The presence and use of young people on social media is a delicate topic that has the potential to divide society between “yes” fundamentalists and “no” fundamentalists.
This week Australia became an example – for both sides of the equation – by putting into practice a ban on access to social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok for accounts of children under 16 years of age. The Australian parliament’s argument was that it was defending the “psychological and social well-being of minors”. For the country’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, thanks to the ban, “children will have more time to be children and parents will have more peace of mind”, adding: “This law aims to facilitate conversations with your children about the risks and harms of using the Internet.”
On this last point, I believe that all those who have children in the aforementioned age group agree: parents should alert their children to some content that is published on these platforms and that promotes, among others, situations of social exclusion, bullying and dissemination of extremist ideas. But this is a task that the family should not shy away from. It must, rather, count on the support of other entities to be able to show teenagers that these sites can also be used to learn. For example, at the beginning of the week I heard a teacher, on a television channel, saying that he was against this ban because his students use some of these social networks in a school context.
In contrast, to DN, psychiatrist Gustavo Jesus argued that “science proves that it is harmful for young people under the age of 16 to have full access to these platforms”, highlighting that up to this age group the adolescent brain “is still not very mature” and highly vulnerable. It also affects sleep, as even at night they are connected to these platforms, and social relationships, I add.
Therefore, the topic is complex and will still lead to a lot of discussion. However, there is one point in favor of the ban on the use of cell phones in schools up to the 6th year in force in our country: according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation announced in July, last school year there were fewer cases of bullyingindiscipline and physical confrontation on school grounds.
At the time, it was great news, but we must all remember that Education and warnings about the dangers that exist, for example, on social media do not start (or are exclusive) at school…
Executive editor of Diário de Notícias