A policy that smells like protection
I watched the news about the Czech government considering a ban on social media for children under 15 with that familiar mix of relief and unease. On the one hand, the phrase "terribly harmful" — used by a national leader to justify restrictions — captures a legitimate worry parents and educators feel. On the other, the idea of blanket prohibitions raises immediate questions about enforcement, privacy, equity and unintended consequences.See reporting on the debate.
Why this matters to me
I've written before about how societies wrestle with children, identity and digital exposure — urging pragmatic, layered responses rather than only headline bans[^1]. My argument then still stands: we must protect young minds, but protection that ignores context almost always backfires.
The promise of a ban
- Immediate harm reduction: limiting exposure to addictive feeds, harassment and adult content could improve sleep, attention and mental wellbeing for some children.
- Public signal: governments taking clear action can catalyse tech firms to prioritize safety-by-design.
- Political clarity: for parents feeling overwhelmed, firm rules feel like relief.
The perils of blunt instruments
- Enforcement overhead: age verification at scale is hard. Cheap workarounds and fake accounts will proliferate, while compliant users face invasive checks.
- Privacy trade-offs: robust identity checks often require personal data collection that itself creates new risks.
- Equity gap: children in marginalised or remote communities may lose access to learning or social support that platforms provide.
- Cat-and-mouse dynamics: banning access doesn't remove demand — it simply shifts conversations to less moderated corners of the internet.
What I think governments should consider instead (or alongside restrictions)
- Layered regulation, not single fixes
- Age-gating where feasible, combined with strict limits on profiling and ad-targeting of minors.
- Platform requirements for friction (e.g., no algorithmic infinite-scroll defaults for underage accounts).
- Invest in parental and school empowerment
- Digital literacy for caregivers and kids, realistic guidelines about screen time, and teacher training to spot online harms.
- Safety-by-default product design
- Mandate defaults that reduce addictive mechanics for new teen accounts and require transparent audits of algorithmic harms.
- Proportionate privacy-respecting verification
- Explore privacy-preserving age attestations (e.g., zero-knowledge proofs or trusted third-party attestations) rather than centralized ID harvests.
- Support research and targeted interventions
- Fund longitudinal studies and clinical interventions so policy decisions are evidence-led, not only reactive.
A short thought on politics and credibility
When a government that uses social media heavily to reach citizens proposes restricting young people from those same platforms, the conversation needs honesty. If protection becomes a pretext for expanding surveillance or limiting legitimate access to information, the cure may be worse than the disease. Policies must be specific about mechanisms, scope and safeguards.
My ask to policy-makers and parents
- To policy-makers: make the choice-based on data, pilot programs, and clear privacy protections — not on slogans.
- To parents and educators: focus on conversations, boundaries, and shared agreements with children about screen use and online behaviour. Bans alone rarely teach resilience or critical judgment.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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[^1]: I explored related ideas previously in my post on children and social media regulation, including practical age-verification and consent-management approaches (see: http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2024/11/over-doze-of-info-to-underage-kids.html).
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