Parents, politicians, journalists, experts and children’s organisations are up in arms over a great documentary Alene Hjemme. It shows the horrors children are exposed to on social media. An Epinion survey conducted for DR Ultra Nyt revealed that three out of four children between the ages of 9 and 14 have seen unpleasant content on the internet and social media. We’re talking about suicides, people losing limbs, cutting themselves and other things in that league.
It’s stunning that we always need ‘bodies on the table’ for the masses to wake up to a harmful phenomenon. For years, our children have been exposed to these atrocities. For years, our children have been exposed to algorithms that have given them more and more extreme content. And for years, most people have stood by. Now, many are crying out that we need to do something. How the heck did we get into this mess?
There are several reasons. First and foremost, the responsibility in Denmark at least lies with the media researchers and children’s organisations that have misled our politicians and parents for years. The politicians and parents, who have not had the courage to go their own way. And also many media outlets have failed to zoom in on the problems. In Denmark, we ended up with a social media age limit of 13 years, while other European countries listened to the EU’s advice and have for years had a limit of the recommended 15 or 16 years. And even though we had the lowest limit (as in the US), most people forgot to draw attention to it, so in reality, the age of social media debut in Denmark has been 7-9 years.
Over the past year, we’ve seen a U-turn. The ‘bodies’ have been put on the table. We’ve gone from discussions about the right to screen to screen protection. Gone are the media researchers that I criticized 2.5 years ago in another column because they claimed that social media was not harmful to children. Reasonable minds have come in, and children’s organisations now agree that social media, with its American values of selfies, likes and constant comparisons, as well as its harmful content, is not for children.
What is truly incomprehensible is that everyone still talks as if you have to be 13 to go on social media. Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook and SnapChat say you have to be 13 years old. What no one notices – and no journalists confronted anyone with – is that a change in the Danish law came into force on January 1, 2024. Act no. 1783 raises the age limit for when a child can consent to the processing of personal data in connection with the provision of information society services from 13 to 15 years. This has happened after the government’s expert group on tech giants (of which I am a part) recommended it. In fact, only YouTube has changed the age limit to 15 years.
In principle, social media decide themselves how old you have to be to sign up, but Danish children are no longer allowed to give consent until they are 15, which is why all data-harvesting social media and games should change their terms and conditions immediately.
There are definitely challenges with methods to verify age, and tech giants will have to take on much more responsibility in general. But in the meantime, schools and parents need to be aware of this new age limit so they can work together to ensure that children get a much later debut age on social media and gaming. This is not something that individual parents can do alone. It’s something they need to do together. And studies show that when it happens for everyone, children are on board.
This article was – in a slightly other version – published first in the Danish Daily Politiken
Translated by the help of deep.com
Photo: Alexander Dummer, Unsplash.com
