Thought for the day, 12 May 2025

Pondering.

It's not obvious to me how a ban on social media for under 16s would work.

And I agree there's potential for negative consequences. I'm the mum of the trans and autistic kids. Trust me: I understand that finding community matters a lot.

At the same time, I've seen the harm. I could talk about different examples, but the most recent of them is my younger son's exposure to misogynist content.

He was harmlessly interested in the world Scrabble champion, and he wanted to watch a YouTube video together. It started fine - then slowly, strategically, slyly began introducing shitty content. I could see exactly what it was trying to do: suck my gentle, beautiful boy into the notion that liking nerdy things doesn't have to mean death to your masculinity. Masculinity can still be reclaimed - and revenue created - by punching down on women.

The clip made me felt sick.

Added to that, fact and fiction have never been harder to tell apart. I have a frickin PhD. I know how to make sense of research and I'm paid to think critically for a living. But with every advantage under the sun, I still sometimes get tripped up. I've come close to being scammed or suckered, and then been embarrassed to talk about it. How the hell are people without privilege or time to invest in research meant to navigate this mess - especially kids?

It doesn't matter if the proposed under 16s ban is the wrong idea. What matters is that we all get around the table, whatever our politics, and find the right idea. This could be the start of that conversation.

And it can't just be about saying no to kids' social media. We have to say yes to creating meaningful alternatives that meet our kids' needs in a modern world, not just be smug and old and say, 'In my day we drank out of the hose'.

Because right now, our kids are being sacrificed - their social, mental, cultural and spiritual wellbeing. And it's not for anything more worthy than lining the pockets of Zuckerberg and Musk.

I'm not saying I have the answers. My parenting sometimes sucks. But this isn't a thing parents alone can be expected to solve by withdrawing their kids from society. If that's what we have to do to keep our kids safe, society is the bloody problem, not our parenting.

It takes a village. And it's time for the whole village - kids and adults, parents and non-parents, every part of the political spectrum - to get busy.

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