If you’ve been paying attention, you’d know that Australia is banning young people — under the age of sixteen — from accessing social media. The idea, right or wrong, is that such a ban would prove beneficial to their mental health. That idea seems to have caught on.
Denmark is next in line to prevent kids aged fifteen and under from getting onto social media platforms, though it has left a little space for younger teenagers to get onto TikTok and the rest. With their parents’ permission, of course.
Social media sucks (for kids)
The Danish government said late last week that it would take steps to prevent children in that country from accessing the various platforms that serve as entertainment and/or online connection spaces. Those under the age of fifteen will be affected, but parents will be allowed to grant permission for those aged thirteen onwards to access whatever’s been banned.
The country’s digitalisation minister, Caroline Stage Olsen, said, “The so-called social media thrive on stealing our children’s time, childhood and well-being and we are putting a stop to that now.” The platforms most used in Denmark by the age group in question, and presumably those first in the firing line, are Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
A vote hasn’t been taken at the Danish parliament yet, but Reuters reports that a majority of parties in government have indicated that they would back such a move.
How easy it will be to yank social media access from the younger masses, and how the country will enforce contraventions, remains to be seen. Recent changes to the UK’s laws have seen an influx of age- and identity-verification technologies that are easily bypassed by determined teenagers. Actually keeping kids away from their brainrot-generating dopamine machines will be a harder task for governments than just taking a vote and expecting compliance. Okay, maybe not in Denmark.
