Is an age limit for social media counterproductive?
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The call for a social media ban for children is louder than ever. Professor of Children's Rights Ton Liefaard argues in ‘Trouw’ newspaper that this would be unwise. 'For children, online and offline aren't different worlds'.
Intensive screen use and social media can harm the well-being and development of children. For this reason, a long list of Dutch GPs, radiologists, scientists and researchers have signed an urgent letter calling for restrictions: no smartphone under the age of 14 and no social media under the age of 16. A ban on social media for children therefore seems to be getting closer. According to Professor Liefaard, such a ban would be unwise and does not do justice to the freedoms and rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The professor says that the wish to protect children from harmful content and addiction to social media is understandable, but: 'At the same time, you have to give children enough space to be able to exercise all kinds of important rights.' Liefaard is critical of the fact that children themselves have hardly any voice in the debate, even though most adults often don’t understand the online world of children: 'For children, online and offline aren't different worlds, but together they form one world in which they move. The fact that adults want to significantly limit the online world can reinforce children's sense of not feeling understood.'
Update:
On 17 June, the caretaker government in the Netherlands presented ‘Richtlijnen gezond en verantwoord scherm- en sociale mediagebruik’ (guidelines for healthy and responsible screen and social media use). The official advice: an age limit of 15 years for using social media, such as Instagram and TikTok. Liefaard points out that there is a clear difference between a guideline and a ban. 'A guideline offers parents tools to deal with their children's social media use. So, giving parents support and that seems to me to be a sensible approach.'
More information?
Read the full article in Trouw (€, in Dutch)