should there be a legal age limit for social media?

 Governments around the world are publishing screen time guidelines for children （⊙ｏ⊙）

These measures were taken after multiple studies had indicated the dangers and harms of prolonged exposure to social media on young children. However, parents have mixed views on this issue. Some think that the parents would know what is best for their children, while others support the government's intervention; some of whom even call for a legal age limit on access to social media. In this essay, I am going to discuss whether a legal age limit for social media is necessary.

Firstly, there are vast amounts of enriching educational content on social media. From Do-It-Yourself crafts videos to documentaries targeted at children, the youth of today can discover and pursue their passions with just a phone. For example, after watching a Youtube video on the importance of protecting the environment, my younger brother initiated a self-led project in his school's Eco-Green club. Every Friday for 8 weeks, he would dutifully bring his fellow schoolmates around the neighbourhood to pick up trash. From that experience, he learnt that small thing like picking up litter can make a big impact on the neighbourhood's cleanliness, as well as on the minds of his schoolmates. Since that day, he has always advocated for sustainability and green living, turning a video into a lifelong commitment. Thus, young children can use social media's huge stores of educational content to pursue their passions, so there is no need for a legal age limit on social media.

Secondly, social media allows children to connect with their friends virtually, thereby creating memories and sustaining long-distance friendships. For example, children can use the popular messaging app WhatsApp to communicate despite geographical distance. They can update each other on the daily happenings in their lives and pour out their troubles to each other online. Like this, not only can their friendship blossom but their mental health can also thrive. I believe that no parent would want their child to suffer from the loss of a great friendship, or go through the sullen throes of social isolation. This shows that social media does not just connect distant partners, but also allows shy children to have a better chance at making friends. Hence, social media allows children to foster and nurture their relationships, and a legal age limit may stymie such a positive benefit.

However, young minds can easily fall prey to malicious content. For example, an 18-year-old muslim boy in Singapore had carried out an act of terrorism recently. The purported reason for his attack was the propaganda spread by terrorist organisations on social media, showing that young minds are extremely susceptible to the influence of extremist content. Such threats necessitate a legal age limit on social media to prevent undesirable influences befalling children and youths.

Moreover, some say that children may be addicted to the short-form content that is pervasive on social media. With the rising popularity of social media applications like Tiktok and Instagram, more and more children are being exposed to short-form content. These tiktoks and instagram reels are used to make viewers laugh and, therefore, contain close to no educational content. However, the joy that is evoked by these videos gets children scrolling for hours on end, which can result in myopia and shorter attention spans. Fortunately, parents can mitigate this risk by forbidding their children from viewing short-form content, instead encouraging them to read long articles and informative Youtube videos. Despite children becoming easily addicted to short-form content on social media, this drawback can easily be avoided by letting children consume longer, more educational content instead.

Thus, social media will have positive and negative effects on children. Amidst the sea of valuable educational content and threads of friendships spanning continents, social media also disseminates terrorist ideologies and causes crippling addictions to short-form content. A legal age limit on social media might help, but I believe that stricter regulations on online content would prove more effective.