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I still am kind of shocked how this is going:
- Kids unter 15 can’t afford their own smartphones or computers. Parents are buying those. Parents are also providing the internet access as no provider accept you if you’re that underage. So parents are giving their kids unsupervised internet access without monitoring what they are doing?
- There’s no way to enforce this without rolling out ID requirements for everybody. So parents not parenting their kids are leading to me having to upload my ID to fucking Facebook or even Lemmy? That is not ok and not a good way to do this
- If those kids are getting 15, they are free to post on Elon Musk child porn-generating platform X? Why not force those companies to provide a safe space for everyone without a child-porn generator, without predators grooming children and without those platforms causing depression and suicides? Why should that be ok for 16 year old kids or even adults?
On the plus side, kids under 15 should be taught not to give their names, ages, locations, or any other personal data on the internet. Avoiding the bans that providers would have to enforce against them instills long-term privacy consciousness, making them better netizens in the future.
On the minus, the kid is now violating the law when they get online. They are going to conceal their online activities from the responsible adults in their lives. Groomers and other predators are going to have a field day.
What the ban absolutely won’t do is reduce screen time or keep kids off social media.
Also without further education - congrats, now you’re fifteen. Here’s your free unfiltered access to propaganda, AI slop, sponsored posts (and occasionally post from your friends)
It‘s the laziest way to deal with that issue and therefore the least effective. It can only backfire in my opinion. Minors need education not bans.
VPN use is gonna skyrocket. If kids want on the internet, they WILL find a way. They’re a lot more technologically adept than these dinosaurs in power.
On the plus side, kids under 15 should be taught not to give their names, ages, locations, or any other personal data on the internet
Yeah, but this ban won’t achieve any of this, but it’ll undermine everyone’s privacy and security.
Social media fuck up people of all ages. These bans don’t fix the underlying problem.
Sure it will. To bypass the ban, kids will be forced to conceal their identities. If they expose themselves, the platforms will be compelled to close their accounts. The consequence of failure to maintain privacy is the inconvenience of opening a new account.
This ban would teach kids to lie better. To conceal their identities online.
That certainly isn’t the objective of the ban, but it would be a positive consequence.
Unfortunately, the negative consequences almost certainly outweigh the positive.
Also on the minus, now everyone has to provide ID in some way to legally access social media.
Sounds like a good way to kill social media. Anti-social media will thrive in such an environment.
This is actually a good idea.
French minors are facing an explosion in self-harm and suicide attempts
And this is something that is happening simultaniously in other countries
https://notesfrompoland.com/2026/01/23/youth-suicide-deaths-in-poland-rose-27-in-2025/
I think it would be better just to ban smart phones from kids. If they absolutely need to use social media, they have to do it on a desktop computer.
