National MP Catherine Wedd is introducing a new member’s bill aiming to ban children under 16 from accessing social media platforms in New Zealand.
Wedd, MP for Tukituki in Hawke’s Bay, said the My Social Media Age-Appropriate Users Bill is about protecting the “most vulnerable young teenagers and children from the online harms of social media”.
Wedd said social media was an “extraordinary resource” but it came with risks.
“Right now, we aren’t managing the risks for our young people well.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the move was intended to protect young people from bullying, inappropriate content and social media addiction.
This addresses a genuine and serious problem. Social media use by young people has had some terrible outcomes in terms of bullying and also peer pressure around body
size and shape.
Click to view
Click to view
This chart, via Maddy, shows a massive correlation (and no doubt causation).
So yes absolutely, having kids not able to use social media until they are 16 would be a good thing.
The challenge though is unintended consequences and definition.
A ban may make it more attractive to young NZers. They may be able to get around it easily. Parental supervision and involvement is preferable to legislation – however they are not an either/or choice.
And how do you define it. Would text messaging be captured? Group chats? Youtube? Do you name specific platforms?
So definitely worth supporting at first reading, but select committee would have a lot of work to do to see if it can be made workable, and that the benefits will be greater than the costs and unintended consequences.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition
7 comments:
Poppycock. This is rich coming from the ruling elite that funds the corrupt MSM. A platform that lies to the masses by promoting apartheid, Net-Zero nonsense, Safe and Effective and Trump is a Nazi etc. it’s painfully obvious that adults are no less susceptible to propaganda than children.
Yes - it will take some work to enforce, but it essential that it be done.
A whole generation of young people's mental health is at stake.
Just what we need, another unenforceable law.
The problem will be the enforcement provisions. Social media companies will impose identity controls on everyone to be compliant, including adults. These second order effects will tend to have a chilling effect on internet freedom. That may well be one of the real objectives.
We shouldn't let perfect be the enemy of the good. Big data analysis should be able to identify most children on social media platforms right now. There was the famous case where Target could identify which of their customers were pregnant. The focus should be solely on ensuring social media platforms have adequate data analysis systems in place to identify and remove children and leave it there.
What to ban next?
Comic books? Rock n roll? Cartoons?
The last govt already recently experimented with a ban on freedom of movement, expression, association and opinion.
How about rainbows?
We a few years of rainbow hugs and unicorns... Now we have the 'don't do as I do' being proposed.
Another sign of a government that has lost the plot! Deal with the real problems facing this nation and stay out of interfering in issues that are rightly the role of parents!
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