I am a big believer that the downfall of society as we used to know it (and I speak as a Gen Xer) is due to smartphones and social media.
People are addicted to these things, often wasting hours unexpectedly when they go down rabbit holes of endless videos. And this does not even take into account the ridiculous challenges that have sometimes cost children their lives or done serious damage to their well-being.
To the latter point, France is reportedly going to ban social media for users under the age of 15.
French outlet Le Monde reported this week that there is a piece of legislation that has already been drafted on this matter.
The outlet stated, "Many studies and reports now confirm the various risks caused by excessive use of digital screens by adolescents.”
This would fall in line with a recent ban enacted in Australia, which gives only restricted access to children under 16 to sites like Facebook and TikTok.
The report stated that French President Emmanuel Macron will present the legislation for debate, hoping to have it in effect before the end of the year.
I think most of you reading this would agree that social media can become addictive. But it is one thing when you are a 58-year-old going down the rabbit hole than when you are a 12-year-old doing the same.
The Columbia University Irving Medical Center posted a study in June about the addictive nature of social media on children. Psychiatrist J. John Mann, one of the leaders of the study, stated, “These kids experience a craving for such use that they find it hard to curtail. Parents who notice these problems should have their kids evaluated for this addictive use and then seek professional help for kids with an addiction.”
Yunyu Xiao, the lead author and assistant professor of population health science and psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, added, “While national surveys and previous studies have documented rising screen use, our study is the first to map longitudinal trajectories of addictive use specifically, offering new insights into when and for whom risks emerge. Policy efforts should move away from generic limits on screen time and instead focus on identifying and addressing addictive patterns of screen use.”
I do not have children myself, but most of my friends do, and I have seen firsthand how kids get planted and won’t move anything but their thumb or index finger as they scroll through social media for hours. Many of these parents say it is better than a babysitter, but at what cost?
There are also the dilemmas posed by ridiculous online challenges that are very harmful to kids. Now, some of them can be fun and innocent, such as dance-related challenges, but we have also seen idiotic ones, such as the Tide Pods challenge, and the like.
Another challenge that went viral was the so-called blackout challenge, with at least 15 young children dying trying to complete the task. Then there was the Orbeez challenge, in which kids were shooting gel balls into crowds or at moving cars. There are the obvious safety concerns, but also worries about someone seeing the toy gun, thinking it is a real gun, and drawing down on these children.
Some of the challenges that pose elevated risks are the tranquilizer challenge, where kids try to see how long they can stay awake after taking benzodiazepines, as well as the Kia challenge, where kids are being challenged to steal the vehicles.
I have to be honest, I don’t necessarily think a social media ban for kids is a bad thing. I see far more children who walk around like zombies, staring down at their screen than I see playing sports or games outside like we did when we were kids. Ideally, parents would take the lead on this, and I think most of us would agree that we don't want the government butting in on how we parent our children. But, as I stated, I don’t have kids, so let’s hear from the parents about how they feel about a ban, or about what can be done to prevent children from becoming social media zombies. Would you be against a restriction being put on devices that would block access for younger children to these websites?
