The European Union today moved closer to a ban on social media for children across its 27 member states in what will become the most meaningful effort so far to protect young people from the dangers of spending too much time online.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, cited a recent report by the child psychiatrist, Professor Jörg Fegert, and epidemiologist, Dr. Maria Melchior, which pointed to harmful features of social media such as the infinite scroll, autoplay, recommendation algorithms and persistent notifications.
The study revealed that across Europe, the average child spends four to six hours on social media daily, with about 60% of those children experiencing what the authors wrote were “socio-emotional development and susceptibility to mental health issues.” This has resulted in widespread sleep and concentration problems, and increased rates of depression and anxiety.
The authors recommend that the EU block social media for children under 13 unless they are under the supervision of a parent or teacher. For adolescents, children aged 13 to 18, the authors recommend that access should only be granted if the platforms have built-in safety mechanisms that limit the child on features such as infinite scroll. They also recommended that social media be blocked for all toddlers.
“Childhood is a period of extraordinary and delicate brain development,” von der Leyen said in a statement. “During this stage, our children need time in the real world. Time to play, to build friendships face-to-face, to make mistakes. Time to shape their own identities, their own personalities, before an algorithm shapes them instead. I believe we need to give our children this time.”
The move comes after a slew of countries have already blocked social media for children under 16, with Australia being the first and a number of other countries, including the U.K., following. More than 20 countries in total now have either blocked social media for young people or are in the process of developing the legislation that will profoundly affect how young people use various platforms.
Critics have argued that this is government overreach or that kids will find ways around the blocks, which seems to have happened in Australia. Those against blanket bans have argue that the onus should fall on parents to teach children how to use social media responsibly while children should be empowered to make better decisions when online.
Photo: Unsplash
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