Banning children under 16 from social media just sets them up for failure in real life

WHATSAPP is banning anyone under 16 years old from using its app in Europe, just as the European data privacy rules start kicking in on May 25.

Users will be asked to confirm they are at least 16 and agree to new terms of service and privacy rules. It isn’t clear yet how it will check, given that it collects very limited data on its users.

Facebook, which has a separate data policy, is taking a different approach to teens between 13 and 15. They will have to nominate a parent or guardian to give them permission to share information.

Like most countries, the European Data Protection Regulation currently has a law in place that bans kids under 13 from using social media.

Even that sounds outdated at this point, considering the average 13-year-old has a better understanding of Snapchat than someone twice that age.

But putting the age cap at 16 is going too far and this ban is going to mean changes for teens much bigger than being unable to keep up with the Kardashians.

Are there problems with social media? Yes, of course. But all these downsides that we’ve come to associate with young people on social media like bullying and body image issues existed long before WhatsApp was invented.

I know there is a dark side to online life. It’s very sad and I wish it wasn’t like this but there are also some powerful advantages.

Everyone is online these days. Our mam is on Instagram and our nan is probably on Facebook.

Tech-tethered teens today are dependent on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Snapchat.

They are helping to forge their identities, share ideas and access the news. They give teens support systems that taking away their access would be far more damaging than helpful.

In fact, studies show social media can have a positive impact on friendships. Some 52pc of teens report just that, according to a Pew study.

Teens develop a closer relationship with their friends and family, and sometimes those they don’t even know.

They use social media a lot, but more because they want to stay in touch with their friends and family than anything else.

At best, this crazy new law’s head-in-the-sand approach won’t prep children to deal with the world they live in and at worst, it will make these young people try to get their hands on social media in sneaky, risky ways.

Am I saying three-year-olds should be allowed to post selfies on Instagram? Of course not.

Ideally, I think kids should be introduced to the responsible use of technology gradually.

Parents can help their child to have healthy online experiences by educating them about safety features like comment filters and showing their child how to use them. They can show their child how they can opt in and out of things and how they can curate their social media world to be a positive one.

And it’s during the pre-16 teenage years parents have a real chance to oversee what their children are doing online and encourage them to use social media safely.

Sheltering under-16s from social

media altogether is pointless. They’ll sign up anyway once they hit 16 but then won’t have the years of experience and parental guidance to fall back on.

New technologies always provoke generational panic and this usually has lots more to do with adult fears than with the real lives of teenagers.

THE 1980s had the video nasties hysteria and I’m sure that there was moral panic in the early days of the telegram too. I remember the good old days of MSN Messenger and spending all day with friends, only to run home and ask them ‘How are u?’

Did all this poking around on the early days of the internet scar me? No. I’d say that it prepared me emotionally for Twitter trolls and for, well, life in the real world.

The internet educates and informs us. I look around at teenagers on social media and I’m in awe at their passion and drive to change the world.

The discourse around teens on social media is too often reduced to sexting and porn.

There’s a whole other side of digital activism where grassroots movements are created by tweeting, blogging and liking.

Look at Tumblr and see teens campaigning about real-world causes, teens taking the stage at TedxTeen and teens showing just how powerful a tweet can be.

They are becoming more aware of who they are, faster, thanks to being online.

Moving the age from 13 to 16 is a huge shift in policy and there seems to have been little to no public consultation. It just smacks of bureaucrats (and some parents) who are simply out of touch.