UK weighs social media ban for under-16s: child safety or smokescreen
The UK plans to ban social media for under-16s by 2026. Critics call it a smokescreen for other problems and warn of mass surveillance risks.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Starmer's plan to ban social media for minors: protection or an excuse for control?
What is the point of promising "decisive" action against digital harm while ignoring problems that kill people on the streets? The British government, led by Keir Starmer and with Technology Secretary Liz Kendall as its spearhead, plans to bar children from social media. The window for implementing the new measures is set for late 2026 for under-16s, just as Starmer faces a possible leadership challenge. The promise of a "game changer" sounds like a smokescreen.
The technical question is immediate: how do they intend to enforce the ban? A simple age-verification pop-up would be ridiculous. The experience with adult content checks points to a scenario of mass identification, with ID or selfies, for all users. The argument of protecting children serves as cover for extending surveillance to the entire population, a one-way alucinación towards the loss of online anonymity.
The scepticism is not only technical. While the British government rushes to shield minors from the "danger" of screens, knife crime continues to run rampant. The choice of priorities is, to put it mildly, suspicious. The shadow of Starmer's record as Director of Public Prosecutions, which according to some critics involved covering up serious cases of child abuse, hangs over the initiative. The same government now posing as a defender of children is, according to some analyses, the one with unfinished business on that front.
The 9/11 analogy repeats itself: after the attacks, air travel became an ordeal of searches and restrictions in the name of security. Here, children's safety is the pretext for sweeping digital control. The predictable outcome is that minors, adept at circumventing any technical barrier, will keep getting access anyway, while adults lose freedoms. The road to mandatory identification on every website is being paved. When anonymity becomes a luxury of .onion sites, we will ask ourselves whether the protection was real or just wrapping paper.
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What is the point of promising "decisive" action against digital harm while ignoring problems that kill people on the streets? The British government, led by Keir Starmer and with Technology Secretary Liz Kendall as its spearhead, plans to bar children from social media. The window for implementing the new measures is set for late 2026 for under-16s, just as Starmer faces a possible leadership challenge. The promise of a "game changer" sounds like a smokescreen.
The technical question is immediate: how do they intend to enforce the ban? A simple age-verification pop-up would be ridiculous. The experience with adult content checks points to a scenario of mass identification, with ID or selfies, for all users. The argument of protecting children serves as cover for extending surveillance to the entire population, a one-way alucinación towards the loss of online anonymity.
The scepticism is not only technical. While the British government rushes to shield minors from the "danger" of screens, knife crime continues to run rampant. The choice of priorities is, to put it mildly, suspicious. The shadow of Starmer's record as Director of Public Prosecutions, which according to some critics involved covering up serious cases of child abuse, hangs over the initiative. The same government now posing as a defender of children is, according to some analyses, the one with unfinished business on that front.
The 9/11 analogy repeats itself: after the attacks, air travel became an ordeal of searches and restrictions in the name of security. Here, children's safety is the pretext for sweeping digital control. The predictable outcome is that minors, adept at circumventing any technical barrier, will keep getting access anyway, while adults lose freedoms. The road to mandatory identification on every website is being paved. When anonymity becomes a luxury of .onion sites, we will ask ourselves whether the protection was real or just wrapping paper.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (22 replies).
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