Prohibition of social networks for children under 14 years of age. We evaluate the feasibility of the proposal

Hello.

The State Duma has submitted an initiative by the Children’s Ombudsman of Tatarstan, Irina Volynets, to completely ban the use of social networks by children under 14 years of age, and from 14 to 18 years of age, use is possible only with parental permission. To what extent such an initiative can be implemented in practice, we will figure it out together.

I’ll start with a banal statement. Parents perceive social networks as some kind of absolute evil that takes up time from children and brings in completely different views that are different from their worldview. And there are enough reasons for this, there should be no erroneous judgments here, social networks can foster certain views, set topics that can be perceived as socially condemned or, conversely, supported in society. Moreover, such “programming” of users of social networks can occur in any age group without exception, but children are the most vulnerable group, since they do not have critical thinking, cannot oppose anything to the ideas being promoted, and often they have lost contact with their parents.

The topic that we have undertaken to discuss is so complex that it can hurt the feelings of literally everyone. But I’ll start approaching her from afar and show you a photo of a child in a stroller. It happened in October of this year on Nevsky Prospekt.

A boy, he is about two years old. The boy grabbed the tablet, where some kind of game was running, which looked like it was for adults. He holds the tablet with all his might, but it tends to fall. He doesn’t take his eyes off the screen. I watched this picture for ten minutes.

Before us is a child who will be raised not even by social networks, but by a conventional tablet, a modern Mowgli, who will learn to speak the language of the network. Something tells me that this language will not be literary, and the volume of aggression will be off the charts. Do we have a ban on such parental behavior? It is absolutely absent; it is believed that parents themselves understand that such behavior can harm the child. But the temptation to occupy a child with a beautiful toy is great; the main thing is that the baby is silent and does not whine. And here a question arises that is much broader than the use of social networks by children: parents are de facto crippling their children by giving them devices for undivided use.

For me, the behavior of a mother who handed a tablet to her child looks unacceptable. But, as always, there are different opinions on the Internet, I will give examples of those that explain or approve of such social behavior:

“Mom is fine. You don’t know new kids, they are born knowing about smartphones. They need him like air. If you don’t give it, then the psyche is greatly disturbed, because knowledge about IT is in the subcortex from birth. Otherwise, what is the point of being born on Earth? They have already lived through the old and ordinary.”

“Maybe this is the only way to get him from point A to B alive and well – at this age children already know how to quickly get out of the stroller and joyfully run towards the road under the wheels.”

“It’s good that the men here know how to treat a mother with a stroller in October on Nevsky.”

“The last thing is to try to discuss someone else’s life without knowing anything about it and without being in their shoes.”

As you can see, some of our readers find justification for such social behavior and do not see anything reprehensible in it; moreover, they believe that it is impossible to meddle in someone else’s life and highlight the unacceptability of such behavior. The problem of society, and not only in Russia, is that the boundaries of the norm are greatly blurred, they have shifted. What was previously clearly unacceptable and reprehensible can now be perceived completely differently.

Let’s get back to the kids. A child raised with a smartphone or tablet will definitely be on friendly terms with the device, and will also have access to everything that is on the network. There is no control on the part of parents here and is not expected; moreover, the behavior of parents will encourage the child to use devices, since he will be busy and will not pester him with questions, take up time, and so on. The stereotype of the perception of parents who are ready to break into pieces but provide the best life for their child, unfortunately, is not a role model in life for many. Honestly, none of us knows what is best, we always start with the best intentions, we try to be good parents, but this does not always work out, including due to lack of information, life circumstances and much more.

I asked in the TG channel about the ban on children using social networks, and about your attitude to this. Look at the answers, they are very typical. Poll possible find here.

The majority are in favor of the ban and consider this an excellent decision. But let’s take a look at how people think such a ban works in practice, another question and answers on him.

Some parents will take responsibility for bypassing any blocks for children, but the majority simply believe that children will somehow end up on social networks. And I think that this collective answer is not far from the truth.

We clearly understand that there are no technical means to protect our children from the Internet. Any parent who has encountered this in practice will not let me lie, you can introduce draconian restrictions, but the child will find a way to get around them if he wants. Even in the same school where peers have phones or other devices. And bans won’t achieve anything here, you need to talk to children, we again return to issues of education.

On exactly the same trip to St. Petersburg I caught another scene in the business lounge of the station. Family, dad and mom, two boys. One is eleven years old, the other is about nine. Both of them have smartphones, they are sitting in the waiting room, arguing about who has how much time left to sit on the phone. Mom has an app that monitors time consumption on their phones. They are seriously discussing whether there was an overrun or not, and what to spend the remaining ten (!!!) minutes on. They cooperate with each other so as not to waste extra time. If not an ideal model, then, in any case, close to it, when there is a distribution of roles within the family, children accept the rules of the game and the restrictions that are imposed on them due to age.

I don’t know of any technical means that can restrict children from using social networks or anything on the Internet, since all of them can be bypassed in one form or another. And the adoption of laws will not give us a guarantee of their implementation in practice, especially since parents themselves often perceive restrictions as stupid or unworkable.

The problem of raising children is very acute in different countries of the world; for example, in Australia they are promoting exactly the same idea of ​​limiting children’s use of social networks. But these restrictions will not work in exactly the same way. I prefer the approach of China, where they create conditions so that parents can limit the activity of their children on the Internet, making this a prerogative of both the state and the family.

China has proposed a draft document that regulates children’s ability to use tablets and smartphones. I will outline the main points from this document:

• Different groups of children by age are introduced, content and applications must take into account the age of the child;
• There are different restrictions for each age, children under 8 years old – no more than 40 minutes a day, from 16 to 18 years old – no more than two hours a day;
• The restrictions are not strict (!!!), parents can manage them, add certain applications/services to the exclusion list;
• From 10 pm to 6 am, children cannot use devices; this ban is strict;
• Switching to children’s mode should be done with one button, parents have tools to select applications/services;
• In children’s mode, censorship of certain topics is introduced – violence, sex, and so on, and it applies to both search, applications, and services, for example, social networks.

The list of innovations could go on for a long time; the fact is that the document itself is very sound and protects children, even if their parents cannot do this or do not want to. I would like to see something similar in Russia, but without the same control over the ecosystem as in China, it is simply impossible.

The example of China should be taken into account; it is a high-quality example of soft power, when a direction is created in which both the state and parents work. The latter receive tools for control, and they are taught why this is important, how to protect children from being too immersed in certain computer entertainment.

But the state cannot replace parental education and family. The child was previously shaped by his environment (family and school), now the Internet has been added to this. And the influence of the Internet is often negative; young children perceive many things as truth that are not. To prevent this from happening, you need to spend a lot of time with children, talk to them, communicate. Many of us simply do not have enough time for this, and the situation is left to chance. Therefore, when Mowgli, raised by the Internet, grows up nearby, it’s too late to ask the question of when and what went wrong.