Currently, many social media apps only require the user to be 13 - and even in the cases where they require the user to be 18 there’s no real enforcement mechanism and you see tons of minors.
Some argue social media has been positive in allowing young people to better connect.
However, in my view it’s overall been negative. Social media spreads misinformation that can shape young impressionable people’s world views. Social media has been attribute to increases in depression and suicide amongst young people; young people literally die trying to do social media challenges. Social media (and phones generally) have been associated with making young people dumber. It’s also ironically making us more anti-social.
It personally really worries me what the consequences of this will be. We have a whole generation of young people who have been programmed with mis-information from fairly young ages that will be hard to reverse. People are having less in person real life experiences that are important for good communities and societies. And every life lost to social media is awful.
I think at the very least, every American high school should have a class on how to spot misinformation, fake accounts, scams, ect. I think apps like Instagram should work differently for kids 13-18 - where it doesn’t show them external reels, political posts, ect, and is basically just a platform for teens to communicate with their friends. In order to have a 18+ account, it should have an actual enforcement mechanism - like sending in an ID Photo or Social Security Card to confirm.
Yes but with some restraint.
