MAKING SOCIAL MEDIA SAFE FOR CHILDREN

 

If there is an age limit for driving, casting vote, consuming alcohol and getting married, then why is there no age limit on the use of smartphone and social media? After all, why do we not let children do certain things which their parents are allowed to do? It is because their brain is not yet developed. Their pre-frontal cortex, the part of the human brain responsible for reasoning, judgement, planning, impulse control, and understanding long term consequences is not fully mature in childhood and adolescence. That is why children are impulsive and at times volatile but parents are cool and collected and worldly wise. Social media however is an arena in which the children have invaded often without parental guidance, and that is creating a havoc all over the world.

While social media can offer children opportunities for connection and creativity, it can also present serious risks. Child sexual offenders often exploit these platforms to access children. OECD research has shown that as many as 50 services that are heavily misused to facilitate child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), including several mainstream social media platforms. But social media also presents other risks to children like preoccupation, escapism and conflict – particularly affects girls.  Social media has been blamed for suicide attempts, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and self-harm (with undetermined intent) among children.

Pressure to block minors from parts of the internet has been around since pornography and gambling websites overran the early global web. It has taken on a new urgency since a Meta whistleblower leaked internal emails in 2021 purportedly showing knowledge its products were harmful to young users. Meta, in turn, has said the documents were misinterpreted. Social media platforms like Facebook, X (previously Twitter), Snapchat, and TikTok were once hailed as ways to stay informed and connected, but reports of election manipulation, the spread of illegal content and fake news, and cyber bullying have since tainted them.

Countries are clamping down on social media for children due to health, safety and developmental concerns, along with challenges of enforcing age appropriate use. The number of such countries have gone up to 12. These policies aim to create safer online experience and reduce the risk associated with early and intensive social media exposure. The public and corporate attention on this issue is going nowhere and a gradual change in norms and practices is now demanded from social media providers.

Age-tiered safeguards only work if the service knows a user’s real age. The failure to verify a user’s real age has serious consequences. Children can create accounts with falsified birthdates, undermining age-tiered safeguards. For example, a child who signs up as a 13-year-old at age 8 could be treated as an 18-year-old by the time they are 13, gaining access to potentially harmful features such as direct messaging or live streaming. Most platforms still rely on self-declaration or only assure age in specific cases – such as when suspicious activity is detected or for access to certain features. Some platforms do not assure age at all.  Governments, then must provide clear, coordinated frameworks that uphold children’s rights and safety while balancing overlapping regulatory mandates – such as those overseeing online safety and data protection. Research on age assurance technologies and age appropriateness for digital services used by children is the need of the hour. Despite our best efforts some children, because of their ingenious and inquisitive nature, will find a way to fool the age verification system, but better age verification will certainly reduce the risk for some children, and that is surely better that doing nothing. 

Several systemic reviews published in medical journals suggest that there is a positive association between various patterns of digital use – i.e., frequency of social media use, smartphone addiction, suicide-related social media use, sexting – and suicidal thoughts and behaviours, in adolescents and young adults. However, whether such patterns confer suicide risk remains scientifically inconclusive. Given the consistency with which these associations were found across studies, however, as well as the ubiquity of social media and smartphones across the life span, it is imperative to continue examining whether and how such media may impact the mental health of the most vulnerable individuals.

Social media exposure during critical years of brain development can distort social perception, fuel anxiety and depression, and disturb sleep. Cyber bullying, psychological distress and sextortion among children are rampant. Shielding children from cyber-manipulation and addictive engagement mechanisms is urgently required. Social media is teaching our children and adolescents to measure their self worth against certain AI generated reels rather than real life human experiences. AI can make a child jump from their high-rise building like a superman, but when the real life child interprets it as a genuine possibility and attempts the same, the results are invariably fatal. Such dangerous game shows turn images into real identity and external validation overshadows internal values. The concepts of friendship, intimacy and self worth get totally distorted by these online games. The outdoor games of our childhood made us bold, expressive, attentive, and smart, where as these evil online games are providing children with ideas to harm themselves

Prevailing theories of suicidal behavior propose that the development of suicidal ideation – and the progression from ideation to attempts – occurs through various social and cognitive factors. Investigating such factors in the social media context may help improve our understanding of why certain aspects, or patterns, of social media use may be harmful.

What is the contrarian viewpoint?

There are mainly two - first, such a move is fundamentally disempowering for our future adults and instead of working to support them, make them more resilient, and enabling them to develop autonomy, we are simply trying to exclude them from these spaces. Secondly, by banning children from social media we are effectively putting the media companies off the hook, instead of forcing them to create safe spaces for these age groups. 

Countries around the world are taking notice and acting

Australia approved a social media ban for children aged under the age of 16 after an emotive debate that has gripped the nation. The landmark law threatens stiff fines against companies that fail to comply. The Social Media Minimum Age bill forces giants from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok to stop minors from logging in or face fines of up to $32 million.

France: A law mandating social media companies to verify users’ ages and secure parental consent for those under 15 was passed in France in June 2023. According to the law, social networks that violate the rules face fines of up to one per cent of their global revenue. However, because the European Commission has not yet verified that the law complies with EU law, it has not taken effect for more than a year.

Germany: According to the country’s rules, children between the ages of 13 and 16 are only permitted to use social media with parental permission. Advocates for child protection, however, argue that controls are insufficient and demand that current laws be properly enforced.

Belgiium: In 2018, Belgium enacted a law requiring children to be at least 13 years old to create a social media account without parental permission.

Norway: 13 is the minimum age required to access social networks. However, data indicates that the vast majority of 12-year-olds and more than half of nine-year-olds are active on social media. Government is mulling ways to enforce the age limit.

Netherlands: Although there is no age limit for using social media in the Netherlands, the government did outlaw mobile devices in classrooms starting in January 2024 in an effort to cut down on distractions. Exceptions apply for digital lessons, medical needs or disabilities.

Spain: In June 2025, Spain also introduced a bill that would prohibit minors under the age of 16 from using social media. However, no date has been established for the text’s examination, and it has not yet made clear how age verification works.

Italy: Children under the age of 14 need parental consent to sign up for social media accounts, while no consent is required from that age upwards.

South Korea: The “Cinderella” law, which was passed in South Korea in 2011, prohibited children under the age of 15 from playing online games between the hours of midnight and six in the morning. The action was taken in part to reduce school fatigue. However, a decade later, the government overturned the decision and instituted a “choice permit” system that gave parents the authority to determine when their children might play. In August 2025, lawmakers proposed a bill aimed at regulating the use of social media by under-16s. In response, more than a dozen youth organisations slammed the bill as a discriminatory attempt to control young people similar to the “Cinderella” law.

Egypt calls is digital chaos and is formulating restrictions to counter it.

United States: Since 2023, several US states have passed legislation requiring a minimum age for account creation, banning “addictive feeds” or limiting the time children can spend on social media. The U.S. Court held that some companies had design defects that made their platform addictive to children, which can adversely effect their mental health. 

China: Since the internet is already strictly regulated by the government, it presents fewer obstacles to prevent the youngest members of the population from using social media in authoritarian regimes.  Since 2021 minors under the age of 14 are restricted. Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, has a daily limit of 40 minutes for users under the age of 14, and children are not allowed to play games online for longer than that. Age checking is strict involving analysis of a person’s features, such as facial wrinkles or their hand.

 

 

India has 700 million internet users under the age of 25. Governments must introduce a comprehensive social media policy, as the unchecked spread of misinformation, rumours and online content is causing serious harm and lacks adequate accountability. Some gaming sites are addictive and outright evil and need to be banned. Digital detox programmes must be designed with responsible social media companies for the children who are in the toxic grip of nefarious social media gaming sites. Banning social media for the children under 16, and strict online age verification mechanism is required. Investment in digital literacy, parental support and treatment of the resultant mental health issues should all go hand in hand. Tech companies must be forced to create age appropriate online contents and safe digital environment for the vulnerable. Teachers and parents must take active interest in children’s digital lives and do hand-holding to keep them safe. Restrictions should be protective and not punitive, so that children remain children.