How many parents would be comfortable sending their child to an intensive military-style camp run by ex-military to stop the teen's smartphone addiction? Not many. or signup to continue reading In fact, China even banned such camps years ago because of their uninformed and inhumane approach. For a strategy to work it's got to be based on evidence.
There have been many calls, by many governments, to get our teens away from the grips of social media. US President Joe Biden has approved a potential ban on TikTok in USA, citing teens' addiction to the app as one of two reasons for it; the other being the collection of data by the Chinese-based organisation which owns TikTok. South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas has also called for the banning of social media for children 14 and younger, citing the need to protect them from the harmful impacts of social media on children's mental health.
Under the proposal, children aged 14 and 15 would require parental consent to access a social media account. I research the impacts of social media from many perspectives because our use of it is impacted by so many factors. As part of this I talk to hundreds of teens every year about their social media use, so I am not guessing at what I think they do, or how I think is the ways it's impacting them.
I collect evidence that informs new policy, and this is what I see. While social media offers every idea possible our teens are caught in an echo chamber they can't escape from. Algorithms send c.