No more FaceTube or Tikkity Tok for children …..

When I was a youngster, I had to entertain myself. I read books, I rode my bike, I played with the neighbor kids, I rode horses and played in the pastures....

You nailed it. I don't think I could say it better myself. While the country could geo block the sites, they won't, because adults wouldn't be able to access it either. Children can lie about their age, and parents can make accounts on a child's behalf. Hell, back in the day when the child protection acts for the internet were coming out, parents needed to fill out and submit a form to allow their 13-year-old on some sites that required personalliy idienifable information. Yet, kids could get around it. If a child in the 90's could get around parental blocks, you can bet a child today can use enough brain power to figure it out. I applud Apple for trying to make child accounts on smart phones and tablets safer requiring more parental involvment, but if I've learned anything, children have become spoild, entitled, and downright disrespectful. Keeping kids off of social media might help the problem, but we need to change society's views on what is and isn't safe. Kids aren't adicted to social medica souly because it exists and is what 'everyone's doing', but because society has put it in our minds kids aren't safe playing outside. That allowing a child to fail and learn from failure is dangerous and could cause irreversal psychological damage. Earned rewards aren't a thing anymore, because parents don't know how to parent their children, turn around and tell the schools to do it, and then when they do, blame the school for harming their child, or making teachers and staff powerless.

It’s the parents fault for buying the kids the smartphones in the 1st place. That’s my opinion!

@traceyjayne Amen to all that! There’s got to be a better way that trying to ban it, a ban that just won’t work.

I can't see this having much effect. I think there needs to be a lot more training on parenting skills.

there has got to be a way to encourage people to live real life.

It’s a nice thought, but like you said, it’s not going to work. It’s too easy to get around. My niece is almost 15, and she’s not allowed to have social media until she is seventeen. Strict, yes, but my sister doesn’t want her to be influenced by it. Since she keeps an eye on Amyra’s devices, she can tell what she’s been doing. She doesn’t have access to other computers. That’s hard to do, but since she is home schooled, she really can check.

it will be a difficult task to do that.

I agree with you, I think children will find loopholes and ways around the ban. If they want to be on the social media sites bad enough, they'll find ways to get there.

I can see both sides of this debate. On the one hand, there are genuine concerns about children being exposed to bullying, harmful content, unrealistic expectations, and spending too much time online. On the other hand, I share your skepticism about how a ban is supposed to work in practice.

I do not like government telling me or children not to look at social media. I limit the use of social media since some of the complaints about racial and political issues is annoying.