Banning young people from social media sounds like a silver bullet. Global evidence suggests otherwise

<https://theconversation.com/banning-young-people-from-social-media-sounds-like-a-silver-bullet-global-evidence-suggests-otherwise-256587>

"Around 98% of Australian 15-year-olds use social media. Platforms such as
TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram are where young people connect with friends and
online communities, explore and express their identities, seek information, and
find support for mental health struggles.

However, the federal government, seeking to address concerns about young
people’s mental health, has committed to ban under-16s from these platforms
from later this year.

There is no doubt social media presents risks to young people. These include
cyberbullying, posts related to disordered eating or self-harm, hate speech,
and the basic risk of spending long hours scrolling or “doomscrolling”.

But is banning young people really the answer? We reviewed 70 reports from
experts in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada to
understand what they recommend – and found broad agreement that a ban may not
address the real problems."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics