Over 80 percent students from grades 1-3 of primary schools watch YouTube, and half use social media. Every fourth person publishes their own content there. According to the regulations, they should not be able to do so because a social media user must be at least 13 years old. This shows that age verification on platforms is not effective. Moreover, experts warn that the age limit should be raised by at least two years.
– If we want to ensure children's safety, we must think mainly about solutions related to social media – says Łukasz Wojtasik from the Empowering Children Foundation to the Newseria agency. – There are a number of threats related to the Internet, but especially with social media, because this is where children spend most of their time, often under the legal age limit of 13.
A survey of 22,000 people conducted this year by the Empowering Children Foundation. students of the first three grades of primary school, who theoretically should not have access to instant messaging and social media, indicated that the age limit of 13 is a fiction. According to “Sprawdzian 13+”, half of children aged seven-nine use social media. A similar percentage uses WhatsApp. Every third child has a TikTok account, as is the case with Messenger. Over 60 percent users experience situations in these channels that are assessed as bad or disturbing.
– The structure of social media is not safe for children, teenagers and adults, but we adults are in a much better position because we already have a fully developed brain and control mechanisms, we are able to think critically and distinguish good from evil. Children often do not have such competences, especially the youngest ones, who lose to algorithms. Media is very addictive, especially short videos. In this context, we talk about short video addiction, a new phenomenon based on the fact that the structure of these films, the way they are presented, and the irregular releases of dopamine in the brain, especially of young people, are simply addictive. Not to mention the content of these films, which is often violent, sexual and vulgar – explains Łukasz Wojtasik.
In its campaign, the Empowering Children Foundation promotes raising the age limit for using social media from 13 to 15. He also cites 15 reasons why it is advisable. Campaign experts emphasize that intensive use of social media is associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness and low self-esteem, which especially applies to teenage girls. It may also interfere with the process of building one's identity and developing emotions. Social networking sites and instant messengers make it easier to contact strangers, which increases the risk of peer violence and manipulation attempts.
– This is sexual abuse, harmful content, hate and radicalization. These are harmful beauty patterns, harmful behavior patterns, health problems, depression and so on. There are a number of these threats. Our role – parents and adults – is to protect children from these threats, and at the same time expect service providers to serve this content and rebuild the mechanics of social networking sites so that it is not a threatening environment for the youngest users. At the same time, we also expect them to effectively verify age – says the FDDS expert.
The aim of the campaign is to reach parents and show them the scale of the risks associated with their children's presence on social media. This should be followed by education and preparation of children to use websites. The second goal is to seek legislative solutions that will sanction raising the age limit and force platforms to effectively check the age of users and block those who are too young.
– The current age limit of 13 results from regulations such as the American CAPA or the European GDPR. These are data protection laws, but they are not the result of an analysis of the impact of social media on children. We consulted with child psychiatrists, therapists, psychologists and practitioners and concluded that when it comes to young people's ability to avoid threats, their development of cognitive and control functions, the age of 15 is the age – explains Łukasz Wojtasik.
As he emphasizes, this does not mean that children over 15 are completely safe on social media.
– Our proposal and, at the same time, a tool for parents is a list of competencies. We show what competences children must have and what developmental level they must be at for social media to be safe for them. For one child it may be 15 years of age, for another 16 years and this is in the hands of the parents, but we consider 15 years of age as the minimum. This seems to be a reasonable compromise between young people's need to access digital services and the need to ensure their safety in the digital environment – says an expert from the Empowering Children Foundation.
The “no social networking sites under 15 years of age” rule is one of the recommendations of age experts in the Home Screen Rules program. The others are: “no screens until the age of three” and “no smartphone until the age of 12”. Meanwhile, among the surveyed seven-nine-year-olds, 66 percent he already has his smartphone.
