The Science is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence is Fuelling a National Push to Ban Social Media for Youth
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/05/science-not-settled-how-weak-evidence-fueling-national-push-ban-social-media-youth
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@kim_harding Interesting take, well worth a read!!!
@madeindex I have school age kids of my own and I agree with the social media bans for under 16's here in Australia. If parents can't be held responsible for their children, put it on social media to ban them. There's is clearly an issue with influence on young children coming from social media and online gaming platforms such as Roblox which opens up communication like MMORPG's.
@samuel Corp-run Social Media certainly is horrible for kids well-being, however the way they are abusing this as an excuse for their authoritarian designs is even worse IMO. At some point those kids grow up and have to live in a world with almost no more digital & (increasingly) physical #privacy - like the rest of us.
@madeindex I agree with that perspective as well, at the same time. Yes, this will all eventually lead to requiring some form of official government ID to log into these sites (and I would rather log in with an SSO from a government agency vs handing over my ID to private social media businesses). And there are negatives and positives of that argument also.
@samuel I would not be against complete digital transparency if we lived in an utopian society, but as things stand, the "system" is frequently abused by the elites & corps.
Therefore if, if this were to pass now & you did anything they don't like, they will be able to stop you even easier & likely completely.
It would completely rob us of the ability to fight back.
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@madeindex @samuel good comment.
That said, that they 'frequently do it' is the system. What is being negotiated is the cost of the social permission.
The line is 'way back there' for me.
