The Scottish Socialist Youth opposes the proposed social media ban for under 16s.
Having begun as a proposal under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the Labour government are carrying forward plans to implement a ban on social media access for under 16s starting next spring.
This ban would encompass apps focused on content sharing, social interaction and feed algorithms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and Snapchat.
It’s fair to say that social media platforms can present risks to young people: exposure to violence against people and animals, addictive features curated by algorithms designed to hijack your dopamine, hypersexualised content, and online communities promoting misogyny, self-harm or eating disorders. These are all reasons why we should think twice about unrestricted access to the internet. But what about the impact these things have on adults as well?
The rationale behind the ban stinks of superiority, as if we don’t have forty year olds swiping through Facebook reels and rotting their brains too, or radicalised men attacking black and brown people in our multicultural communities.
Instead of addressing our sensationalist profit-driven social media infrastructure, the bill surrenders the possibility that younger people deserve a place in online communities and in online conversations.
What impact will this have on civic participation in a time when everyone gets their news and politics from social media? And what compensation is being provided to young people for being removed from one of their only remaining places of community?
Not only is this an injustice for young people. Adults have reason to fear too.
In order to implement this ban, members of the public will be made to prove their age with identification. Are you willing to link all of your social media to your personal identity?
We know that social media companies are allowing our data to be used to manipulate elections (see: Cambridge Analytica), train large language generative AI, and help Palantir and other shady companies to privatise policing, military, and health. What will be possible with even greater knowledge of who we are? The opportunities for a far-right government to track and monitor political dissidents is ever-increasing.
So long as the people who profit from social media addiction and data harvesting are the same people who decide the rules, social media will never become safer or less addictive and our data will continue to be sold.
Therefore our position is firm. The problem isn’t technology, but capitalism and private ownership.
Much like a town square or a playground, social media is a place of community. While it is controlled by a few powerful individuals, it is something we all rely on. When social media is effective, it connects people to new ideas and experiences. When social media fails us, it is used to manipulate and shame people.
It has both the potential to be an important building block for democracy, or a chisel that’s used to erode our ability to make informed decisions.
Rather than leaving this up to chance, we think the public should decide how social media is run. Instead of a patchwork ban, social media should be regulated and overseen by the people – including young people.
However, regulation is not the only solution we have to social media obsession.
Getting people off their phones and into physical community spaces is a good idea, but what community? And what spaces?
At risk of sounding like a broken record, our communities have been in a state of decay for the past fifty years. Third spaces – places where anybody can come to relax and socialise for free – have been neglected and then replaced by commercial alternatives. Just see how the number of libraries, community centres, and youth clubs have dwindled. Hobbies have gotten more expensive too. Have you tried going bowling recently? What about the cinema?
We have a desperate need to reintroduce a sense of joy to being out and about. It should be more enjoyable than bedrotting, and it shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg!
If you share our vision for communities that are designed to enrich the people rather than the wealthy, and digital infrastructure that works for the public good, then you may be a socialist.
Join the SSY, and help us lay the foundation of this future.
