There is a problem with social media addiction but the solution isn’t restricting teens from it. The solution, as with most things, is education. Educating the kids, educating their parents and making sure they both have the tools available to them to make smart decisions.
If the parental control comes from the social media site itself then it’s likely the parent that’s being controlled. The most important control is limiting screen time and not every site allows parents to set hard limits.
If you set parental controls on your own teen’s device, all you’re doing is isolating them from their peers and making them the kid with the weird parent who doesn’t let them post on tik tok.
Social media isn’t what it was when we were growing up. It’s designed to prey on them the same way slot machines create gambling addictions.
I’m no puritan but I do truly believe banning kids from social media and restricting teens at a legislative level would be a net benefit for society. Same as alcohol or drugs.
I didn’t say I approve of the current tactics, I’m just pointing out that circumstances can be more complex than simply saying ‘let the parents sort it out’ and leaving it at that.
There is no problem to solve that hasn’t already been addressed with parental controls.
There is a problem with social media addiction but the solution isn’t restricting teens from it. The solution, as with most things, is education. Educating the kids, educating their parents and making sure they both have the tools available to them to make smart decisions.
You can’t educate someone out of an addiction. That’s a fundamental misunderstanding about addiction…
No but you can educate their support networks and build other systems to help them work through their addiction.
Limiting total time spent on something is one of the parental control options. It isn’t just blocking things 100%.
Just having parental controls exist isn’t an effective solution. Well implemented education is required to ensure it is used effectively.
If the parental control comes from the social media site itself then it’s likely the parent that’s being controlled. The most important control is limiting screen time and not every site allows parents to set hard limits.
If you set parental controls on your own teen’s device, all you’re doing is isolating them from their peers and making them the kid with the weird parent who doesn’t let them post on tik tok.
Social media isn’t what it was when we were growing up. It’s designed to prey on them the same way slot machines create gambling addictions.
I’m no puritan but I do truly believe banning kids from social media and restricting teens at a legislative level would be a net benefit for society. Same as alcohol or drugs.
Prohibition didn’t work for drugs either, so why would it work here? Why do we need to learn that lesson over and over again?
Limiting total time spent on something is one of the parental control options. It isn’t just blocking things 100%.
“I only let my child smoke crack 3 hours a day”
The issue with this argument is that many kids don’t have good parents, and some don’t have any parents at all.
Are those kids just supposed to be left to the mercy of bad actors because of their circumstances?
Guess we just let for profit companies and authoritarian states suck up all the data on everyone whether it works or not then.
I didn’t say I approve of the current tactics, I’m just pointing out that circumstances can be more complex than simply saying ‘let the parents sort it out’ and leaving it at that.
The current solution just cuts those at risk kids off from all modern support networks.
On purporse to keep them trapped in abusive households with no Support