Social Media Ban for Kids: There is More to it Than You May Think
- Joana Luzi Neto
- Jul 3
- 5 min read
How Social Media Affected Me
I’m eight years old and I receive my first phone. I am discovering social media, there is COVID, and I experience bursts of happiness in doing TikTok dances. Overthinking every comment and every “like”. “Will I get 100 likes today?” This dance, that routine, the lip sync, the newest trend.
I am 10 years old, and I love seeing older girls posting makeup and hair tutorials. “I want to grow up to be just like them”. Looking at videos about beauty makes me curious and excited. I want to try all these trends; everything is new to me. “But why is my hair not like that girl, why are my lips ugly”? Also, my feed on TikTok and Instagram becomes more and more depressing as I scroll. Pinterest comes into the mix: pins and explicit videos on how to end your life and on drugs.
I am 11 and I discover the dull power of self-harm. It ruins my perspective on life drastically. Hiding behind band aids and rusty blades hidden in my pink Pandora box. Everything is black, pitch black, so, so dark. I cannot distinguish myself from my phone anymore. And everything is so loud.
I am 12 and the world loses its colour. Black and white, sly details of grey. Social media is making me miserable in many ways, relatable posts... too relatable. Making me enter a deep void of exasperation. It’s a loop, it’s like an addiction, once you live with it, you cannot figure out a world without it. Jealousy, envy, comparison.
I am 13, a teenager, and I am unlocking a new perspective on life. Maybe life isn’t as dull and colourless as I thought? I keep scrolling and everything is so fast, I must do everything they do, I must look like them, I must think and be like them. I must I must I must…
The more I grew up, the more the world became dull, empty. Social media makes me grow up thinking I am not alone. Yet so alone at the same time. There are times when my only escape is being able to see other people going through what I am, in different ways and forms. I try to control loneliness and sadness by embracing it. I keep scrolling, I keep messaging, strangers in Roblox, people I have never met in Snapchat.
I am Joana, I am 14 years old now, and like many teens I experience the ups and downs of socials: addiction, mood dysregulation, body dysmorphia, all the bad and all the good.
I am against the ban. Taking everything away will not fix a problem that has already been created.
The Ban
The very people who should protect us, panic instead. They cannot find a better solution for online protection and take away everything we have been given until now. Leaving us with silence, boredom. The lack of excitement towards simple things.
Hobbies and sports can only entertain kids for a few hours per day. What happens when we are alone? What happens to the kids that can’t attend activities? Opportunities are not born equal. Also, replacing social media with active sport and youth activities prevents teenagers from relaxing after a tiring day.
Social media is an escape from reality where we can drown ourselves in our own world and thoughts. Without it, nothing will be as it used to be. No entertainment. No late-night texts between friends. No latest trends. Nothing, just… silence. It’s all too quiet.
If the ban were to happen to me, I would be trapped in a state of derealization. I imagine it: “You are real. You are here. You belong.” I keep repeating to myself. The addiction of needing to scroll constantly but not being able to because of the ban would drive me crazy. The ban would leave behind an eerie stillness. A quiet groan of emptiness.
In a couple of years, I will turn 16. And the first thing I would do is to install social media again. I have looked forward to acquiring socials so much so that I will quickly forget the beauty in living in the present.
Acquiring social media all at once at 16 is a very dangerous thing to do. At 16 we are still very vulnerable. Comparison, body image, friends. The feeling of not being perfect. I will feel overjoyed to be able to be a part of the community again. However, this excitement will slowly fade once I realise how self-destructive social media is and can still be.
Can the Ban Be Really Enforced?
Us teenagers, the source of technology, will find a way to use social media. Even if there are consequences. Especially if there are. Removing something that has become an everyday routine to many other kids and me will damage mental health in deep, ground-rooted ways.
Teens will go to unimaginable extents to go around the ban. Because when we want something, we want it as soon as possible. We already do. When TikTok asks for age verification selfies, we ask anyone over age to take it, no explanation given. We can create fake emails, we can scan our parents’ or old relatives’ IDs to bypass the algorithm, and we are the generative AI generation.
The strong addiction we have will be the driver. We need to be attached to a screen instead of spending time with our loved ones. Addiction is bad and a hard thing to get over.
But Do We Really Need a Ban?
Social media has ruined my perspective on life in many ways. Like the unbearable loneliness of being able to call someone yet not knowing if they will answer.
I wish I could have enjoyed my childhood. Being free without the constant urge to be better. Being able to live without the constant voices in my head telling me I was not good enough.
Social media leaves not only physical, but mental battle scars; but it also teaches us maturity and lessons far greater than if we were just told by adults.
Social media has left me in a pool of my own tears, but it has also taught me how to float in them and use a mop to spread them out…, not fully drying up the surface yet preventing me from slipping. If I had not gone through a rabbit hole of deep overthinking and constant comparison, I would not have learned that there is so much more to life than what you see on a screen.
People say I am mature for my age. I agree, but I have been through the gates of hell to get to where I am today. I am glad I did because it made me who I am, and I would never change that for anything.
We live in a loud multitude of interactions, so we are able to picture the world with open eyes and various perspectives. How can you discover yourself if you only have access to the people around you?
There are alternatives, instead of forcefully banning social media. Shutting everything down after 9 pm to ensure proper bedtimes. Invest in intelligent security to prevent online predators. Block specific content pages.
I believe adults can do better than just banning something teenagers have lived with their whole lives.
What is the point of a ban if it does more harm than good?
This article has been sponsored by the Psychiatry Research Trust, who are dedicated to supporting young scientists in their groundbreaking research efforts within the field of mental health. If you wish to support their work, please consider donating.
