Smart phones and social media

I agree that a dumb phone is a good idea for young people, I felt much better knowing my teenage daughter had a means of calling for help when she was out alone. Social media and smart phones hadn't been invented then and there was a similar hoo-ha about dumb phones.

I totally disagree that people should be children until the age of 21, it's way to late in my opinion, I think legal adulthood should start at 18. At 18 peopl could well be expected to use social media, such as whats-app groups fo work and educational purposes, to ban them from doing so would cause more harm that good.

I see that many agree with a ban, but I'd be interested to hear how you think it would work and if anyone thinks social media's a good thing?

Yes, I agree phone is necessary, but social media is evil. I used FB during my studies because we had a group there where we shared our projects and it was really helpful. One picture, click upload, share and done. But after graduation I happily removed myself from there. I saw the pictures other shared mostly photos with pig noses or rabbit ears, thousands of same photos in same poses and photos of food etc. boring and dumb is understatement. But I guess this is how NTs happily show off. This is not even the worst thing. The worst thing is that young people who may look for friendships in the internet are more naive and there is higher risk of them becoming victims of various forms of abuse. And here again autistic teens are at much higher risk, but not only them. It’s general. 

I agree with banning social media as it's an hostile environment and I don't think young people should use it before they're ready as they are very young and impressionable. But I think banning phones for younger people is a mistake because it's a way of keeping in touch with people R.E. texting and allows them to call somebody in an emergency...something that hopefully is never needed, but on the occasions it is it could mean the difference between someone living and dying.
Also, children and teenagers can access Childline via their phones and that's a resource many find extremely useful. I used it when I was 15 and continued until I was 19 and then I had to stop. It was a good resource, I miss it.

But yeah, social media needs to be banned for anyone who isn't an adult. It's such a bad place to be, speaking mainly of the main social media such as FB and X. Social media should be a lot better than it is but it's unpoliced and literally a platform for a lot of people to say and do whatever they want to...with no consequences. I had a little brother who was bullied on there for years and he suffered mentally because of it and attempted to take his own life. He's luckily safe and well now but he no longer uses social media and is happier for it.
I avoid the big social sites but hope this site will be a better more friendly one to be part of.

In my experience of using it and seeing the effects of its use, social media is generally a net negative. There are some good uses but by and large it seems bad for mental health and it’s certainly bad for privacy and security. Many people rely on it for news and facts which are just untrue. I believe this causes far reaching problems, including fuelling the growth of populism and damage to our democratic values. I think everyone, not just children, should be wary of using it and strictly limit their involvement and engagement. Banning is difficult to enforce. I don’t think that’s the message. It’s bigger than that. 

The debate has been made very one sided in favour of this technology as real experts in the field have had their research and findings suppressed for many years as to the dangers of even dumb phones and any time the truth has surfaced, it has been dismissed and derided as “conspiracy theory” by giving the masses unrestricted access to such technology there was a deliberate attempt made to get people addicted to it and this was used as the excuse to shift everything online - the negative effects of this on people’s physical and mental health has been totally dismissed and ignored and has been derided as “conspiracy theory” 

I don’t even agree with giving children dumb phones either, as the negative effects on children’s brains from dumb phones is well documented, yet this research by real experts in the field has been suppressed and has been kept from most people, precisely because it is the truth and when it has surfaced, it has been dismissed and derided as “conspiracy theory” which I have discovered for myself before Covid, having been a supporter of the truth and patriot movement for a long time - I’ve always thought it odd that this technology was given out to the masses in the 1980’s and made widely available (the only real barrier being costs) without any sort of licence system being put in place nor any sorts of restrictions on who gets access to such technology, especially as we know that the children of the elites are not allowed any access to this technology below the age of 21 by thier parents 

I think it’s a good idea. But only if there is effective age verification. It may protect children from many form of abuse also sexual abuse. Many teens under 16 get unwanted invitations to chat and awful messages with videos and photos that may traumatise them. Sending such content itself is abuse. Plus there is a lot of aggression in the social media. I don’t use FB TikTok etc but from other channels I know more or less what’s going on there. Some group of teens beats their peer and posts the video of it in social media, just an example of many such awful behaviors. I remember that when I was a kid, there were also aggressive kids (I was their prey, constantly in survival mode) but I’m not sure if it was so bad. I think it’s getting worse with the social media. Or maybe just my impression. 

Kids will still go online at home and with their games. But social media is playing a massive role in mental health and wellbeing as kids aren't taught how to also manage it properly.

This simply does not go far enough, as it must be further raised to 21, to which the legal age for everything must be raised to - nothing can shake my firmly held traditional based belief that a child is a child until they are 21 and therefore no child under 21 should be allowed anywhere near the internet at all for any reason, regardless of the circumstances and the same applies to all mobile phones, not just smartphones - since the 1960’s people have been brainwashed and mind-controlled into accepting modern nonsense based ideas and abandoning traditional values, which is why our society is in the mess that it is in today - we have got to get it into our heads that a child is a child until they are 21 and stop this nonsense - strong leadership is now required because most people no longer realise what is in their best interests anymore and most people do need the “nanny state” - the only path out of our current situation is an immediate return to traditional values in every area of our society 

I do think it's a good idea - in my opinion, social media is evil. It's bad enough dealing with bullying in the "real" world, without having it online too, where I believe people are more inclined to be unpleasant as it feels more anonymous.

Dumb phones are fine for kids - they can still keep in touch by calls or texts. It would be better if they had a proper keyboard for texting though.

I think giving under 16's fairly basic phones (without social media) is probably a better idea. Give them, I guess, a safer outlet to speak with their friends.

I think the whole debate needs more exploration so we can fully understand the pros and cons.