Debate Over Banning Social Media For Kids Under 14
In France, it's a pressing issue: Macron's announcement comes in the wake of the murder of a high school teaching assistant who was stabbed to death by a 14-year-old student, which has stirred up a conversation about the radicalization of children online. His plans involve adding age verification to some sites.
Online age verification is a big topic in itself at the moment, with the swift implementation of the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act being implemented across the web.
These age checks are ostensibly meant to protect minors from pornographic content and other harmful material, and of course apply to websites such as PornHub; however, the law also includes social media sites like X (Twitter), Reddit, Discord, and Bluesky, as well as sites such as Spotify and YouTube. Sites use methods like ID scanning and "AI" facial recognition software to "verify" users' age. In the wake of the implementation of the OSA in the UK, Americans are growing concerned that age verification will soon be implemented in the US, too. Critics worry that "age verification" is a path to censorship, surveillance, and even broader data harvesting than we have now.
...Which brings us to this little tidbit: in Florida this year, a federal judge blocked the enforcement of a state law that banned social media accounts for children under 14. While the judge appreciated concerns about the effect of social media on kids, he stated that the 2024 law was "likely unconstitutional."
SO...being tuned in to this general conversation, when I saw this post on the popular Ask Reddit page from user Lola_girl_10 asking, "Do you support banning social media for anyone under 14 years old? Why?" I had to know what people had to say. Here are the best comments from the conversation:
"I support it in theory, but how do you implement it? Does it require me to use my government ID to use the internet? I want less surveillance, not more…"
"Yes. I mean, most platforms require users to be over 13, but kids half that age are addicted to them. But the Online Safety Act isn't the way to do it."
"Let's start with the basics. How do you define social media? Is YouTube social media? Is Reddit? Are forums like Stack Exchange or GitHub social media? How about online video games? Niche platforms for marginalized and vulnerable populations?"
"No, because we don't live in a world where anyone proposing this type of legislation cares about protecting children. Every single one of these proposals is nothing but a power grab that will be used to further eliminate privacy and control free speech."
"Parental controls are available for things like this."
"I don't support it because that requires age verification, and that makes it impossible to be anonymous."
"In theory, yes. Social media, in my opinion, is like a drug, one to be used responsibly when you have a level of brain development that understands the impact it's having."
"Yes, and I think we should also ban online gaming for young children."
"Ban phones from schools and classrooms; otherwise, it'll take a cultural shift of parents actually parenting instead of handing their toddler a tablet as soon as they can be entertained by it. Any laws requiring ID or verification should be avoided."
"Honestly? I support torching all 'social' media to the ground and salting the earth. They are evil. Facebook and Twitter data centers ought to be nuked."
"Not at the expense of my privacy or risking my identity."
"I don't support it in the way the UK has just done it. Neither the government nor corporations should be invading the privacy of citizens to make up for the failures of bad parents."
"Probably. I listened to a podcast once that made the point that we massively restrict all these things that we know are bad for kids — alcohol, tobacco, etc. — but when it comes to social media, we do nothing, despite research showing a clear link between social media use and child/adolescent suicide."
"Yes. But my kids are already banned. If you let your kids loose on the internet, then you're a bad parent."
"I have two 13-year-olds and we have explained to them in great detail why they are not allowed to use social media. They. Do. Not. Need. It."
"Yes, 100%. But 18 would be better. 'Social'-focused media like Instagram and Facebook are a societal cancer."
"Yes, I support banning social media for kids under 14 — and not in a 'boomer killjoy' way, but a protect-your-brain-before-it's-fried kinda way."
"No. And I'm not falling into the 'but it's the children!' trap either. The current actions are to establish control, and I feel like it's happening everywhere at the same time, from Australia to the EU and the UK to the US, as if it is a coordinated thing."
"Yeah, I support banning social media for anyone under 14 because at that age, kids often aren't emotionally ready to handle the pressure, comparison, and potential dangers online. Giving them more time to develop offline social skills and confidence can help protect their mental health."
And finally: "I'm just glad I grew up on the net before all this."
So, what do you think about curbing kids' access to social media? Is it a terrible idea, a great idea, or perhaps a good idea that's pretty much unenforceable? I want to hear all your thoughts and opinions in the comments below — or, if you want to write in but you prefer to stay anonymous, you can check out this anonymous form:
Who knows — your comment could be included in a future BuzzFeed article. Please note: some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
People Are Sharing The Measures They Took "Just To Be Safe" That Ended Up Preventing Something Awful Happening Later On, And These Are Beyond Wild
Note: The below article mentions sexual assault. Have you ever had an inkling to do something in the moment that you later realized saved you from experiencing something awful? Well, when Reddit user u/cadouxmoring8 asked: "What precautionary measure did you take, thinking 'just to be safe,' that unexpectedly ended up saving the day later on?" over 7,000 people provided their answers. Here's what they had to say: 1."My paranoia about a strange guy in a car kept my house from flooding. We had a house fire in October 2021, and we were bouncing back and forth between our house and a rental. Christmas Eve was extra cold, and our pipes were frozen in our house (The house was built in1894, no insulation yet). So we decided to go to the rental for Christmas Eve. My wife and daughter were taking one car, and I was taking the other. When I left the house, I saw a man sitting in his car across the street, messing with his phone. Given the cold weather, it seemed odd. When my wife left, the man pulled his car across the street to the spot she just left (this is a one way street). Since I was further back, I watched for a bit, but he didn't do anything; he just got back on his phone." "Eventually, my wife called and asked where I was because she didn't bring her keys for the rental. I drove over, let her in, and told her about the guy. She encouraged me to go back and point one of our security cameras in his direction, just in case. When I get back, he's still there, so I go inside. Once I'm inside, I hear water running. In the 30 minutes I was gone, the water started running again. In the back kitchen where the fire had been, the faucet was still on and was flooding the room. I shut that off and went downstairs to check the cellar under the kitchen for water leakage. In the cellar was a cracked copper pipe spraying water across the room. So, I shut off the water and cleaned up the kitchen before the damage could cause permanent problems. When I left, the guy's car was still there, but he was gone. I think he was meeting a neighbor for Christmas Eve dinner. But if he hadn't been there, the house would have been flooding for who knows how long." —u/sethrandall Related: 2."I was scheduled for a mammogram when I got to 50. Somehow, it didn't work out that year because the appointment was in Bavaria, but I live in Düsseldorf. And I also thought it was not that important. But a year later, they sent me the invitation again. I scheduled a mammogram in Bavaria then, as I was visiting my parents anyway, and I thought, well, they probably aren't going to find anything, but if I have cancer and didn't have that mammography, I'm going to regret it." "I expected a letter telling me that they had found nothing. But in fact, they did find something that needed further investigation. It turned out to be slow-growing breast cancer. One year earlier, it would not have been there yet. And one year later, it would have been much larger and possibly needed chemo as well as surgery. But as it was, they could just cut it out, and that was that." —u/P44 3."I once was asked if I could give someone a ride home from a local convenience store. Normally, I would say no, but I decided to be nice that day. They were a lady in their mid-30s or early 40s, so I figured it wasn't that big of a deal. For whatever reason, I subconsciously mentioned that I wasn't able to buy what I went into the store for because I forgot my wallet at home. The person said, 'You don't have your wallet on you?' I said, 'Nah.' They looked a little concerned and, a few moments later, said they could walk to their destination just fine. I thought it was weird, but I didn't think too hard about it." "The next day, it was on the news that an armed robbery took place in the exact location she asked me to take her to and gave a description that 100% matched the person I was going to take home. I didn't really save myself as I had nothing to steal but an interesting story." –u/Godkashi 4."For some reason, I felt that I was being watched, so I closed all the blinds and let the dog out the back door instead of walking him. My dog found the creep in my backyard and dragged him by the pant leg out of a bush, thrashing him around. Based on the video, the dog got at least four good bites in." —u/0WattLightbulb 5."As a manager, I noticed my team was getting saddled with harder work than the other teams. I informed my boss, but she laughed at me and sent me packing. Since we tracked employee productivity by cases worked, I had a feeling I'd need some kind of proof in the future, so I went back to my team, explained the situation, and informed them I wanted them to keep daily logs of all of their cases and time stamp them even though the system did this automatically. Fast forward two years. Another manager believes his employees are getting harder cases than the other teams, so he complains about it to my/his boss. His rapport with her is significant as he works the same shift, so she looks into it. After a three-day secret investigation, I get one of the most aggressive and hateful emails of my career, accusing me of cherry-picking millions of cases over years of work for my team." "My response was to hand her daily logs from every employee for two years. 11,000 sheets of paper, give or take. The absolutely incredulous look she gave me was worth it alone. 'What's this?' That's 100% accurate daily logs of every employee and their cases worked. 'Why do you have this?' To protect them from you when you inevitably did this. 'This is ridiculous. There's no need for them to be wasting time keeping these logs!' There wasn't until today. Feel free to check them. 'Oh, I will!' Three days later, I got my apology. It turns out an employee was coming in early and scanning in my employee's paperwork and tossing their cover sheets so there was no record they had done any of the difficult work. After running numbers, it was determined that the other manager was incorrect. The evidence showed that my team worked roughly 34% of difficult cases and accounted for 15% of the total workforce. The day shift employees all got into trouble for passing off hard cases. The day I got to tell my team their logs literally saved all of our jobs was one of my best days at work ever." —u/turkeyburpin Related: 6."I got life insurance on my husband during open enrollment, and we joked, 'Haha, I'll be a rich widow ha ha.' We were totally joking because we have never had any policies on either of us. He got sick and passed away two months later. The money saved my butt. I tell everyone to get life insurance. It's so very important." —u/adoglovingartteacher 7."I was coming home from sledding when I was six years old. Just my dad and I were in the old Ford Explorer. Before we left the park, we had an argument about wearing my seatbelt (I think it was because I was bundled up and chunky and did not want the added sensory discomfort of being strapped into the passenger seat). Dad won, and I wore the seatbelt. He forgot to put his on." "About a mile from our humble farmhouse, he went decently slow because the roads were slick; we hit ice and spun out anyway. We ran right into the tree line through a barbed wire fence and smacked into a tree head-on pretty hard. Because my dad was not wearing his seatbelt, he ended up on my side of the car, head smashed into the windshield, blood EVERYWHERE. Luckily, an older couple were driving down our relatively quiet country road and stopped to help. They drove my poor little traumatized self down the road to our house and took my dad to the ER. He was thankfully fine; he just needed stitches and maybe had a mild concussion. I think my dad still had glass coming out from his scalp like five years after that, though. Glad he was a persistent, good father who made me put my seatbelt on." —u/PenisDouglas 8."About 20 years ago, I almost stopped to help a stranded motorist. I saw a highway patrol behind me and knew he would stop. That night on the news, I saw that he did stop, and a shootout ensued after the officer noticed the ignition wire had been pulled from the distributor. The 'stranded' motorist was an escaped prisoner looking for another car to steal." —u/zantilley 9."I run a reptile and exotic animal rescue in South Texas. We are having very cold weather. I drove out to the rescue to check on everyone ONE MORE TIME, even though I'd been out there many times today. The heat had stopped working. We ended up having to move all the reptiles to my house. They would have died. It's crowded as fuckkkk but everyone is alive. The 90-pound tortoise in my living room is probably gonna fuck some stuff up, but he's alive." —u/LizardPossum Related: 10."I randomly went with my friend to buy her new car; I just needed to get out of the house. I convinced her to buy gap insurance because it was cheap, and I wish I had gotten it for peace of mind. Her car got stolen, and instead of being stuck with the loan, the insurance paid out (after 30 days or whatever), and she got another car." —u/Soggy-Art6998 11."I helped a victim of human trafficking get to a shelter. Context: I was a medical student at the time, and the city my school was in was a hub for human trafficking. I noticed a patient in the ER who had a pretty bad injury to her face and was with a sketchy-looking guy who was not related to her. She wasn't my patient, but I brought my gut feeling up to her doctor, who then made up some excuse to talk to the patient alone and got her to help. I never talked to her myself, but I couldn't shake the vibe I got from looking at her and the man she was with." —u/PMME_ur_lovely_boobs 12."I slept with the bedroom door open the other day; we almost never do that, and honestly, it was because I wanted to be able to hear for some reason. I smelled gas at midnight. It turned out my daughter had turned the stove knob just a touch before going to bed five hours earlier. That was a scary one." —u/Patsfan1093 13."I bought a generator 15 years ago because a hurricane was forecasted. I drove three hours to get it but didn't lose power that month. My hubby rolled his eyes. Two months later, the 'October' storm hit, dumped 20 inches of snow, the state lost power, and we lost power for 13 days. We had the wood stove and the generator, well, some lights, a stove, and a fridge." —u/Lefty-boomer 14."Closing the curtains. I'm sitting in my living room watching Frasier, and I can't explain it, but I get this overwhelming feeling to close the curtains. I'm thinking to myself, I've lost it, and it's probably nothing. It nags me the rest of the episode, so I close them. It turns out that there was a guy who would look into people's windows to see if they lived alone. He would then sexually assault and rob them. He hit my next-door neighbor at the time." —u/timeforthecheck "One night, I was sound asleep and dreaming I was hanging out at a party or whatever, and suddenly, all the people in the room turned to me and just urgently and repeatedly told me to 'close the blinds.' I usually close them all as the sun goes down, but in my room, mine were open and my window was open a tiny bit, so I woke up and locked the window and closed the blinds. A dude had been looking for women alone and ended up breaking into a house down the road from me." —u/[deleted] Related: 15."Nurse here. Per usual, I was being overworked. I had over nine patients in the ER. One patient had cancer and hadn't been feeling well. The doctor insisted he was fine. However, just to be safe, I continued to regularly check in on him as he was chilling in a chair in the hallway. He started complaining of feeling super tired and off. His daughter (who also was a doctor) kind of said something along the lines of 'You've had a stressful day, dad. We will get you home once the doctor discharges you.' Just to cover my ass, I took his vitals. His blood pressure was 70s/40s." "I had a critical care room open and immediately rolled him in there, calling out to the doctor that something was wrong; I could just feel it. The charge nurse got mad when I told her he needed that room (she didn't like that I was a travel nurse calling the shots, but I didn't care). The doctor felt I was overreacting, but they repeated my vitals and did a Stat scan. The guy was bleeding internally (I can't remember full details now), and they found metastases to his spinal cord. We were able to stabilize and ship him to a bigger hospital. That irritated ER doctor thanked me later and said if that guy went home, he most likely would have died that night. It felt really, really good. All because I listened to my patient and my gut and didn't let the stress of over nine patients cloud my judgment." —u/nobasicnecessary 16."A classmate and I swapped clinical days for my sister's wedding. I emailed my professor and clinical instructor about the swap, and they both replied that it was fine. Then they forgot, and I didn't answer my phone that day because I was up to my ears in last-minute centerpieces. I was notified that it would count as an unexcused absence (which would have required me to repeat that semester), so I forwarded the original acknowledgments of the swap to my professor, clinical instructor, and dean of students. Suddenly, it wasn't a problem anymore." —u/Raebee_ 17."My son had graduated college and then decided to follow his girlfriend to a small town where she got her dream job. It was a small town, and good jobs were hard to come by, so almost a year went by with him only working part-time jobs. He had hit the age where we could not have him on our medical insurance anymore. I was concerned about this and started looking into options and told him to apply to our state's low-income medical. For once, he listened, and I thank God every day because not a month after being approved, he started to have leg pain." "The first two trips to the doctor, they wrote it off as a pulled muscle but the third time, they ordered a test to find out he had a blood clot that stretched from his lower calf up into his abdomen. They placed him right into the hospital — but remember: small town. They did not have the expertise to take care of this 50-mile ambulance ride to a bigger hospital, lots of tests to find out why, and a total of over $120,000 in charges, which he had to pay less than $20. He is good now, but it did damage the vein in his leg, and he had pain from it and will have to be on blood thinners the rest of his life." —u/Tasty-Run8895 Have you ever taken a "precautionary measure" that ended up saving the day later on? Tell us in the comments below what happened. Also in Goodful: Also in Goodful: Also in Goodful:
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jersey Shore pizzeria's alleged Nazi stickers lead to online uproar, torrent of bad reviews
A Jersey Shore pizzeria is facing online backlash after photos surfaced of alleged Nazi stickers inside the restaurant. Franconi's Pizza, a pizzeria open for 20 years on the Wildwood Boardwalk, was the focus of several threads posted on Reddit this past weekend. Photos uploaded to Reddit (caution: inappropriate language in the link) showed what users claimed to be a refrigerator in Franconi's kitchen. On the fridge appeared to be a sticker of SS bolts — a symbol of the Schutzstaffel, a paramilitary organization ran by Adolf Hitler. Another sticker appeared to include a Totenkopf, another symbol of the Schutzstaffel. The two symbols are still prevalent amongst neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups today. The Reddit post garnered hundreds of interactions, leading Franconi's to receive a slew of negative business reviews. So bad were the Yelp reviews that the website posted a statement saying that the restaurant's profile has been locked and is being monitored by Yelp's support team. 'This business recently received increased public attention resulting in an influx of people posting their views to this page, so we have temporarily disabled the ability to post here as we work to investigate the content. While racism has no place on Yelp and we unequivocally reject racism or discrimination in any form, all reviews on Yelp must reflect an actual first-hand consumer experience (even if that means disabling the ability for users to express points of view we might agree with),' the statement on the pizzeria's Yelp profile read. Franconi's declined to comment on the situation both when reached by phone by NJ Advance Media Wednesday and in-person at the restaurant Thursday. The original Franconi's Pizza of North Wales, Pa., which is associated with the Wildwood location, did not respond to request for comments made by NJ Advance Media. As of Thursday, a sticker-covered refrigerator, identical from the photo posted online, was seen still in the pizzeria, but with many stickers — including the ones with Nazi symbols —removed. Franconi's has yet to officially comment on the situation. But in a video posted to YouTube and Reddit, one worker said, 'you losers need to find something better to do with your lives' when asked by a customer about the stickers. More food coverage: These 2 N.J. bars were just named among the best in America by USA Today This N.J. diner is now open 24 hours. It's the only all-hours diner in its county. A popular N.J. mall restaurant was shut down by a judge. Owner vows to reopen. Philly's hottest cheesesteak is returning to N.J. Here's what we know. One of N.J.'s best sandwich spots closes shop, now pop-ups only. Here's why. A top N.J. hot chicken spot is expanding. Here's what we know. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Christopher Burch can be reached at cburch@ Follow him on Twitter: @SwishBurch. Find on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us at Play Farm Merge Valley
The Hill
36 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump admin pausing issuance of visas for foreign truck drivers, Rubio says
President Trump's administration is pausing all issuance of worker visas for foreign truck drivers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday, arguing the growing number of international, commercial operators is putting the lives of Americans in danger. 'Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers. The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,' Rubio said in a Thursday post on social platform X. Rubio's announcement comes days after Harjinder Singh, a truck driver, was accused of making an illegal U-turn that killed people around 50 miles north of West Palm Beach. The Department of Homeland Security said this week that Singh, who was arrested for three counts of vehicular homicide, was in the U.S. illegally. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said on Tuesday that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration launched an investigation into the deadly Florida highway crash. Trump penned an executive order in late April requiring all commercial truck drivers operating in the U.S. to be proficient in English. The president designated English as the country's official language in an executive order in March. 'They should be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit station officers,' the White House said in the order at the time. 'Drivers need to provide feedback to their employers and customers and receive related directions in English.' Foreign truckers in the U.S. are usually working on H-2B visas. On Thursday, the State Department confirmed that it is vetting over 55 million U.S. visa holders for possible deportable infractions, including criminal activity, visa overstays and engagement in any form of terrorist activity.' The State Department said last week that it would pause all visas for visitors from the Gaza Strip as it conducts a 'full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.'
