Re: Under-16s Social Media Ban | Tom Oostveen

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Summary: A quick ramble on the UK social media ban for teens

Content warning: politics, kids’ mental health (implied)

In-reply-to: https://thomasrigby.com/posts/under-16s-social-media-ban/

While I am in fact not so much qualified to talk about this compared to Thomas Rigby – I’m just Some Local Programmer after all (who doesn’t even live in the UK) – I do think I have some things to say (don’t we all?).

What I see and hear around me a lot, even Anno Domini MMXXVI1, is that parents simply have no idea what their kids are doing on the internet. And then even the parts they do know about, are deliberate: they are put on YouTube (the normal kind, not the Kids variant, which still arguably is pedagogically garbage), Instagram, TikTok, the like, from a very very young age. That does a couple things:

It reinforces the relative “normalcy” of these platforms being used by preteens or early teens

It messes with the kids’ brains before they have a chance to develop it and think critically

I think we all sort-of intuitively know this – I’m not saying anything profound here – but that doesn’t stop parents from making their own Billion Dollar Mistake. We have to understand that We, as a collective, by also normalizing spending ridiculous amounts of time on our phones (I’ve seen people of age ~60 who use Instagram reels extensively), have partly dug our own grave. That leads into:

And, of course, the pithy tag line of “giving children their childhoods back” doesn’t come with investment in youth centres, community spaces, parks, playgrounds, libraries; places children can gather safely for free.

We have mistaken social media and games for a universal socializing space for kids. Just have them be online and no one has to pay attention to what they are doing on the streets and no-one will break their bones due to the unphysical nature of the activities. It’s all so Easy to just put away your kids on the internet because it excuses you as a parent of any responsibility.

Many other are not; people reliant on distributed support networks, those whose income depends on Social Media, marginalised groups seeking relief from “real world” bullying, persecution, and violence.

In theory, these people would actually benefit from using independent social networks such as Mastodon, right? But then again try finding your actual niche over there, if your niche isn’t just “tech” or “programming” or “art” 😅

I’ve come to understand that the UK, after banning websites deemed pornographical under the age of 18 (which ended up including Wikipedia 2 of all places), is enforcing that the platforms have to now come up with a way to reasonably verify that a user is age 16 and above. We all know how this goes, it’s happened before: every citizen of the UK where “the algorithm” for some reason decides that you’re too young, has to upload government ID, most likely to one of those scummy 3rd-party vendors like Persona, who leak their data all the time…34

That said, just about everyone I know will just scan their passport and not think twice about it 🤷

I know I’ll be telling as much people as I can not to do that and why, if the topic comes up. I know, it’s probably a futile effort, but I like to think I’m doing my part.

But just like Thomas I expect the kids will find a way. Upload your parents’ ID, use a VPN, use someone else’s account. There’s just endless things to come up with. I for one remember being on Discord casually while slightly younger than the then-enforced minimum age of 13…

But this is all starting to get very lengthy, borderline preaching to the choir, we all know Big Corpo Big Bad, especially in smallweb circles.

I for one just hope this doesn’t become a global trend. But let’s be honest, it probably will, but one can dream. Until then, put your kids on Mastodon, Bluesky, PixelFed, and Loops, I guess… those platforms might become “the norm” one day! Or start your own XMPP server5, or personal ActivityPub server, or Matrix, or a PDS, or whatever! By hosting these services for yourself and your loved ones (/neighbours/acquaintances) you’re actively taking them out of the megacorp slop we’ve all gotten so used to…

If you’re interested in these kinds of topics {ukpol,enshittification,etc} I highly recommend reading Pluralistic by Cory Doctorow. Also see https://stopkillingtheinternet.com :)

Happy JulyReply 2026!

For the uninitiated, this is just Latin/Roman numerals for “The year of the Lord, 2026” or 2026 AD ↩︎

I’ve read this nice post by algernon documenting their XMPP journey:...