The UK's social media ban for under 16s is going to be an absolute clusterfuck of epic proportions.
OK so in the list of social media sites that will be banned, which were surprisingly vague, Youtube was included. Youtube. You know. The Video Depository? The Video Depository that has things like Public Information Films for Young people? The site with REVISION MATERIALS FOR 15-16 YEAR OLDS?
So not only are they going to BORK the internet by making you age verify video embeds that they include, they are going to also block a site that kids studying from their GCSEs and National 5s use to FUCKING REVISE! How the fuck you gonna access Crash Course IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS YOUTUBE, KEIR?
OH BUT IT GETS WORSE!
So the platforms mentioned are "platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X" BUT they stress the ban will NOT include Whatsapp or Signal. Whatsapp has Social Features like Snapchat, and even Signal has stories, so where the fuck do you draw the line?
Like that is incredibly vague. How do you differentiate between SnapChat and WhatsApp now? WhatsApp has developed into basically SnapChat with a worse UI, and even Signal has Disappearing Stories ala Snapchat!
How exactly do you differentiate between WhatsApp/Signal and Snapchat? A Streaks feature?
Oh, and on top of that, as Amnesty very aptly put it, it doesn't actually deal with the REASON Social Media is a problem. Social Media sites are designed to be unsafe. They don't HAVE to be, but they are. They are designed to keep you on the site as long as possible and keep you using it.
Banning U16s from Social Media WON'T fix that. It'll just result in a load of 16 year olds who don't know how to behave on the fucking internet, which is arguably more dangerous. it's like keeping a kid locked in their room until 16 and then telling them to drive to the shops for some smokes.
They could twist the arms of social media companies to end skinnerboxing and addictive practices, but the Social Media companies have cucked them so hard that they're doing this, so they can continue skinnerboxing people, this time with less preparation, while claiming to be "doing something."
OH AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF, all of this was announced on Twitter, a site run by a man who helped incite pogroms and riots, and makes money by letting people who pay him generate CSAM using his AI, and nothing about that is being done.
Fuck. This. Shit.
