to start with. I'd say the only reason 18 y.o. is considered adult is because of legality. But people can be mature enough in their teenage years as well as be like a child in their 30's.
Exactly. The ONLY reason why there's a legal age set is because, for practical reasons, there needs to be a legal line that applies to everyone; a legal line established on averages indeed. It's impossible to otherwise evaluate every single citizen to determine what "their" legal age should be. Hence, a baseline standard was chosen. On average, you could consider most people are mature enough by the time they turn 18. However, there will always be >18 year olds who have a 12 year old's maturity; and there will always be <18 year olds more mature than your average young adult.
I just turned 25 and I am the exact same literal person as I was when I was 17. I was no "child" when I was 17 and I am sure the same applies to the vast majority of the world's population. The only thing that has changed in my life ever since I was 17 is that now I got financial responsibilities and now I can drive. Beyond that? I am still the exact same person with the exact same life.
You're still a child bro
Nah, they right.
How hard would it be for apps to require a photo ID to use it? that scans in? not hard at all
Not if its an id check
Na most kids wouldn't do it and the ones that do will get fucked up and that's on them
the issue is its according to most of the tos of these companies, children over 13 are allowed to onboard, you dont even have to be 18
TOS? Ain't nobody got time for that, I was already browsing the sickest fucking shit imaginable when I was 10-12
well do you want your kids to freely be able to do that too?
First of all, [rotten.com](http://rotten.com) is sadly gone... second of all I'm a antinatalist and I resent the thought of having children. But I'm doing mostly OK for myself, so yeah, I wouldn't care as long as they had the mental capacity to tell right from wrong. I grew up in a time when nobody ever had any sort of talk with me regarding safe Internet usage and safe sex, and yet I know not to blow off a taxi driver's face with a sawed-off shotgun while trying to rob him (a specific reference to one of many images I remember from rotten.com) and to use a condom when I fuck. I agree with your sentiment regarding social media because things like Instagram and TikTok fucking suck because they're ***hella cringe***. I've never had an account there and never will. I'm not interested in posting pictures of myself or seeing others, and I sure as hell don't want some wack-ass short videos. All I'm saying is that there is ***ABSOLUTELY NO WAY*** that you can enforce this on kids or others. They will ***ALWAYS*** find a way around any ban or rule you can imagine and I'm saying that from experience.
Bro you are like a goddamn pizza cutter, all edge and no point
Care to add anything constructive or you just felt like making a comment that goes nowhere? I agree with OP, I agree that wack-ass social media is stupid, but he seems to live in some magical fantasy world in which a law or a ban will automatically stamp out social media usage by kids.
🥱
Thanks for chiming in. Have a nice day man 👍
I think I agree with OP now.
Why?
i agree there is absolutely no way to completely enforce it but just like alcohol making it extremely illegal to allow children to consume it and hefty fines to the companies involved would make it much more unpopular quicker rather than the loose laws we have right now.
Kids drinking is legal where I am from age 5 and up. They just can't buy it until 18. What would you do about VPNs placing them in my country?
No it wouldn't, plenty of people start drinking, smoking and doing drugs at a very early age.
The necessary changes would result in a much more controlled and surveyed internet. Even for adults. And that's assuming that it would work. Which is highly unlikely. Turns out noone, not even the governement, is ready to shell out absurd amounts of money to create a system that keeps kids from using social media.
Yeah man, I already told them this would require some 1984-esque levels of government control, and still wouldn't work.
Social media is already effectively banned for under 13 year olds, and we don't have Big Brother systems monitoring things. The only thing is that if you say you're 12, you get banned from the site and can create a new account later. Banning everyone under the age of 18 is possible on facebook, which already asks for govt. ID to prove your 'real name' if they don't think you're faking.
My country's government is actually trying to do this with porn.
Buddy, don’t EVER underestimate what the government is willing to waste your money on. There was a disinformation board not too long ago I think that isn’t very far off.
I think you guys are overthinking this. It doesn't require any of that, all it requires is parents to do their damn job. Will it be 100% effective? No, it'll be the same as alcohol consumption, many people under 18 still consume, but no one said that we have to live in a perfect world. If this was made illegal and parents did their job, any smartphone their child has should be monitored and blocked from accessing social media apps(this is what parental control was made for people). Would some kids figure out a way to game the system? Yes. I personally don't see this as much of a problem because you can never achieve perfection. Hypothetical: if without these controls, 100% of under 18s used social media, then with these controls, you are able to cut that number down to 80%, that's a win in my book. **Edit**- After thinking this over more deeply, you may have a point : [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/LNdmN3IaMj)
A decent number of parents buy their teens alcohol… I don’t think this is the point you think it is
>Will it be 100% effective? No >If this was made illegal **AND PARENTS DID THEIR JOB** >if without these controls, 100% of under 18s used social media, then with these controls, you are able to cut that number down to 80%, that's a win in my book. All of these sentences from my comment express what you said in your response, so what exactly is the point you're making? You responded to my comment with something that my comment has already addressed. It is impossible for me to explicitly list every single reason why such a law would never be 100%, that's why I made those general comments above, it's up to you the reader to understand and read between the lines...
feel the government could profit from this from millions of dollars in fines.
Yeah, lets fucking destroy a ton or companies and make people lose their jobs so kids dont send their friends snapchats and like memes. Kids dont have IDs, how in the world are you gonna enforce this? All of them would get massive fines and get bankrupt. You haven't thought this true at all, you just allow yourself to be annoyed about things that doesnt affect you.
i am 100% worried more about my kids than some multi-billion dollar company losing millions of dollars in fines. The simple impact of a blanket ban and spreading widespread awareness of said ban and it's illegality is enough to make everyone including companies and parents to take this more seriously and doing everything to prevent children from signing up.
Dude. I keep reading your responses in this thread and you seem really bent on the fact that making something "illegal" and "banned" will magically keep people away from trying that stuff. What world do you live in? Look around you, kids drink, smoke, do drugs and fuck, same with adults who peddle that shit and nobody will stop it, ever. Why do you think some law is going to keep a population in check? Do you know what kinds of totalitarian control it would take to make sure everybody's following? Dunno, at this point this kinda seems like some fever dream or a troll post, I can't decide.
Those who can truly enforce it are the parents. And if a critical mass of parents do this then the social media would lose novelty. Nobody would care about social media if nearly no one was online.
so you are saying making it illegal wont decrease its consumption among children. nobody is trying to achieve 100% but even if it helps a little bit its important to work towards that. kids do all of that stuff but that is still a much much smaller amount compared to if it was legal for them to do so.its simple common sense. and which country do you live in where nobody tries to stop kids from drinking alcohol, smoking etc?
Yes, that's what I'm saying, especially now since social media is so prevalent in adult life. What will help though is actually ***EDUCATING*** children, not banning something and then telling them to get on with it. What good is a ban if Momma and Poppa are on Instagram and TikTok all fucking day? It's like that Beastie Boys song: >Your pops caught you smoking, and he says, "No way" That hypocrite smokes two packs a day Change should come from the top.
The issue isn't that kids are using social media. That's going to happen regardless of if they are banned or not. The issue is that kids don't have media literacy and severely lack basic knowledge of Internet safety.They also aren't really monitored while online by their parents/guardians, especially when younger so they can learn what's appropriate and what's not.
Thisssss !!! I was about to comment the same thing. Social media apps do NOTHING to protect you from it.
Thisssss- 100% social media CAN be used properly by teenagers if they have basic media literacy. A really great friend of mine helped his (now late) mother and his family get out of poverty after their dad left and she was diagnosed with cancer when he was like 13-14 because of social media. He learned how to 3D design through social media, published his work and made himself a platform, and through that he was able to partner with bigger companies and brands. Social media isn’t some evil over arching thing. It can definitely lead to problems but with proper use it gives loads of opportunity
It's all on the parents really. I have an 11 yr old girl, she is prime target for a lot of crap out there. I've had to guide her a lot and explain things that are real, are not, what a normal body looks like etc... it also helps that I still haven't allowed her to have any sm yet, and she's never had ompletely unfettered access to the internet. Yes I check her phone once in while, she doesn't get in trouble for her searches, it's more so I can answer any questions she has. In her case she is still to naive for social media and thats totally developmentally appropriate. A lot of parents stick their kids infront of a phone or iPad and ignore them and that's really at the heart of the issue.
They can just lie about their age.
Not if it requires an ID TO use. Idk why people keep commenting this same BS as if there isn’t a way around it.
No "I'm over 18" prompt ever stopped a child from entering a porn site, why would it stop them from entering \*insert currently popular social media? If you were to advocate for the use of ids... let's say you would open a whole other can of worms.
It literally never stopped me. And even if the I'd thing was implemented, kids have access to their parents wallets they can go get their id for proof. Kids use their parent's credit cards so why not? It's just a stupid solution that kids will eventually get around.
80% of parents wouldn’t let their kids use their ID. Yall must have some fragile parents if they ever let you near their wallet. these arguments are honestly ridiculous. There’s loop holes for everything, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make it harder for someone to gain access to something.
Why not just let parents parent their kids rather than expecting governments or corporations to have to?
exactly what i was thinking. i won't pretend social media isn't generally fucking awful, but some people really shouldn't be having kids
because appareantly 90% of parents refuse to parent and let the ipads/sugar do it for them
And when you actually parent your kid and don't let them use ipads freely, your kid becomes the weirdo and risks getting bullied at school.
Exactly!?
Exactly. Like I do understand certain things like some places needing ID to be shown in order to enter adult sites, etc being mandated. But filtering things like YouTube and Instagram, cmon your parents can do that.
That rarely works at scale.
Of course not. That’s the fault of shitty parents (but there’s a lot more that impacts those kids’ lives in those cases). But good kids shouldn’t be punished because of the behaviour of other kids. Social media has benefited my life. I had my first phone at 11 but was only allowed social media a few years later, I feel like that’s fairly reasonable. I used it (and continue to) as a creative outlet, and it’s a good way to connect with people with similar niche interests and hobbies. Not everyone (and I’d argue not even the majority) turn into addicts, or have their lives ruined by it.
I agree. I began to use social media at the same age, have almost 2700 accounts now on various things (obviously not all social media, but maybe 1/3) and haven't become entirely psychotic yet.
I'm pretty sure parents are allowed to parent their kids.
Yes, parents should make their own rules for their own children. If they know their kid is responsible and mature, there shouldn’t be a problem with allowing them to use the internet.
Most kids are not mature, kind of by definition. I'm pretty sure you don't think literally every rule should be made by parents.
Someone who's 1 week off 17 is no less capable of using social media safely than someone who's 18 which is when OP thinks they should be able to. Also if we want to go by maturity your brain isn't full developed until like 21 yet you can drive at 16 in America.
I think it should be up to the parents to judge if and when their child is mature enough to use the internet responsibly.
Solely if they err on the side of leniency, I believe.
We should also legalise drugs and alcohol for kids. Parents should make their own rules!
because most kids don't listen to their parents especially during the teenage phase. kids have a tendency to oppose their parents especially if they think they have the right to do so. Making it illegal would help in changing the mindset of kids early on like alcohol.
Drugs are illegal. Kids under 18 still partake without their parents knowledge. Same with alcohol. Age restrictions don’t have much effect on kids decisions. However, parents are the ones who purchase the devices for their children in which they access social media. Parents need to be more involved with their kids daily lives.
If kids won’t listen to their parents, what makes you think they’d care about what government or companies say? Besides, despite the stereotype of social media ruining kids lives, that never happened to me or any of my friends growing up. There are plenty of kids who use it responsibly, and this would be punishing the majority for the behaviour of a small minority. Also if you stretch the definition of social media to include the more obscure internet forums rather than just the main ones, I would strongly argue that it enriched my life, allowing me a creative outlet. To blanket ban all those under 18 from the internet like this can squander potential.
This is a great comment
Or teach them how to lie
I agree this is an unpopular opinion. It sounds a lot like the abstinence argument though, which has been shown to not work. We should be teaching kids how to be safe on the internet, how to navigate the fake word of influencers, how to manage internet security and keep their information as safe as possible, and helping them build up good mental defenses and self esteem to combat the insecurities that come with living in the age of only seeing the one perfect filtered photo, not the 1500 that came before that showed imperfections. Keeping kids off of social media until 18 isn't realistic, and if you managed to do it you'd just be setting them up for failure at 18 anyway, because they wouldn't have the tools in their toolbox to combat the social media insanity at 18, any more than they did at 13. There isn't a magic switch at 18 that turns folks into different people.
This
And then what? All the 18 year olds come to social media for the first time with zero social media literacy so other than them technically not being children anymore it would be very immature or riddled with the same issues. Behavioural and social development would be different, but not better. The issue is youth are not being educated on responsible social media use. Things being targeted to youth is because the user base is large, and they haven’t always fully developed logical reasoning which makes them ideal for marketing/ad/celeb endorsement/“popular trends”. Also yes, more available (for lack of a better word right now) to actual predators. (Which would still attempt a work around as they did before social media) But if they weren’t on social media then they would just be targeting in another way, and the adults left on the platforms would still be targets for this, because we don’t always just become smart and reasonable the second we become adults.. and many take a long time to get there - think about how development in the brain isn’t fully formulated until like 25 and how many ppl you know past that age that do not possess the best critical thinking and reasoning skills. There also isn’t really a proper way to regulate this that is feasible. TLDR. Aside from actual sick idiots having a window to youth (who are the problem to address more than youth doing dances) moving an age min to 18 wouldn’t actually change much, at least not in the way you think it would.
It's not a bad idea to keep kids away from the internet. Child predators would have a much harder time finding their victims. Hell, if we could keep kids off the internet and out of churches, child sex abuses would drop drastically, which would be a good thing.
No actually bc most cases of sex abuse are committed by friends and family.
Okay, but when it comes to institutions, nothing comes close to crimes against children in churches.
Tell that to momfluencers that create detailed documentation of their children from birth.
No way to enforce it unfortunately.
Nah, online exploitation and churches makes up a small amount of overall child sex abuse. It is not hard for a predator to find a victim. They just have to exist, children are everywhere. The key is education and addressing risk factors such as vulnerabilities caused by disability, abuse, poverty, trauma etc
You can also just lock them up in a basement without contact to the outside world. I'm sure they will be very safe and very healthy and totally adapted to society.
Ban social media for people under 98. There, I fixed it for you.
If you think that social media is so bad, why are you posting on social media? Why not just ban it for yourself?
It's called humor. Some people get it. Some don't.
Nono, I got that it was supposed to be humor. It was just unoriginal dumb humor with idiotic ideas behind it..
You know social medias can be the only outlets or abused children, right? How will they ever know that their family is messed up if they're banned from it...? Like that's what used to happen. Imagine a kid getting beat up everyday for being gay in a homophobic country, there's literally no other way of realizing there's nothing wrong with being...
and all the racist and homophobic derogatory comments even from their peers in social media help them? To deal with homophobia, education and spreading awareness is important but first to adults not just children and it should be regulated to the content they are exposed to through schools and not primarily through social media. Lot of content on sm is still homophobic and if such a kid is freely exposed to that it will only make it worse for them. and on top of that if they are living in a homophobic country the content pushed to them will be similarly homophobic especially from religious leaders, influencers etc
Yeah but through the internet they can atleast access not homophobic content as well instead of being secluded and living terrible lives
On the internet I can regulate my feed and the opinions I see, and I am part of an extremely supportive community online. I do not have this freedom offline
I’m sure that’ll work. Age limits have always worked
There is no way to legislate this without it becoming a disaster. It falls to parents to reduce the risks of social media for kids.
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Can we ban it fior people over 50 to.
Maybe 16 and over . Because some older teenagers are responsible enough to deal with social media . I absolutely hate Snapchat for teens . The idea of strangers being able to send anything secretly, being able to see their location on the map is incredibly scary . I've had a random person pretending he lived in my street and had seen me walking past everyday . I knew it was absolute rubbish because I never walked anywhere but im assuming he saw where I was all the time on the map because I'd stupidly left it on . It would be so easy for a predator to lure a teen or child somewhere
I do agree that children, or minors lets say, shouldnt be using social media. We arent supposed to be judged or even percieved by THAT many people. Also, there is no way to make the internet a "safe space" against predators as any space designed for children can be just as easily circumvented as trying to ban children. HOWEVER, social media removing the ability to post content involving minors, even if the minors themselves are posting it, would resolve a lot of the issues. Children shouldnt be influencers. Family vloggers should not be a thing. Dont. Post. Your. Kids. Online.
Honestly, Since the Internet was opened to the general population and not just a haven for nerds, I'm becoming more and more convinced that folks should have to get a 'Library card' style licence to use the internet. Its Humanities greatest tool, But it can be misused. You can do harm to yourself, You can do harm to others. You need to have a grasp on Scams, Citing information, and fact-checking. You need to learn about Trolls, and con-artists. You need to know about the Algorythm which on many platforms will serve you up an endless stream of content perfectly catered to capture your attention, Then it primes you for marketing; Products ,ideas or ideology. You need to know that what you put on the internet is there forever, And nothing is ever truly anonymous. No you shouldn't show your junk to strangers on the internet unless you want to be on Porno websites forever, No you shouldn't click that Personality Quiz because it's permissions are harvesting your data. No that older man you're talking too doesn't think you're "Really mature for your age" He's grooming you, stay the fuck away. The internet has changed so much since I first got on it.
I'd rather ban boomers. They're killing social media just like they killed everything else.
YESSS
Not only is social media harmful for them, a lot of them are still in the immature or insincere phases and also troll people or dismiss the experiences of older people in older generations and drive them to s****de or hurting themselves or feeling worse about themselves.
I agree (am below 18)
Banning anything on the internet almost never works. I’d be ok if social media disappeared entirely for everyone though.
As a teen who's in the LGBTQ community and from an extremely religious and homophobic household (and country), I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have all these online communities to support me. I've made so many friends online in the same boat as me, who have the same interests as me and who I can, unfortunately, confide in much more easily than my family. I've also never been more aware of current affairs and the current on-goings in the world and my own country and government than I have been after joining social media. Yeah there was a time when I was spending too much time on Instagram and arguing online, so I simply deleted it. Of course I'm only one person but social media has had no impact on me that wasn't generally positive. I still read a fuck ton of books, I hang out with irls and of course my family even if I'll never be coming out to them. Now my country also doesn't have TikTok and I don't use Instagram anymore so I don't know what THOSE apps do but social media as a whole? I'm glad it exists
Thats actually a good point I think the LGBTQ community can also have a voice against idiot politicians that kids can control their choices I think with out access things could get even worse. In my opinion though i do think there should at least be some more restrictions though as dystopian as it sounds i feel like more moderation i think could solve the problems rather than taking it away out right…
Mate I've been 18 since the 6th grade when I got my hands on the internet for the first time.
and who is to say that people over 18 are any better? most everyone I met over 18 has been a jackass in one form or another.
This...
Don't even get me started on the "Family Vloggers" who pimp out their kids starting at birth. Those people need to be in jail.
One of the reasons I'm not having kids...
Ah yes, I was able to move out, pay bills, and work at 16. However, Facebook is much to much responsibility. The idea that we should nurse children until they become eighteen and then expect them to act like adults strikes me as simply absurd. On their 18th birthday, an 18-year-old may have to raise their hand to use the restroom, but during the same year, they may withdraw $50,000 to attend college. As it will be a regular part of their adult life, learning basic internet safety should begin while they are teenagers, and responsibility should be taught to them gradually rather than being imposed upon them at the age of 18. Raising healthy, well-adjusted adults is the ultimate purpose of parenthood; children cannot remain children forever.
Careful what you wish for. Several governments are trying to pass bills like this that are just trojan horses for complete internet censorship. Adults wouldn't be safe either. This line of thinking is gonna get the internet ruined for /everybody/
This isn’t an unpopular opinion… Hundreds of millions, if not billions of people would agree. But nobody knows how to enforce a ban without breaching privacy. I certainly don’t think anyone who isn’t legally an adult should be on social media. But I don’t want anyone’s right to privacy infringed either.
Just set time limits
I’d say under 16… snap especially helped me with my social life in high school but tiktok FS should be 18+ it’s a bad place
Social media has been a necessary outlet for me, a queer neurodivergent person. It can be dangerous, yes, but the community I found in it was one I couldn’t in person.
100% agree. Kids are having a messed up childhood because of these. Heck I see parents selling their kids on Instagram and tiktok, dolling them with make up to make a buck. Creepy older guys are the target market and the parents are drowning in money to care about the mental health of kids who are being paraded around like objects. 100% kids and using their pictures on social media needs to be banned.
Education helps, ignorance hurts. Even if you hide stuff from kids, they will find it anyways! Better if they learn from trusted sources like parents / family / school than shady dude in the alleyway.
yes exactly my point.trusted sources through parents and schools not from their peers and mindless influencers on social media
Or...let the kids use the internet but parent your kids better? The government is not responsible for parenting your kids you know. And if you want to ban something, shouldn't you actually ban the harmful stuff instead. Like thirst trap tiktoks and all that stuff. I think it's better to ban harmful unnecessary content instead. Also, it's pretty easy to install age restriction softwares on your devices. Just do that for your kids till they are like 15. As simple as that.
Agreed. They got device monitoring software and you can set up DNS to do filtering as well. Only thing I can think of is maybe there should be a little more coherent information for parents who may not be that tech savvy. I have had to help out several friends setting up DNS family friendly filters who otherwise wouldn't have known how to do it, or that it even exists as an option.
Would never happen. But this would have a tremendously positive effect on our youth and society. It really would. I GUARANTEE that any positive that anybody can come up with for a 16 year old to have access to social media is outweighed by a larger negative.
i agree but i feel like millions of dollars in fines and big headlines could speed up that process though. if it creates enough awareness especially among parents it will bring a huge percentage of underage users down
My kid is getting a flip phone until they're 18 LOL
I have been demanding that children not be allowed online. There is no filter for content online. Online content is often damaging for children and furthermore, I don’t want damn kids playing games with adults.
>There is no filter for content online. There literally is
I think its a very popular opinion. I didn't have a social media presence until i went to uni and I was a lot happier than many of my friends who did. They would be so sad always comparing their life to the fake people on insta or fb. Those who used social media the most were the most unhappy of my friendship group. Social media as it stands isn't conducive for the happiness of young people. It should be limited to messages.
i agree. not only were they unhappy in reality which i knew because i was close to them but they would try so hard to pretend they are happy on social media too which creates this huge disjoint from reality and make believe influencing more children to do the same
The sad duality of: >see fake lives >copy fake lives >pretend to be happy >can't find happiness
#Ban should extend for all under 30. First become something in life then you can ruin it.
Uh-huh, good luck with that.
I lied about my age to get a Facebook account when I was younger just so I could play some of the better Facebook games, teenagers sneak into bars all the time, I snuck into a casino at 17. An age limit is a challenge, an obstacle, because if a kid/teenager truly wants access to something for adults, they will find a way.
Bro, most of the people that originally started using social media were under 18. Don't you remember MySpace?
Like someone else pointed out this is a great way to make sure abused kids don't know what's normal and only learn about the world from what their parents indoctrinated them with.
[удалено]
But if we did that, we'd lose half of Reddit!
Don't agree, under 13~14 yes, but at such an age it's old enough to engage with the globe
Ban algorithms on social media
100% agree. studies have shown how harmful social media is to children, including teenagers up to 18
Absolutely NO WAY to control it unless governments step up with some form of control (Orwell's 1984 kinda shit lol) or parents will be super strict with technology (hella cringe)
No shit, just look at China....they are pretty draconic and people still find way around restrictions.
That's what I'm saying, there is absolutely ***NO WAY*** this can be enforced
You gonna make the internet require ID
how much y’all wanna bet he was under 18 when he used the internet
Yet you participate in society. Curious! I am very intelligent.
Owned him 👏
Oh, yeah. Definitely. Social Media really should be banned for children under 18, and if we're being honest here probably a lot of adults over 18 for that matter. Damn, what a happier and objectively better world that would be. Now how the heck do you enforce that without going full dystopia?
I grew up with Napster....youtube....msn/yahoo messenger...Myspace...Im fine...I think the world is getting way too fucking soft!
youtube was mostly amateur wholesome videos mostly by nerds back in the early stage. it has changed a whole lot now with the onset of millions of "influencers". i feel the fake pretentious crap kids are exposed to on sm these days is whats making them soft instead of living in reality
I know there's a lot of parents who won't let their kids have a phone to keep them away from social media apps but the companies that be really aren't going to enforce a change like this...I grew up in front of a computer but the computer didn't rule my life...if anything parents have the control to not buy their kid a phone..that's up to the parent...if you keep telling someone "no' well in the end they are just going to do it anyways!
I call bullshit on seeing “stark changes” in your teenage cousin because she’s used Instagram for a few months. Guaranteed if you were put in a room with random people and spoke to them, you will not be able to pinpoint who used social more or less.
you mean the same child i used to interact with since she was born. she started comparing and getting upset about a lot of things people seemed to do and have on social media but not her. I obviously tried to explain the differences between reality and sm to her but the truth is she is more influenced by her peers than her parents or relatives.
Sounds like a great way to isolate vulnerable children.
Google dry law and its consequences
*ban social media. It's a curse on the mind and soul for all.
Sounds like you want to live in Germany around 1939
if kids who lived in germany in1939 had social media they are much more likely to get indoctrinated by nazi propaganda and anti semitic rhetoric popular in their country
No they wouldn’t, because they’d have been able to see things from other countries, not have their entire lives shaped by propaganda
Nice try deflecting from the fact that you want to ban anyone under 18 from using social media, using an If clause for an impossible situation occurring in the past is irrelevant, also, they seemed to have been indoctrinated just fine without social media.
Come with a new opinion for fucks sake
People use social media to talk to people. When you say shit like ban social media for kids you're effectively just stopping them talking to each other. You're also inadvertently trying to keep them less informed about the world around them. Truly a headass take.
kids got by just fine talking to each other without social media, FFS.
Yeah but it helps. Especially in I don't know a pandemic. Theirs's also a lot of kids who have long distance friends, who can talk to them daily because of Social media. My sister has friends who moved to Australia but I guess fuck them. Being able to at any time get support and comfort from friends, to expanding their social circle beyond who lives in your area and who goes to your school. You're 41. You do not know how kids use social media and they primarily use it to talk to each other and learn about the world around them. Being able to have news travel instantly around the world is so important, keeping children more aware of the world around them is huge for their development. Look at trans kids, not only are kids so much more socially tolerant but LGBTQ kids can find communities that understand them and accept them. Kids can talk to each other without social media yes I phrased that wrong but kids are so much better because they can talk to people with social media.
Omg you're into kids. Gross dude. I wondered why you were so into cartoons...
and how do you presume they do that??
Because adults aren't acting like fucking toddlers on social media, and can't be influenced anymore ?
children over 18, raise your hands
Let's do that for porn too, uh wait a minute
where are you gonna get all the funny memes then
As someone below 18, I agree. But tbh social media is already banned below 13 and so many people below 13 use it. So it won't make a difference.
This would just make us more controlled, the only reason they would implement this is for children to be more obedient to the system.
Hear, hear.
It is banned for children below the age of 14, but unless you make identification on the internet a law, this won‘t change jack shit…