Australia, all the way across the world has proposed a social media age restriction. While a number of countries have banned the use of TikTok (like Taiwan, India, Afghanistan, etc…), Australia has now joined those countries but not by banning it for everyone. The country of Australia that it would be a better idea to put an age limit instead of completely banning Social media by the Entire continent. This could cause a number of problems, they are easily bypassed or faked to get their account, making it nearly impossible for age restriction to be set in stone.  All this and we haven’t talked about how it affects us mentally, harmful stories are thrown around a lot in today’s society, and that doesn’t help the amount of people who are experiencing harmful posts, life-threatening trends, and in some extreme reports, suicide or self-hatred/harm. Privacy, now I can see why they plan to ban anyone under 16 from using apps like TikTok, Instagram, X (formally Twitter), and more. Some people think privacy is like watching white paint dry on a gray canvas. They think it doesn’t matter, or at least enough while somebody could be reading off your ID while we speak.  Even if you think that this stuff isn’t relevant, we still have one big question, who supports this ban and would you be one of those people?

Two people, two different answers or the same but personally, I feel like this isn’t really a punishment, but a mere safety precaution or a warning for those who are being tricked in this circus we call earth. Our first special guest is none other than a fellow student, Lily Armistead!

Donovan: Do you wholeheartedly believe that this ban on social media was 100% necessary or not?

Lily: I do not support this, but I can understand it. This is because I’ve used TikTok since a very young age and it wasn’t always the best to use, but it is a source of entertainment. I’ve found a bunch of other ways to entertain myself from TikTok including shows to watch, books to read, and new hobbies. There are plenty of things to be learned on TikTok.

This is a valid reason but, there is a downside to this, people could become more and more addicted to apps like these, but I don’t usually use apps like these but I agree with this answer just because if you use it for sheer entertainment but there has to be a limit to what you can see on apps like these(humiliation of others for views or worse) but if it’s staged comedy then it’s better since your not acting like an absolute lunatic just for people to like you. I’ve interviewed this guy once before and he spat me back an entire essay for an answer, (just hope it’s different this time) Alby Diaz!
Donovan: Do you wholeheartedly believe that this ban on social media was 100% necessary or not?

Alby: I think that personally yes I do support it but not at the age of 16. I think personally 15 maybe even 14 would be good. 16 years would be somewhat decent, but I think personally if I lived in Australia and this was happening i would support it. although I would try to attempt to lower the age to 14. For the main reason social media in general is bad but with the exception of YouTube. There are educational things on YouTube, which is why I believe that a lot of psychologists and scientists in general would say that it affects the brain negatively. video games are better than social media by a long run.

So giving your kid video games over social media is a better thing to do, rather than vice versa, especially when me, myself, who’s barely used any social media platform, besides YouTube. mainly because it’s all untrustworthy, like sure u can get news from there, but like if you really wanna see something so bad for the news, turn on the TV. many studies have shown that video games are better than social media, for the reason being, video games teach you things, depending on the game that is, Minecraft can teach you about creativity and free and open-minded thinking, Rainbow Six Siege can teach you about strategizing things, games like “The Last Of Us” can teach you on patience and timing. games like these are better than doom-scrolling on anything else which can include YouTube shorts. Some people actually argue that video games can rot the brain, while they themselves are always on TikTok or Snapchat. another comment or a question if you will. I strongly believe that there is no need for Instagram or Snapchat. other than the use of posting pictures or videos, but even so you don’t need apps that do the same exact thing. Also the other more useless thing about both Insta and Snap, is the text messaging thing in them, completely useless, WhatsApp and Discord are twenty times better than that. So my end statement on whether or not I agree or support Australia’s idea on the ban of social media until the age of 16. I do, but with the idea of bringing that age to 14 or 15, and to not ban YouTube and Discord. mainly because people have different types of phones and when sending images or videos, it becomes distorted, hence discord. And because YouTube has educational aspects.

Now, we want YOUR THOUGHTS, do you support this we would like to hear your thoughts in the comments!