Companies behind social media platforms are not being diligent enough when it comes to enforcing their age restrictions. Many social media platforms and internet services in general do have some ways to prevent underage users from using their platforms. But the measures that are in place are not effective enough. The systems which are meant to check someone’s age are easy to bypass as the user can simply lie about their birthdate, a system that teaches kids that to get something you want, you must lie for it. The fact that age restrictions exist shows that these social media sites already understand the importance of keeping young children off their platforms until they are ready to use them. However, as of right now there is effectively nothing stopping people from getting around this restriction.
To understand why these age restrictions should be more heavily enforced, we should first understand why they are there in the first place. The internet, especially social media, can be a dangerous place, just like the real world. “Social media are web-based communication tools that enable people to interact with each other by sharing and consuming information.” (Nations). Social media connects you with your friends, family, coworkers, classmates, anyone you so desire. Social media can also connect you with bullies, criminals, hackers, rapists, and other generally unpleasant people. This is particularly worrying for children, as those bad people you do not wish to interact with your child whatsoever, now have easy access to their feed and direct messages. Let us get into more detail on the inherent dangers that social media possesses.
There are those who dwell on the internet that are known as “online predators”. An online predator can be described as an individual who seeks out a sexual relationship with a child over the internet. These predators seek out children specifically because they know how vulnerable they can be. The minds of children are still developing, and a person’s mind continues to develop well into their 20s as proven by longitudinal neuroimaging studies. (Johnson et al. 216). Without having the same knowledge and understanding as someone who is well into adulthood, children are generally less well-prepped for encounters with online predators. Someone may share information about themselves they really should not have, but a child is more likely to do this given their lack of knowledge on what should and should not be shared with others online.
Another issue that permeates throughout social media is bullying, specifically cyberbullying. Bullying is another issue in it of itself, but social media acts as a medium for cyberbullying to take place. Cyberbullying can be much worse than traditional bullying for several reasons. Cyberbullying allows for “… an increased potential for a large audience, an increased potential for anonymous bullying, lower levels of direct feedback, decreased time and space limits, and lower levels of supervision.” (Sticca and Perren 739). Bullying will lead to negative outcomes such as poor performance in school, poor relationships with family, psychosocial difficulties, and psychological disorders (Machmutow et al. 403–420; Tokunaga 277–287).
On social media and the internet, there is no shortage of inappropriate content, be it violence, death, pornography, or otherwise disturbing content. These social media sites may employ moderators or even artificial intelligence to review all content to prevent it from being seen by those who don’t wish to see it; But on occasion, such content bypasses the filters meant to keep it hidden, which can be traumatizing for children especially. All it takes is one slipup for an innocent child to stumble across an inappropriate image or message they were not supposed to. The best way to deal with this issue is by being proactive and not giving children the chance to come across inappropriate content.
Some might claim that we should do away with age restrictions altogether as a child’s maturity level would be a better way to gauge how that child would react and be affected by social media. The problem with this claim is that maturity is not something as easy to measure as something like age would be. According to a research paper about adolescent maturity, “The ability to designate an adolescent as “mature” or “immature” neurologically is complicated by the fact that neuroscientific data are continuous and highly variable from person to person; the bounds of “normal” development have not been well delineated.” (Johnson et al. 218). It does not make sense for someone to complete a personality test to verify their maturity whenever they want to register an account on a social media platform as it would be very intrusive and time-consuming.
There is also the argument that social media services should not be responsible for controlling who can and cannot use their platforms, rather the parent must protect their children from social media. There is some merit to this argument, it is a parent’s job to ensure their child’s safety; But what harm is there in having these social media platforms make the parent’s job easier by keeping their children safe. The problem with this is that by relying solely on the parent to protect their child. That means the parent has free reign to allow their child to view porn and talk to online predators, while also shifting blame from the social media platform to the parent. Restrictions like banning underage drinking and smoking are there to protect those who cannot control themselves, even if they don’t know it’s for their own benefit, and the same goes for restricting age on social media.
There is also the question as to how we can properly enforce these age restrictions. As there is no point pushing for something impossible to bring about. There are a myriad of ways as to how we can approach this problem, some of which can cause more harm than good. It is important to realize that by making the rules stricter, we are going to inevitably cut off access to social media services for some, be it the targeted demographic, individuals under the age of 13, or those who are not within the targeted demographic.
I believe the best possible approach is to implement a standalone age checking service. Through this service, people will be able to fill out an application, which could involve providing proof of age like a birth certificate. Once accepted, the individual will be given a digital “certificate” proving their age and this “certificate” can be used when creating a new account on social media. The application process will be a one-time thing, you only must complete it once and you will have proof of age which is easily accessible. Social media sites that use this service will only be told whether the new user is of age or not so there should not be much of a privacy concern regarding keeping track of people’s age. Such a service will make the age restrictions stricter without impeding too much on the average social media user’s everyday experience.
Social media is home to a lot of bad things, which is why we employ age restrictions. By restricting younger children from using social media until they develop mental fortitude and reach a stage in life where they are less vulnerable, we can be more confident in the safety of these children. However, these social media platforms are not doing nearly enough and lack proper countermeasures when it comes time to actually enforce their own restrictions. Given all this, one can conclude that the age restrictions put in place by social media platforms should continue to persist and more effort should be done to enforce those restrictions.
Works Cited
Johnson, Sara B., et al. “Adolescent Maturity and the Brain: The Promise and Pitfalls of Neuroscience Research in Adolescent Health Policy.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 45, no. 3, 2009, pp. 216–21. Crossref, doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.05.016.
Machmutow, Katja, et al. “Peer victimisation and depressive symptoms: Can specific coping strategies buffer the negative impact of cybervictimisation?.” Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties 17.3-4 (2012): 403-420.
Nations, Daniel. “Serious Question: What Exactly Is Social Media?” Lifewire, 26 Jan. 2021, www.lifewire.com/what-is-social-media-explaining-the-big-trend-3486616.
Oglethorpe, Martine. “Social Media Age Restrictions: Why the System Isn’t Working.” The Modern Parent, 1 May 2019, www.themodernparent.net/social-media-age-restrictions-why-the-system-isnt-working/.
Sticca, Fabio, and Sonja Perren. “Is Cyberbullying Worse than Traditional Bullying? Examining the Differential Roles of Medium, Publicity, and Anonymity for the Perceived Severity of Bullying.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, vol. 42, no. 5, 2012, pp. 739–50. Crossref, doi:10.1007/s10964-012-9867-3.
Tokunaga, Robert S. “Following you home from school: A critical review and synthesis of research on cyberbullying victimization.” Computers in human behavior 26.3 (2010): 277-287.
“What Parents Need to Know about Inappropriate Content.” Internet Matters, 24 June 2019, www.internetmatters.org/issues/inappropriate-content/learn-about-it.
