as someone who was a Desperately lonely teenager, i think banning kids from social media altogether is diabolical. the solace and community i found in online spaces ( bandom tumblr, youtuber and book fandoms, etc) were what stopped me from feeling completely alone during my teenage years. I undoubtedly would not have become the person i am today without the freedom of expression and friendships i was able to find through these online communities. i do not disagree that social media and being online as a whole has taken a completely different form in the 5-10 years since i was that age, and i do not disagree that changes need to be made to make platforms safer and more productive for kids to use again; but just removing their access to them completely seems so backwards to me. Is the way to stop child fatality/injury through car accidents to remove the right of u18 y/os to ride in a car ? of course not - it's to better educate drivers about road safety and imply harsher sanctions when safety measures are ignored. the perpetrators are at fault, not the kids who suffer at their hands, so the perpetrators are the ones who face the consequences . so why in this instance, are we allowing young social media users to be punished for dangers posed to them by other agents , social media developers and big tech companies that continually discard their safety? responsibility for generating features that keep children safe and removing ones that pose risk is being completely negated in this discussion. And at the root of it all, theres kids we are claiming to be "protecting" by imposing this ban, theres a depressed and lonely 14y/o like i once was, who has now lost touch with the only places they felt truly free to express themselves. shame on the uk government.
gracieabrams
