Not safe for kids

Not safe for kids | Daily Tribune

Truth to tell, children, and even adults, glued to their smartphones most of the time bring far more worries than the latest shenanigans of power-mad politicians rejecting outright the separation of religion and politics.

So, the one recent story that jumped out at us was the news that there’s a concerted push by forward-looking Filipino legislators to ban minors, specifically those under 16, from social media.

Pushed in the aftermath of the horrific shooting of high school students in Tacloban City, the issue is now at the forefront of serious attention and debate, centered mostly on the question of whether it is high time to regulate children’s easy access to social media and online games.

Aside from that main question, other big unanswered questions are also coming to the fore, including whether children have been left to grow up in a lawless online world for too long, and whether the design of social media platforms, algorithms, and recommendation systems has put harmful content in front of children who never sought it out.

As we can see from these anxieties, we’re now explicitly recognizing the worldwide fear that “many children face serious harm online and that too many social media companies have built products and business models that prioritize keeping children engaged for longer, often at the expense of their well-being, privacy and rights,” as Amnesty International puts it.

In other words, we’ve reached the point where we can’t fully trust wild and woolly social media when it comes to our children’s online safety.

Thankfully, some of our more responsible politicians, like Senators Win Gatchalian and Risa Hontiveros, are seriously listening and preparing to act on the issue.

Other interested lawmakers should also take note that banning children aged 16 and under from social media is fast becoming a legislative trend worldwide.

In fact, banning social media for children reached a tipping point after Australia imposed an age limit on social media platforms last year that included powerhouses Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Elon Musk’s X, TikTok and Snapchat.

This month, the United Kingdom became the latest country to set a minimum age of 16 for accessing social media platforms.

Indonesia and Malaysia also introduced bans for those under 16, while Austria, France and Norway are seriously considering age restrictions. Brazil introduced a blanket smartphone ban in schools, and children under 16 are allowed access only if it is connected to a parent’s account.

Many thorny details and clarifications, of course, remain to be addressed and thoroughly threshed out, such as the fact that many tech-savvy children can circumvent a social media ban if one is implemented.

But whatever should or can be done, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that we now need to do something responsibly to protect current and future generations of Filipino children from grievous harm.