I’m asking for public policy ideas here. A lot of countries are enacting age verification now. But of course this is a privacy nightmare and is ripe for abuse. At the same time though, I also understand why people are concerned with how kids are using social media. These products are designed to be addictive and are known to cause body image issues and so forth. So what’s the middle ground? How can we protect kids from the harms of social media in a way that respects everyone’s privacy?
This is a deeply unpopular take, but here goes.
There’s loads of comments here saying “parents gotta parent”, which of course is absolutely true.
The problem is, it’s difficult to maintain a “no social” policy with your kid if every other kid in their peer group is engaging together on social media.
If there are government mandated age verification checks on social media, then even if they’re trivial to bypass, at least it allows parents to stand together with other parents.
My position is, age verification isn’t perfect, but it’s better than nothing. I guess we’ll see what teachers say about the current measures in the coming months.
Many, if not most, social media sites already have this in the form of a “I assert I’m over 13” button during account creation