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How will this work?
No clue how it will work, or if it CAN work. But I do admire Australia for recognizing that there is a problem, and trying to prevent children from wasting their brains, their time, and their potential.
Banning will never work . As we all know young adults are very good at finding ways to do things when we prohibit them.
The focus has to be to teach them how to use social media to their benefit and not to abuse the use of them.
It was two days ago when I first landed on TikTok. Previously, it required to register to view its content, and I never bothered. This time, their website allowed me to browse and, based on my location, offered mostly content from Argentina. It was all a series of videos of teenage girls wearing makeup in poor houses being silly in front of the camera and teenage boys playing a variety of video games recording themselves. I don't get the point. I am glad I am too old to be sucked into it.
I was out working a 40 hour week when I was 15. No mobile phones back then of course just the daily newspaper and dirty magazines.
TikTok is on the verge of being banned in the USA. I've seen a few TikTok videos but frankly, it's all attention seeking crap.
I think it's the content going about that needs to be banned. For everyone that is not just kids. How they go about doing it is the hardest part. I would have thought it has to be the site owners who are responsible.
I think it's the content going about that needs to be banned. For everyone that is not just kids. How they go about doing it is the hardest part. I would have thought it has to be the site owners who are responsible.
But even if site content is perfectly innocuous, is it good to teach kids the habit of losing hours every day on social media?
But even if site content is perfectly innocuous, is it good to teach kids the habit of losing hours every day on social media?
Same could be said for everything 'bad'. It's the parents to blame.
Same could be said for everything 'bad'. It's the parents to blame.
I don't fully agree because this was true when digital devices were only a toy/for entertainment . Nowadays, all of our life goes through screens: banks, shopping, family, school, government. It is addictive... and it is designed to be so. It is really hard to put a stop to it out of one's own will.
I don't fully agree because this was true when digital devices were only a toy/for entertainment . Nowadays, all of our life goes through screens: banks, shopping, family, school, government. It is addictive... and it is designed to be so. It is really hard to put a stop to it out of one's own will.
So are many other things. How are they going to police it I wonder?
As serafina pointed out, our devices are absolutely integral to 21st century life. So, while we don’t want young people to be addicted to social media, or to become dependent on AI rather than their own creativity, still, they need to develop internet skills.
The conundrum reminds me of something I read ages ago about the (then) unique problem faced by people with an overeating problem: unlike addictions like drinking or gambling, people can’t simply stop eating, as they need food to live.
Rice , you are spot on, as usual.
A dear friend of mine has two kids. The girl is 12 year old and the boy is 10. With her husband, they had decided no screen time until they were 14 years old or more. Of course, they can look at their parents' phones for brief time to familiarize with technology and means of communication, they do video calls with grandparents, but that's it. The kids do not have their own devices. The girl is a fan of Ariana Grande and joined a fan group on whatsapp on her mother's device. She can check it out once or twice in a week, and the mother pre-screens the conversation.
Until the girl's school organized a few days of language exchange in France, where kids were staying at host families (and the French kids would go to Italy later that year). The school decided that they'd use whatsapp to communicate with the kids during this study trip, for example when they'd meet, what to bring, etc. It was the school intention to help the kids become responsible and learn to plan for activities.
However, this also meant that my friend had to provide a phone with whatsapp for her girl. She'd have to teach her how to screen for potential malicious messages and threats. She is very concerned/afraid of paedophiles infiltrating fan groups on whatsapp. How do you introduce the subject to a 12 years old?
A new, uncontrolled environment with a whole set of challenges and potential threats. And no instructions on how to teach those as we didn't have mobile phones when growing up, and when we got one, we were already 16 years old using Nokia 3310.
Definitely not a spot I'd like to find myself in. Last time we spoke, she was looking for a way to set parental controls to limit whatsapp to certain contacts (family, school mates, teachers).
So, while we don’t eat young people
Ha! (Or maybe we do!)
I’m really having trouble with iPhone’s recently more aggressive autocorrect, which changes normal things you type into completely off-the-wall words it assumes you really meant to say. Drives me mad, actually. I do almost all forum posting on the tiny phone screen, so my cursory proofreading often is no fair match for autocorrect’s devious plotting against all reason!
But this could be a good new thread.
Ha! (Or maybe we do!)
I'm fat-fingered and when out and about I'm usually without my reading glasses so I hate using my mobile for anything but phoning and taking pics. I'll leave the typing until I get home and use the laptop.
