Canada can certainly try to keep kids under 16 off social media, but it won’t work, say Ontario teens interviewed by the Star.
This past week, the federal government introduced a revamped online harms bill that aims to restrict access to social media for those under 16.
Companies can exempt themselves from those age restrictions as long as they can demonstrate that “sufficient safeguards” are in place to protect children. The bill does not lay out what those safeguards must be, but suggests that some of the criteria that platforms must meet could include special accounts designed for children, parental controls, and other unspecified design features.
A majority of Canadians said they support banning social media for children under 16, according to a recent survey from the Angus Reid Institute. Many recent studies have shown a social media is correlated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress.
Many unanswered questions remain about how the legislation, called The Safe Social Media Act, will work in practice.
The Star spoke with five young people to get a sense of what they think about the bill. Three teens were reached through Unplugged Canada, a parent organization focused on delaying smartphones and social media for youth. Two other teens were introduced to the Star through a TDSB junior researcher.
“No, no, this will not be effective, no matter how they do it,” said Skylor Ferguson, 16, of Toronto. “People love getting around these things.”
Whatever the government does end up doing, kids will find a way around it, she said. If she didn’t have access to social media, she would have continued to talk to people online when playing video games, which aren’t part of the new bill.
One teen, who didn’t want to be named out of concern for his safety, said though a social media ban may sound good in theory, it could also have unintended consequences that could be harmful for marginalized and LGBTQ kids and teenagers, and punish them for seeking help from abuse.
The teen, a transgender male, said his social media helped him connect with people when he felt most alone. He said he was bullied for being transgender at school and not accepted by his parents.
“Social media really helped during these trying times,” he said. “I wasn’t safe in either place. I could not express myself safely outside of social media.”
Kids will find a way around the ban no matter what, and may end up in less safe online communities if they are all banned from the mainstream sites, he said.
“I think more parents should just be responsible with their kids and social media instead of enacting a law, which may not even work.”
Amelia Naves-Novak, 13, doesn’t have social media but said a lot of her friends do. Her mom is a TDSB teacher and is involved with Unplugged. Amelia signed a pledge to be smartphone-free until she’s 14, and abstain from social media until 16.
She said she finds it “kind of annoying” to be left out of some online jokes she doesn’t understand. She said she thinks the ban will have the biggest impact on her peers who use the apps to talk to long-distance friends.
“I think they’ll just have to get used to it.”
Sufiyan Abdulla, 13, agrees. He said he thinks kids will end up using iMessage and Whatsapp to talk if they can’t connect on social media.
Sufiyan’s mom, Zia Lakdawalla, is a Toronto-based clinical psychologist who works with youth and families. She’s also involved in Unplugged and thinks the bill is long overdue.
“I see this every day in my practice, the kids that I work with, the parents that I talk to. The harms of these kinds of things are quite clear and well documented at this point,” she said.
“All my friends are gonna be talking about it,” Sufiyan said. “They’re gonna be mad, but I feel like in six months, it’s gonna be normal.”
13-year-old Cleopatra Tryssenaar, whose father is the co-founder of the Toronto chapter of Unplugged, said she brings a sign to her school’s cafeteria every day that she places on a table that says “this is a phone free zone.” She also brings a deck of cards. She said during lunchtime, she and her friends play card games like Cheat, President and Go Fish.
She doesn’t have a phone, but said she’s watched her friends who do become obsessed with them and become more interested in being online than hanging out with each other. But she doesn’t think a nationwide ban for youth will change that.
“I mean, for a lot of kids, I don’t think anything’s going to happen, because most kids have had social media even before 13 and (are) just not listening to the rules anyway,” she said.
Cleopatra’s dad, Dave Pelletier, said even though bills similar to Canada’s, like the ban in Australia for youth under 16, aren’t working perfectly, they are still keeping lots of kids offline.
“We’re still early days (in) this movement around online harms, smartphones and social media and recognizing the danger.”
With files from Raisa Patel
