I’m asking for public policy ideas here. A lot of countries are enacting age verification now. But of course this is a privacy nightmare and is ripe for abuse. At the same time though, I also understand why people are concerned with how kids are using social media. These products are designed to be addictive and are known to cause body image issues and so forth. So what’s the middle ground? How can we protect kids from the harms of social media in a way that respects everyone’s privacy?
Maybe parent your children better, it is your job, not the government’s.
Somethings are just banned for children, like smoking or drinking or getting tattoos. Its not always a matter of parenting
But those things are also something you have to physically go into a building to get, social media is consumed primarily in the home, where parents are in control of what their children can and can’t do, proper parenting, instead of trying to be your kids friend, will go a lot further than more government oversight and legislation.
This may have been true when personal computers were the primary way people access the web, but I don’t think thats true anymore. With smart phones kids can access social media anywhere. At home sure, but also at school and extracurricular events or at a friends house etc