Social Media is the New Smoking

Scott,
 
Australia made global headlines this week after the Government moved forward with a plan to ban under-16s from accessing social media. I know you’ve been all for this, but, as a mother of three teenagers who are permanently attached to their phones, I wonder how practical it will be in the real world. Would love to hear your thoughts.
 
Zara
 
Hi Zara
 
It sounds like your kids are in the same leaky ship as many others – Mark Zuckerberg’s SS Algorithm – and it has well and truly sailed. And just like the rest of us aboard, they are doing unpaid, stressful, around-the-clock work for a billionaire.
Personally, I think these proposed laws will be about as successful as the age limit for drinking or smoking: the reality is that if kids want to drink or smoke they will. There’s always someone with a fake ID, or a loose parent who’ll buy booze for their underage kids.
 
This is how life happens.
 
Still, I think the Government should be congratulated for kicking big tech in the shins (though I draw the line at their ‘Misinformation and Disinformation Bill’, which seems a little too Orwellian).
 
As they say in the classics, “and so it has begun”:
 
Social media is the new smoking.
 
It’ll take a while to fully catch on, but, make no mistake, that is where we are heading. The problems that social media is causing young people are too big and too important to ignore. Eventually – and hopefully not too many years from now – we’ll collectively turn on them.
 
This is how life happens.

Scott.