20260526 Social Media Verbot für Kinder?

Two reasons of a lot

There are many reasons to ban children from using digital devices, but there are also more than a few reasons against it:

At the re:publica digital conference, researchers stated that there is no scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of a blanket ban on social media for minors.

Furthermore, even those who are obsessed with order fear that such a ban would be impossible to enforce effectively.

This last statement is supported by initial observations from Australia. Nevertheless, almost everyone at the re:publica discussions agreed that urgent action is needed. The first statement is based on a recent discussion paper from the Weizenbaum Institute stating that there is no scientific evidence of “consistent, strong negative effects” of social media on minors. Rather, the effect is context-dependent and depends heavily on individual dispositions and the social environment of the users, writes netzpolitik.org. The site summarizes the current state of affairs as follows: The majority supports a ban but does not believe in it.

So it makes much more sense to invest more resources (including funding) in schools, leisure activities, and the social environment in order to offer young people alternatives ...

As can be seen from the second article linked below, this is exactly what policymakers are failing to do. EU President Ursula von der Leyen is advocating for a social media ban for minors plus age verification before her youth protection experts can weigh in on the matter. In doing so, she demonstrates once again that this is not about scientific findings, but about additional control and surveillance powers. Furthermore, she is putting pressure on the experts, who now know exactly what the EU Commission expects of them.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)