EDITORIAL — Not for those too young

Finally, the Senate has passed a bill banning the use of social media for those below 18 years old.

The proposed “Safe Media Access and Responsible Technology for Kids in Digital Spaces (SMART KIDS) Act,” seeks to ban those under 18 from “high-risk digital services” like violent online games and the like.

Email services, private messaging services, online gaming services not primarily used for social networking, educational platforms, news services, and professional collaboration services are not included in the ban.

Digital service providers that let children use their platforms will be fined ?5 million to ?20 million per violation, and another ?100,000 every day for non-compliance, while parents or guardians who will help minors skirt the ban may be fined ?50,000 or do community service and mandatory attendance to digital parenting and child safety programs.

We have always said that while social media has advantages it also has disadvantages; especially for those who are still too young.

For one, social media can take away the best years of a young person’s life. The early years are for physical activity like playing and socializing with people their age. They won’t have time for this later. Activities like these build character and give them the necessary social skills they will need later in life.

If they are doomed to endless scrolling in social media they will sit in the house all day doing nothing productive.

For another, studies show that our behavior of swiping away from one social media post to another can lead to the development of short attention spans. This is definitely bad for kids.

For yet another, overexposure to social media can lead to depression, what with the news developments in the country around the world becoming a source of stress. Some social media users can also develop depression as they cannot help but compare their lives to that of friends and strangers online.

We do not even have to mention that one can meet the wrong people on social media.

Those who are older are more resistant to, or are more aware of, the bad aspects of social media. It should not be for those who are too young.