Mastodawn

> Children and parents to pilot social media bans, time limits and curfews at home, as government tests next steps to give UK kids their childhood back

Yeesh.

I look forward to reading the research ethics approval for this.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/children-and-parents-to-pilot-social-media-bans-time-limits-and-curfews-at-home-as-government-tests-next-steps-to-give-uk-kids-their-childhood-back

Children and parents to pilot social media bans, time limits and curfews at home, as government tests next steps to give UK kids their childhood back

Government pilots social media bans, time limits and digital curfews in 300 teenage homes to inform national consultation on children's online safety.

GOV.UK

@neil can I get uhhh... childhood refund

Wren Reilly 18h ago

The same politicians defunding third spaces for kids are behind this nonsense. Libraries, protected bike lanes, expanded pedestrian-only zones, more playgrounds, speed limits, and height restrictions on SUVs would do more to get kids offline. Where are children supposed to go, exactly?

@akareilly @neil Exactly.

Irene (she/they, Sir/Mr.)18h ago

@akareilly based on whats happening w child labor laws in the US, i fully expect their answer to be "work" @neil

Wren Reilly 18h ago

@Irenetherogue @neil

“The children yearn for the mines! It is only social media keeping them out!”

u0421793 17h ago

@akareilly @neil

Phil Dennis-Jordan 17h ago

@akareilly @neil Are the "Mosquito" sonic weapons against young people still being used in the UK? The use of those things always seemed a reductive but appropriate summary of how Britain treats children. (I haven't been back for a few years, and probably couldn't hear them anymore now; but they definitely crossed the pain threshold when I could hear them. Deploying such a thing really takes a special kind of nastiness.)

Wren Reilly 12h ago

As far as I know they are still legal in the UK.

If the children simply spend their days darting under spinning machines to gather valuable cotton scraps, the clanking sounds will drown out the Mosquito!

Ben Curthoys 18h ago

@neil I applaud the idea of testing a policy before making it law. Surely that has to be better than passing legislation and then just lying about whether it has made things better or not?

Neil Brown 18h ago

@bencurthoys The government very recently opened a consultation on this topic.

There is no clear, concise documentation of the problem to be solved.

People have not had a chance to respond, let alone for responses to be analysed and considered.

And yet here we are, testing a pre-determined set of technical "solutions".

@neil Why only Bradford? Low socioeconomic status?

I remember this scheme way back when it was aimed at children watching too much television.

vksxypants 17h ago

@neil > One group of the parents will be instructed on how to use parental controls to remove or entirely disable access to selected social media apps, practically mimicking the enforcement of a social media ban at home.

If we can practically mimic a social media ban at home via existing parental controls, then why does the government need legislation and enforced age verification?

vksxypants 17h ago

@neil If the hypothesis is that we need legislation and age verification because existing parental controls aren't effective then this study won't actually test that.

Paul Fisher 17h ago

@neil What I want to know is whose “childhood” is this based on?

My childhood (80s), is very different than my parent’s childhood (50s/60s), which is very different than my grandparents childhood (30s/40s).

I feel someone, somewhere has a rose tinted view of football in the park, jumpers for goalposts, etc

@neil "Giving children their childhood back"... okay, so they're also giving them freedoms back as well? No? Just restricting them but doing nothing about the toxicity of the social media they use? Alright, tell me how that goes then.

Havoc BSc MSc 💚16h ago

@nini @neil and then unleashing the whole putrid mess onto them at 16 with no prior experience, training or ability to judge content for themselves. But of course, #prohibition really worked didn't it, not 🥴

InsertUser 17h ago

@neil But of course, having to give up your article 8 rights to purchase your article 10 rights is just how free countries are meant to work.

How else would we stop kids from expressing themselves freely?

Anton Piatek 12h ago

@neil OK but this is just showing parents how to use parental controls on devices and accounts... I'd have though most parents already do much of this (I doubt I'd see my teen if her tiktok was unlimited...)