As a young person myself, it is incredibly painful to watch my generation fall into shambles due to the influence of algorithmic social media. I’ve witnessed friends partake in dangerous trends, perpetuated by platforms designed to capture and hold the attention of its users at any cost. These platforms often present low-quality content that can be created by people as young as five years old, yet their impact is anything but juvenile. This consistent exposure is detrimental, leading to severe mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and addiction. We need to take immediate action to put an end to what can only be described as digital narcotics.
Currently, over 95% of teenagers have access to a smartphone, and more than 45% say they are constantly online. The algorithmic nature of these platforms, which learn users’ behaviors and preferences to keep them engaged, can easily turn into a trap that young minds may struggle to escape. The sense of obligation to stay connected and the fear of missing out only intensify the addictive nature of social media, ultimately impacting their emotional and psychological development.
To combat this, we propose a prohibition on the use of algorithmic social media platforms by individuals under the age of 18. This restriction is intended to provide a safe environment for our youth, free from the pressures and potentially harmful content that these algorithms perpetuate. Instead, we should encourage alternative digital spaces that foster learning, creativity, and genuine human interaction. For example, safer social media sites that don’t implement engaging algorithms, like Mastodon, Lemmy, PeerTube, and many other federated platforms.
By implementing this ban, we are not trying to isolate youth from the harm of social media, but teach them to make responsible choices, and have fulfilling and healthy digital lives. This is not implementing that we should ban technology from teenagers, quite the opposite actually. Teach them to protect themselves and lead healthy digital lives, such as I have taught myself.
Sign this petition to demand stricter regulations on algorithmic social media access for minors and help us take the first step towards a safer, more mindful digital age.
Petition Link:
What’s the plan for enforcement of the ban?
There is no plan as there would be no solution. You can’t ban shit on the net.
There is not much plan on that yet. The point of these petitions is to attract attention, for example, from governments, to show them that there are a lot of people who care about something. Also to help spread awareness of the matter. With all the age verification stuff going around, something like this is very possible. What I’m trying to do right now is simply gather any signatures so change.org would promote my petition, again, to spread awareness.
That part is my biggest concern. Every attempt to age gate the internet so far only leads to gross privacy invasions or junk science.
As someone who hasn’t been a teenager for a long time, there is no way I’m handing over my ID to social media sites.
To answer your original question, the desired outcome would be to give parents a bigger understanding of the issue and well as an understanding of the alternatives. To make parents stricter about the matter.
I guess I’m not convinced an age based ban is appropriate. There is evidence of the effect on adults too. Maybe we should ban algorithmic social media completely? But the general public would probably be against that, as they like having content specific to them.
I did consider petitioning a complete ban, but like you said, I figured that would be impossible. Right now, all im really trying to do is spread awareness. Trying to find ways to share this while avoiding algorithmic social media isn’t exactly that easy.
I completely understand and agree with that. I am also against the horrid ID verification. I’m not trying to support that, but the social media problem is still extremely serious. However, the petition is all about the algorithmic social media, and in fact promotes federated platforms like lemmy and Mastodon, which don’t and shouldn’t use age verification. If teenagers grow up around the idea that the algorithmic media is bad, and are taught to use these federated sites, they will likely continue that into adulthood, factoring out the age verification.
I’m really all for your sentiment and ideal. But this is technically (realistically) impossible to achieve, no matter how many votes you’d get. You just can’t enforce such things. Maybe local, maybe some kids initially are blocked, but sooner or later they will get back on track. By VPN or bought accounts or whatever.
You have to start with the kids at the bottom, not the platform on top. Sadly I have no actual good idea how to do this, hence my criticism is unproductive, for which I apologize.
I understand your point of view, I think this petition is more of a personal attempt at advocacy, I think for example that this should be aimed at parents to make them stricter on the matter. The problem is that most parents don’t understand the dangers of social media, so the most effective solution would be to “educate” them.
Education is also the best I could come up with. But also not a trivial task I wouldn’t know how to set into action…
