As a dad of a seven-year-old girl, the Daily Star's Adam Cailler can see the logic in Keir Starmer's social media ban, but knows full well that it won't work . . . at all.
Great idea, but execution
When I saw that Keir Starmer was going to ban social media for under-16s, I had two reactions – one as a parent and one as a 36-year-old tech-savvy young person (ish) with a brain. The first was to breath a sigh of relief that my daughter won't have to go through the hell-zone that is social media when she gets older. The second was to laugh and say to myself “ha, yeah she will, she'll get a VPN”.
Most of us use these things to get access to television shows from abroad, or to use our Netflix accounts when on holiday – or even just for security purposes. Most major tech YouTube channels – like MrWhoseTheBoss and others – advertise them for stupidly cheap prices, while extolling the virtues of them. Even Mr Beast has been sponsored by VPNs at some stage.
Those VPNs that are now so common can be easily used to bypass any form of social media ban for youngsters, which renders this ban pretty much useless. The PM announced the ban and claimed “it will be effective” and followed it up with admitting that they will “get around” the law . . . which is utterly bizarre.
My daughter is seven years old; she already knows what TikTok and Snapchat is – not because she uses them (lord, no), but because it's part of everyday life in the world we live in. She will probably have a phone by the time she gets to high school (around the age of 12 or 13), and I'm willing to put money on the fact she will find a way around this new law within about five minutes of getting one.
While I admire the PM's intention with this ban, let's be honest – it's pointless. A better alternative would have been to impose proper, strong regulation onto the social media companies so that they actually change what they show to young people. TikTok now advertises its new 50-or-so security settings that make the experience better and safer for young people, which shows the willingness from SOME companies to change.
The ban feels like a punishment for young people who want to embrace technology, rather than the big tech companies who are doing the harm . . . especially as Starmer confirmed nobody will actually be punished for using it. Hey, I'm all for less social media – but social media isn't all bad, and a ban that won't work anyway just seems a very strange move that hasn't really been thought out very well.
