Report from Reuters
In Brief – The Government of Norway has announced that it will a submit a bill in parliament by year-end to ban teens from using social media until January 1 of the year they turn 16. Access to social media won’t be based strictly on birthdays, but instead entire school class cohorts will gain access together on January 1 with all the students at least 15 years old at the time. Social media companies will be responsible for age verification. “We want a childhood where children get to be children,” said Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. “Play, friendships, and everyday life must not be taken over by algorithms and screens.” The government did not say which applications would be covered.
Context – Critics have argued for years that social media platforms are dangerous and harmful, especially for teens. Although research data doesn’t back that up, age-based restrictions, led by Australia’s 16-year-old age limit to set up a social media account, are taking off in countries around the world. Japan, Turkey and Greece join Norway as the most recent countries making plans. Despite highly debatable claims that the platforms are “addictive” to any greater degree than television or videogames were, if government-imposed age thresholds end up truly limiting sedentary time spent on electronic devices by young people, and potentially even results in them spending more time engaging in physical activities, even outside, or with friends, few would argue that that would not be a positive health outcome. In the US, the First Amendment appears to be a pretty big barrier. The Supreme Court has ruled in the past that young people have First Amendment rights, which has been a problem for many of the initial age-based laws regulating social media platforms passed by US states. A very interesting natural experiment could evolve. Although the teen development impact of social media bans isn’t likely to be apparent in the first year or two, it will be interesting to see if there are measurable differences ten years hence after countries have had meaningfully different digital environments for teens.