Age limits for social media? Social media is not smoking!

A number of countries are trying to forbid the use of social media under a certain age. Some countries go for 13 years, others for 16 years. The policy seems to be similar to the policies for smoking or alcohol. But does it make sense to treat social media the same?

Smoking and alcohol are bad for you. I think we all agree on that. And there is no way to make them healthy. And as it is probably impossible to ban them completely, an age limit makes sense. At least to protect the young generation and hope they won’t start smoking or drinking once they are allowed to do so.

But does the same count for social media? Is it an intrinsically bad product. Or is it a product that has been made bad as a commercial choice. Social media are not engineered towards what is good for you. They are made so you spend as much time as possible on it. So you can be presented with the max number of advertisements. Most social media currently is bad for you, no matter what age you are. But social media doesn’t have to be bad. Making it less addictive and removing more bad information is a choice. Social media companies can make their products less bad or even good. And yes that will make them earn less money.

Age limits allow these products to remain bad. There is no incentive to make the product better. Not for the kids and not for the adults. And with age limits you are also taking away the potential positive effects social media can have. Especially for young people who have trouble getting access to information of people beyond their physical environment. It’s almost as if instead of having safety belts, airbags and a maximum speed for cars you forbid kids to get into a car (and let adults kill each other)

Social media companies are probably happy with the age limits. Still being allowed to present their addicting algorithms to anyone over 13 or 16 will make sure they keep making shitloads of money. But humanity would be better off with social media that are better and less addictive. And so safe even kids can use them.