EU paves way for social media for children
The European Union today moved closer to a ban on social media for children across its 27 member states in what will become the most meaningful effort so far to protect young people from the dangers of spending too much time online.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, cited a recent report by the child psychiatrist, Professor Jörg Fegert, and epidemiologist, Dr. Maria Melchior, which pointed to harmful features of social media such as the infinite scroll, autoplay, recommendation algorithms and persistent notifications.
The study revealed that across Europe, the average child spends 4-6 hours on social media daily, with about 60% of those children experiencing what the authors wrote were “socio-emotional development and susceptibility to mental health issues.” This has resulted in widespread sleep and concentration problems, and increased rates of depression and anxiety.
The authors recommend that the EU block social media for minors — children under 13 — unless they are under the supervision of a parent or teacher. For adolescents — children aged 13-18 —the authors recommend that access should only be granted if the platforms have built-in safety mechanism that limit the child to features such as infinite scroll. They also recommended that social media be blocked for all toddlers.
