More teen social media bans are coming, but will they work?
While the world attempts to limit underage access to apps, teenagers continue to find new ways to bypass rules and undermine systems.
ShanonG
It seems inevitable that more regions will adopt teen social media bans as social platforms continue to get scrutinized for their impact and politicians look for answers to address respective constituent concerns.
Right now, Meta, along with several other social media providers, is under examination in several cases involving the perceived lack of action in protecting younger users from harm. Meta, in particular, is under the spotlight for allegedly delaying safety improvements due to concerns that doing so could hurt its business performance.
Headlines like this raise more angst among already wary parents, which then puts more pressure on governments to act and follow Australia’s lead with increased teen access rules and enforcement.
And right now, new teen bans are under consideration in several regions:
Australia enacted its under 16 social media ban in December, which implements tougher rules and penalties for keeping young teens out of social apps. The Australian government says that, so far, more than 4.7 million accounts believed to be operated by teens have been deactivated or restricted as a result of the change. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced in February that social platforms will soon be required to implement effective age verification systems in order to stop teens from accessing their apps. Denmark is considering social media bans for users under the age of 15, as reported by DW. MPs in France approved a law in January seeking a ban on social media for users under the age of 15, as reported by Al Jazeera. Portugal is considering social media bans for users under the age of 16, as reported by Reporteri. New Zealand is considering a social media ban for users under the age of 16, as reported by RNZ. The BBC reported this week that the UK government has launched a public consultation on whether to ban social media for under-16s. Thailand is considering a ban for those under the age of 14, per via the Bangkok Post. Malaysia’s cabinet approved raising the minimum age of social media use to 16 in January, per Tech Policy Press. Austria proposed an under-14 social media ban, per Voice of Vienna. Indonesia passed a law in December that will restrict social media access among teens, per the Jakarta Post.And that’s not even all of the potential teen social media bans under consideration, with more than 40 regions now at least exploring the idea of increased teen social media restrictions.
But will they work, and will they limit harms by keeping more vulnerable, impressionable people out of the social media sphere?
The research to back this up is inconclusive. As recently noted by Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, the risks of such bans might actually be worse, in some respects, than letting teens keep using social apps.
The prevailing view seems to be that if you ban teens from social apps, that will see them resort to other, more wholesome activities, like reading books or riding bikes. But that’s an idealistic perspective, which overlooks the realities of modern connection.
Teens in the modern era have grown up in the age of digital connection, through YouTube clips, gaming worlds, social apps, etc.
That’s especially true for the generation that came of age during the COVID-19 pandemic, because it ushered in a period of conducting all social interactions online. These shifts have embedded evolutionary changes in the collective interactive process, and the idea that banning certain apps and platforms will change this is not much more than wishful thinking.
As Spiegel noted, the most-used platforms already have established protection measures in place. Therefore, by banning some platforms, there’s a risk that young users will be forced to other, less-safe spaces online.
Realistically, young people are not going to turn off their computers and phones and go back to playing marbles in the street. Children are going to migrate to other alternatives, and that could expose them to far worse corners of the web.
That said, it’s worth noting that this is not what’s happening in Australia in response to the teen social media ban.
Certain social apps did see increased momentum in the wake of Australia’s new restrictions and the change seemed to signal where teens there would be looking instead of the impacted apps. However, downloads of those apps quickly reverted to previous levels and usage of these alternate platforms hasn’t gained significantly.
Does that mean that teens in Australia are just not using social apps? No, it means that they have quickly established workarounds and options to evade the bans, and that they continue using the same apps that they have always used.
Sure, Meta claims to have removed 540,000 accounts belonging to teen users in Australia, and according to The Guardian, Snapchat has restricted or removed over 440,000 profiles belonging to users aged between 13 and 15 in its app. But I can tell you, as a parent of teens, there’s been little to no impact in their activity, nor restriction on their usage overall.
(Note: According to Crikey, the Australian government's most recent research into the effectiveness of the ban, published just last week, was largely inconclusive).
Again, these kids have grown up in the digital era, and they’re well versed in VPN use, tricking age detection and finding backdoors. They know this better than older users, and in some ways, it’s comical to expect that older policy makers will be able to implement rules that will limit these younger, far more tech-savvy consumers.
But, one way or another, it does seem that more teenage social media restrictions are coming, and that social media platforms are inevitably going to be fined for failing to keep teens out, despite there being no foolproof technological solution to stop this.
The question then is whether teens will actually end up better off. It’s one, unfortunately, we’ll only know the answer to in retrospect.
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