Social Media Ban Debate: Kids Safety & Parental Choices

N. Raghuraman, Management Guru

Look around you. You will see many families who are trying to protect their children under 16 years of age from the online world and its potential harms. We are also teaching them that it is a useful tool if used properly. They may have spent many hours or even days doing this work to make every device used by children as safe as possible. Still, those parents feel that regular monitoring of children and those settings is necessary.

Look around, there are hundreds of parents who give mobile phones to small children, so that they do not disturb them while doing daily work or while feeding them. This makes parents like us feel courageous, as if we are the only ones with the courage to say ‘no’ to our children.

Roll your eyes. Some countries are trying to ban social media for children under 16. Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia have introduced official nationwide social media bans for children under 16 by 2026. Many other countries are also moving towards imposing such restrictions or making such laws.

This week, the UK also finalized plans to ban social media for children under 16. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that ‘social media is making children unhappy. This is making it easier for miscreants to harass and abuse children. It can also harm their mental health.

Then look around. Meta, YouTube and Snapchat have criticized this ban. They claim that this will push teenagers towards more harmful platforms. YouTube said in a statement that ‘one-size-fits-all restrictions will deprive children of these curated, monitored and beneficial experiences and push them into anonymous and less safe searches.’ Snapchat says, ‘Putting teenagers away from private messaging with family and friends will push them towards less secure platforms.’

Look around one last time. Parents of children aged 8 to 11 years hope that India will also start taking seriously the harm caused to children by these digital products. They are glad that some countries are showing courage in bringing these products into the open and showing their manufacturers that many parents will not tolerate it any longer.

At the same time, those parents of children aged 14 years and above have lost hope, seeing that their children’s lives are revolving around memes. They think that like the children of Australia, who were the first to ban, their children will also find a VPN and do whatever they want.

Now please stop looking around. Look within yourself. Do you, like some parents, feel that social media restrictions are just a waste of time and actually do nothing to protect children? Do you think this absolves social media companies of all responsibility?

Do you think that children will find ways to bypass the ban and even if they see something disturbing, they will feel uncomfortable talking to parents or someone they trust because of the ban? Or do you strongly think that it is right if this ban comes and in future children will be protected from these side effects.

I think we all grew up without social media and nothing happened to us. If children use social media carefully, it is a great tool to keep them ahead in the competitive world. I’m just wondering if this ban will bring relief to parenting?

The bottom line is that Are social media bans a panacea or merely an imaginary solution, or a ‘Catch-22’ situation with no way out due to contradictory circumstances? Are you in support or against this ban? Please write to me.

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