Many countries want to ban youth from social media. Is the world reaching its peak?
With an increasing number of countries implementing social media bans on young users, there is a growing feeling that these restrictions are becoming more common and that social networks may face the blame.
On Monday, Britain joined those countries, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a law to ban British children under the age of 16 from a list of social media applications, with fines of millions of dollars for platforms that fail to take appropriate measures to close the accounts of these young users. Starmer aims to bring the law into effect in the spring of 2027.
While each country testing these bans and restrictions is taking different approaches and at different levels, there is a sense among some experts that this could represent a revolution in social media. One US expert suggested that they may face a reckoning similar to what tobacco companies faced in the 1990s.
“Some people are calling it a kind of tech Big Tobacco moment … a convergence of momentum around these issues,” said Justin Hendrix, Brooklyn, NY-based editor of Tech Policy Press.
Social media is now more than two decades old and governments have been slow to regulate the industry, according to a London, Ont.-based technology analyst. Carmi Levy, especially given the research linking its use to negative mental health effects in young people and the number of cases alleging harm.
“Until now, governments have been very content to let technology companies create the rules of the game, operate as they do without restriction,” he said.
“Now, we’ve seen where those chips can land and nobody’s happy with the results.”
Sociologist Kaitlynn Mendes says this new global wave of telecommunications regulation and the growing desire for more accountability from tech companies has been years in the making.
It comes after high-quality accounts from technical experts, conversations started by popular publications such as Anxious Generation, a documentary The Social Dilemma and a Netflix show Youth – all relevant to the real life of countless parents and teenagers, he said.
Consumer products are often not released to the public without testing or determining who is liable if they fail, he noted.
“Social media companies seem to have really escaped all of that,” said Mendes, a sociology professor at Western University in London, Ont., who directs the Digitally Informed Youth: Digital Safety Lab.
“Why are we allowing this technology that is in so many of our hands and our homes to be released without that rigorous testing and without those accountability measures?”
When asked why the government didn’t outright ban social media for under-16s, Culture Minister Marc Miller said ‘there’s a part of my brain that agrees with it, but I think we know that social media can be made safer by design.’ He added that parents and state governments have an important role to play.
It adds to what came before
With Australia’s introduction of social media bans for under-16s in December setting the stage, each country that follows through on discussions or implements its own laws appears to be adapting and adjusting its approach, Levy said.
“They’re using their experience, the best practices, the bad practices from countries that have done it before, and they’re building on that growing global body of knowledge,” he said.
Levy says the UK proposal appears to take what Canada and other countries have introduced and take it a step further by adding age restrictions to AI chatbots.
By including video streaming like YouTube and clarifying restrictions on who can interact with children on sports platforms and live streaming, the UK recognizes “that all these platforms have strong social components and have the same impact on their users,” Levy said.
Starmer noted that he expects to discuss cyber security with world leaders at this week’s G7 Summit in France that began on Monday.
The United States has warned against the UK’s laws, suggesting they infringe on freedom of expression and burden American technology companies.
Five G7 countries are considering or passing laws restricting the use of social media by young people. Speaking ahead of Monday’s meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney noted that other countries will be on the same page about taking action on artificial intelligence and child safety.
Different ways
Concerns about the negative effects on the mental health of young people have primarily motivated policy makers around the world to consider limits on social media, but, according to Hendrix and Tech Policy Press, local priorities guide discussions or legislation in each area.
The non-profit media, covering technology policy and democracy around the world, has been tracking social media boundaries for young people around the world as countries consider, propose and implement laws.
For example, national security concerns and the trafficking of young people are some problems that have been raised in Ecuador, he said, while other regions led by authoritarian governments have been more determined to block the content of pornographic images or other material that leaders deem inappropriate.
Hendrix notes that considering AI chatbots in the proposed rules suggests that countries learn from their failures with social media and try not to repeat them with artificial intelligence.
And he says he’s seen more talk about security requirements by design, such as eliminating certain features of the platform, such as infinite scrolling or self-playing videos.
As more countries move quickly to implement the law, Hendrix told CBC News it will be interesting to see if it creates some kind of “global impact.”
Mendes, a professor of sociology, would like to see more countries take targeted steps around forum rules and safety laws by design that support the mental health of young users instead of simple age-related bans. However, he suggests that change will come easier as more countries do as prices are stronger.
“If a telecommunications company has to make significant changes in one area, it is likely to spread to all areas,” he said, because it is very difficult to manage otherwise.
When countries come together to demand change, it is difficult for the tech giants to back down, he said. “They may be forced to make changes or they won’t be able to work.”
