Why Social Media Bans For Children Won’t Work

Earlier this week, the UK announced what has been dubbed as an ‘Australia-plus’ ban on minors from accessing social media platforms. It is being called ‘Australia-plus’ because the ban will encompass all the major platforms that were covered by Australia when it introduced such a policy, but it will also extend this by introducing restrictions on gaming and live-streaming platforms. Expected to come into effect by sometime next year, there is even talk of overnight curfews and curbs on infinite scrolling for under-18s. “We’re going further than any country in the world by banning social media for under-16s and putting wider protections in place to give kids their childhood back,” UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said when making the announcement.

UK is only the latest in a growing number of countries that have either introduced such bans or are considering doing. Australia was the first to introduce such a policy at the end of last year, but since then, the numbers have only grown. The reason why governments have been so quick to this cause is because, as many surveys show, it is something many adults back. Parents have struggled to get phones away from their children. Now, governments are chipping in. Seen this way, it is perhaps unsurprising that Starmer, who is currently facing arguably his biggest political challenge and pressure to step down, will be thrilled at introduce a policy that for once pleases everyone.

India has so far resisted from introducing such a ban, but many states have begun talking about it, and a larger discussion around this is building. But even if a ban were to be introduced here, enforcing it will be an altogether different matter. Social media usage among India’s minors differs significantly from countries like the UK and Australia to make importing policies wholesale unsound. For starters, a huge chunk of India’s teenagers share devices. Rati Foundation, a Mumbai-based NGO, which conducted a study where they surveyed 1,277 teens (aged between 13 and 17 years across several cities and rural areas, belonging to both affluent and low-income households) a few years ago, found that while 84 percent of the teens had social media accounts, nearly half of them logged in through borrowed devices. Control over these accounts also tends to be uneven, with not just devices being shared, but, as the researchers found, nearly half of those surveyed having created these accounts using someone else’s email ids.

These proposals to get children off social media stems from an understandable desire to keep them safe. There have been many cases of online bullying and minors being coerced into sharing explicit photos of themselves, and some have even led to suicides. And then there is the fear of what being on these platforms does to the minds of children, and whether it might be making them lonelier and insecure, not to speak of the exposure to inappropriate content.

But a blanket ban may not quite be the answer governments have touted it to be. The first and perhaps biggest stumbling block will be about how it can even be enforced? In Australia, many children are known to have worked around the bans and continue to be on these platforms. Then there is the issue of definition. Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube – everyone seems to agree these are social media platforms that require restrictions. But what about online gaming platforms which many countries haven’t put on a restricted list. Or messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Signal, which almost all countries have excluded from their list, but where no doubt cyber-bullying also occurs. There is also the fear that such a ban might lead to minors moving to platforms that are more obscure and dangerous.

Many of these arguments in support for a ban also overlook the benefits of social media. This is the place today where everyone – children and adults – obtain information today. (We may wish, but it is unlikely children will be flipping through newspapers any time soon.) They are also particularly beneficial to the isolated and the under-privileged, where irrespective of their circumstances or location, they can learn and express themselves, and get a window into worlds distant from them.

Instead of introducing blanket bans that will really bring little change, it might perhaps be more productive to get social media firms to tackle some of the issues on their platform, and to create a space that is less addictive and suitable to minors.