Weekly Update 529: Kids Social Media Bans (and Everything Else)

The kids-and-social-media discussion is just dumb. It’s not the premise of delaying their access until 16, but the inability of those who should know better to grasp where the responsibility for enforcement lies. Here’s our PM’s explainer after the laws passed down here a couple of years ago:

The onus won’t be on parents or young people. There will be no penalties for users.

And it’s been expressed many times since, in similar terms, always to the effect of placing responsibility for implementation and enforcement on the social media platforms. Inevitably, there are some massive holes in their implementation, along with major privacy and social concerns. But as I say this week (and have said on many previous occasions), it doesn’t have to be perfect; over the long run, it will gradually change social norms, and the kids in that shoulder age bracket right now will have a different set of expectations than those who come after them. But hopefully, in the interim, the whole “onus won’t be on parents” mantra will be respected more than it has been to date.