Southern Republicans want to ban your children from ever using social media until they hit 21. Do you agree with their proposal?

Question

Interestingly some Democrats and non-Southern Republicans ALSO joined in, although most of the Senators and Governors who agreed were Southern Republicans, including especially Rand Paul and Ron DeSantis who most strongly support the case for banning children, teenagers, and young adults from using social and dating platforms.

Apps such as Instagram, TikTok, Discord, Reddit, Tinder, On*yF*ns, and to a degree, YouTube, are targeted by these strict Christian conservatives. They want to require everyone to show photo IDs before registering for such websites. Four Democrats actually joined in to sign this proposal; those four include Joe Manchin, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi, and Kyrsten Sinema. California's opposing governor candidate, Brian Dahle, also joined in. That's it for all the non-Southerners. Cori Bush opposed this strict plan because according to her this law would "enable the invalidation of minority speech and call-outs when verbal, visual and physical bigotry, discrimination and oppression happen." Interestingly, Tulsi Gabbard ALSO opposed it because as a libertarian-leaning Democrat it "violates the freedom of speech for all individuals using the World Wide Web."

Tucker Carlson is planning to run for Senator of California before 2030, and he agreed that it will "in many ways, reduce all that cultural degeneracy and the bullcrap trends we all see on the Chinese Tok and the Ferrari-wannabe Gramma. No more dopamine, and kids will need to sleep earlier!!!"

nightdrot · Accepted Answer

It has been well said that Americans don't raise children, they incite them. This is part of the problem with children and exposure to social media. A technology whose cultural and sociological effects we do not completely understand the society has lazily decided to expose young minds to and then are shocked - SHOCKED! - at the consequences.

To start, the precedent for such a ban is not unheard of. Children hold, rightly, a separate legal status and it is perfectly appropriate for the society to make collective judgments about where the lines should be drawn. Thus, for example, those under 18 are not permitted to drink or buy pornography. So it would hardly be a harbinger of the totalitarian state to forbid children to utilize social media.

Would such a ban be 100% effective? Of course not. No more than the aforementioned bans on minors and porn or alcohol are totally effective. The point is that such laws allow society to express and to enforce certain cultural standards as to what is appropriate for its young and growing citizens.

Of course, the instant response is that this is an infringement of liberty. However, as the 18th century British statesman and political philosopher Edmund Burke put it, "The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do as they please. We ought see what it will please them to do before we risk congratulations."

The problem is that social media is already having an impact on society that society itself does not completely understand and is not fully prepared to deal with. The technology of media heretofore has been to have a homogenizing effect. Movies, radio and television were all mass media phenomena that forced society to, more or less, experience the world through the same prism.

Thus the cry in the 1960s and 1970s to "fight the man," and "do your own thing." This was resistance to what it was feared would be a tendency to group think and the reduction of individualism. This was fair concern and there is a need to balance group and individual.

The new technology however, has the opposite effect. Social media and the like has an atomizing effect. Allowing individuals to go to sources of information that confirm their own biases and avoid any contrary views. The effects of this being seen in things as disparate as the rancid tone of American politics and even the rise in crime.

Suffice to say, this is a large enough problem in society as it is. Engrain these cultural habits of mind in the younger generation by a thoughtless exposure of the young to social media is storing up serious trouble for the future. It being well said that a "quirk" in one generation is apt to become a crisis by the next.

To be sure, any ban on social media will need to be carefully weighed and balanced against other values and lines drawn. However, at the moment, the culture is wrestling with the effects of a technology it built but does not fully understand. That being case, it would not be unwise the limit the exposure of young minds to that technology.

Stoner710 · Accepted Answer

Holly crap there something me and AOC and Nancy Pelosi agree on I’m one of those MAGA non Christian republicans (by the way 99% of republicans are Maga republicans so when Joe Biden say there’s some good republicans he’s talking about the 1% like Liz Cheney and Mick Romney which aren’t democrats but there not republicans either.). Now I would say 18 for social media, it’s been proven that social media does cause depression and suicidal thoughts also social media I believe is a main cause for these mass shooters. Everyone likes to blame violence in movies and video games is the cause of mass shootings I disagree completely I believe that it is due to social media and the Internet. But at the same time when does adulthood begins? We allow people to vote at 18 we allow people to join the military at 18 but your not allowed to drink by a pistol (you can buy shotguns and long guns at 18) smoke cigarettes smoke weed legally at 21 so if your an adult at 18 you should be able to buy cigarettes weed alcohol join the military have a social media account smoke weed have sex at 18 or we should move the age of adulthood to 21 your either an adult or not if we are going to have restriction at 18 but not after 21 then the age of adulthood should be 21.

Daniela1982 · Accepted Answer

Too many kids die as a result of social media. Things like stuff they see on Tik Tok where they wind up hanging themselves. Social media bullying has cause many to commit suicide and how many people are hurt by posts on social media. Things would go better if they stayed off it until the grew the fuck up and could handle SM and play nice on it. Too many lemmings on SM who want to be like people who have no business being a role model, like Ex Hanna Montana Miley Cyrus.  Role Model Miley other social media lovelies, uhh

EllaNella · Accepted Answer

Apart from Onlyfans wich should only be accessed by adults, i think it should be something that parents monitor. social media has gotten very important for interpersonal communication, so i don't think it makes sense to completely ban it.
personally i would keep children away from it until they are 13/14 & then i'd supervise it strictly

ManOnFire · Answer

It's draconian, but I have to say it's not 100% a bad plan, it just needs a lot of work. I definitely don't support these Christian nationalist Republicans - especially DeSantis - but I too feel that certain social media and Internet access should  not  be presented to kids at a young age. It just makes them worse in an already slum-paradise society we're living in now. So at the least, kids should still be able to use some social media but have other areas of it restricted.

Oigit · Answer

I have issues with social media. But I'm still for parental rights. So I can't get completely behind this. Also it does not really tackling the issue. Social media can have serious negative impact on a persons mental and emotional health. Studies have proven this time and time again. It's also the reason why with millennials the world seen such a massive jump in younger people that have metal health issues such as depression.

Now are entering into the time where millennials are having kids and raising their kids with social media. So all the mental and emotional issues social media created in millennials are being passed down to gen z and being compounded. Simply due to social media not being a thing for a large chunk of our life. But with gen z we are seeing kids younger then 10 on social media. So all those negative effects social media can have are effecting kids before they are even in middle school.

Anonymous · Answer

So an age limit is one way to protect youngsters from the damage that can be caused by social media. I'm not sure it's the best given that the young like to network.
But if everyone is forced to verify their identity, we'd perhaps have much better behaviour on these sites in the first place.
Adults can do this perhaps by credit card, teenagers by other forms of ID. And bots, perhaps they can use their own site. You could even allow anyone on the site provided there's a big switch to easily ignore them.

godfatherfan · Answer

Funny how the piece of shit republican's cry "you are taking away our freedoms", when you ask them to help protect one another and wear a mask. Yet they are fine with taking away freedom of choice for a lot of other things like abortion, social media, etc..

monorprise · Answer

This is inherently a State issue, and I would like to see it tried in some state, to see how much it improves the environment for said children, at least from public school attending children.

Enforcement however will be a problem, so perhaps Start with taking the phones away in the class rooms, and blocking the domain names at the router level.

The state can also coordinate with ISP's of school age kids to block it there too.

kmg9150 · Answer

Social media is no longer social. It is now Public Profiling for targeted consumer manipulation and exploitation. It creates more problems psychologically than it helps. You can't search into one thing without being bombarded with ads for the same shit. Like I only need so many vacuums after I buy one.. Kids minds are too impressionable still at that age...

Jamesshinobi · Answer

my kids are 13, 11 and 2. none have social media or a phone. the older 2 are model children with varied hobbies and superior abilities. the baby is a maveric. she's wild and tells me she wants to fight. pretty sure she is saying "ill fuck you up" when asked if she wants to fight. she still can't figure oit the toilet though.

Anonymous · Answer

Many of the users responding here are themselves under 21, so you won't get valid poll results. If you could limit the results to only those who actually have children themselves who are old enough to be affected by this, I think you would see most people support it. I'm not republican myself but there is no question that social media is harmful to younger people, and to society as a whole.

UCrayCray · Answer

I thought DeSantis was a fighter for “parental rights.” 🤔

Anonymous · Answer

Nice bait title. It goes from “Republicans want to ban your children from ever using social media until they hit 21” to “banning children, teenagers, and young adults from using social and dating platforms”? What exactly is the truth? Maybe keep it in context and do push a false narrative.

BCA6010 · Answer

No. It should just be banned in full for everyone.

BeMuse · Answer

What did you eat before you shit out this fan fiction?

Dargil · Answer

I have heard of that. Because it is nonsense.

joeldalton · Answer

Probably not a bad idea. Social Media was the worst thing to ever happen to society.

AngryCarl · Answer

I'm pretty sure that's nonsense but I can't be bothered to fact check you right now. It's no nuttier than banning books anyway.

OddBeMe · Answer

But there could be an independent agency (like ones that look over Wall Street and alike) that could have a digital passport for every IP address.

Anonymous · Answer

Social media dumbed down society, take it away from the under 21s and the whole thing will crumble, that's a great thing to think about

Rangers · Answer

That sounds great, too much brainwashing on social media

Cubus · Answer

Some things (like only fans) should be banned for minors.

MiseriaCantareAFI · Answer

For a party that hates culture war They seem to love talking about culture

Southern Republicans want to ban your children from ever using social media until they hit 21. Do you agree with their proposal?

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