Teens voice: Stronger Content Regulation, not Social Media Ban
Strategies to combat youth violence need a revision, believe UK teenagers. Rather than banning social media, they advocate for stronger regulation of violent content. Let’s delve deeper.
UK Youth Parliament Seeks Stronger Regulation of Content
The UK Youth Parliament’s youth select committee, comprised of teens aged 14 to 19, recently submitted a report rejecting the notion that outright banning of social media is the solution to escalating youth violence.
The argument finds support in the exploration of the correlations between social media and youth violence.
The teenagers instead request stronger regulations that prevent social media companies from endorsing violent and age-inappropriate content.
Beneficial Aspects of Online Presence
According to the report, an outright ban isn’t feasible as there are distinct advantages to being online, such as gaining a broader understanding of the world and forming networks.
Moreover, they argue that it would be straightforward for young people to circumvent such a ban.
Call for Social Media Companies’ Accountability
The committee urged tech firms to display more responsibility for protecting youngsters from detrimental and aggressive content.
They propose the creation of a user-friendly online safety standards rating. This scorecard would evaluate platforms based on their safety measures, response to harmful content, and efforts to educate users.
Online Violence: Deep Dive into the Stats
The report referenced a disturbing 2024 survey from the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) that showed 70% of 10,000 respondents between 13 and 17 had encountered some form of violence on social media in the last year.
An astonishing 50% reported seeing fights involving youngsters, yet only 6% were proactively searching for this type of content.
Comment by Allen Carr’s Easyway
At Allen Carr’s Easyway, we understand the impact of online violence and pornography on young minds and wholly endorse the UK Youth Parliament’s call for stringent regulation of violent and sexual content and better education on online safety, protecting our future generations.
Schools already have powers to quit the usage of social media during school hours whether through phones being put in locked containers or handed to teachers. This is important to ensure young people can focus on their studies, socialise in person and fully engage at school.
A complete ban of smart phones for young people would be difficult to enforce and, as young people say, counter productive as they gain so much from these tools.
The key is regulation of the providers as well as help and support for those caught in the digital trap so that they can escape. Allen Carr’s Easyway to quit social media and tech addiction is a world leader at helping people to break free from phone addiction, tech addiction and gaming addiction.
