Something Must Be Done

[SueEllen]

Will he still be PM?

And no of course it ain't going to work (remember drinking and smoking under age) but it's a start.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceqdny4l3jdo

The UK has announced it is going to ban social media for under-16s.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that the ban would take effect in early 2027.

He said keeping children off social media was "the right step for Britain" and the best way to keep them safe online.

[ladymuck]

I'd like to know why children need smartphones in the first place.

If parents need to track their children any time they are out of their sight, then there are other ways to achieve that. Similarly, there are other ways to stay in touch should one need to contact the other.

Also, how about speeding up the process of holding rapists and sexual offenders / predators to account with less emphasis on victim blaming and ultra light sentencing.

Social media apps are a curse and a scourge but I'm yet to be convinced this is the solution.

[Croesus]

I'd like to know why children need smartphones in the first place.

If parents need to track their children any time they are out of their sight, then there are other ways to achieve that. Similarly, there are other ways to stay in touch should one need to contact the other.

Also, how about speeding up the process of holding rapists and sexual offenders / predators to account with less emphasis on victim blaming and ultra light sentencing.

Social media apps are a curse and a scourge but I'm yet to be convinced this is the solution.

Yes, I couldn't agree more. What's wrong with an an old style Nokia if they need to keep in touch? Answering my own question, I guess the genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

I'm also not sure how this crackdown is going to work - presumably a VPN will circumvent these restrictions? Admittedly, I have no idea of minutiae of the proposed implementation.

[tazdevil]

Children don't need smartphones and if they need to be tracked then simply sew an air tag into their clothes. This ban won't work and takes us more down the big brother route with facial recognition being suggested as a security gate. Everyone including kids will just use a VPN and then they'll try to ban or control them as 'why do you need a VPN if you've nothing to hide'? But as all links are SSL encrypted these days they can only see the endpoints unless they bring in Chinese style state routers that handle connectivity. We're going down a long dark hole here!

[Protagoras]

We'll need to wait for the specific implementation details.

However, there's a risk that whatever controls are applied may reduce safety by removing end-user anonymity. And yet 'bad actors' hide behind that same anonymity.

Who would trust any sort of authentication service not to get hacked or leak data?

I've never been convinced that banning things really works - people will find a way.

It seems to me that the problem is with the content / absence of moderation / algorithms and that's where regulatory action should be focussed.

It's perfectly possible, for example, to watch YouTube and never come across anything problematic (if one can even be bothered with the site anymore given the level of adverts).