Mary Atieno | staff writer

“Get ready with me for my first day of kindergarten.”

If you told me this would be a real video that I would watch half asleep on Instagram a year ago, I would find a way to avoid you at all costs for wishing such insanity upon me and my phone. However, I was recently procrastinating my work and decided to open up Instagram Reels only to stumble across this and many similar videos.

My initial thought was “why is this on my phone?” and I scrolled past and continued watching my typical nonsense. Later on that day and throughout the week I kept rethinking about that Reel, and the ways that our social media usage can influence the next generation, and the simple fact is, I think social media has done more harm to us as a collective, and there need to be more limitations in place.

Social media was created with connection in mind. Now people all around the world can see each other’s posts and interact almost instantaneously. But that immediacy has come at a cost.

Our methods of consumption have changed drastically. The manual search and watch, curation of our own feeds based on interests is essentially gone.

Most apps are interlinked, from ads to suggested content and whenever you press ‘allow tracking,’ they sync information between each other — so your 3 a.m. search of “Taco Bell Best Eats Mukbang” will eventually hit your YouTube feed, with shorts of the protein breakdown of the newest grilled cheese burrito, and your Spotify ads will start promoting either the nearest gym or a DoorDash discount.

However, this calls into question what information younger social media users could be consuming as they use apps such as Discord, TikTok and Instagram.

Algorithms have become more focused on showing the user relatable content. However, just because it was trained to highlight the things you’re interested in, does not mean that you would only specifically receive content such as that. You may receive content that mutuals or people have mass-liked, or content that was shared with you, which explains why you may sometimes stumble across a questionable post your friend may have unintentionally (or intentionally liked), but this is a major concern for younger users.

Now, it is illegal for social media platforms within the United States to collect information of people under the age of 13, because of the Children Online Privacy Protection Act, but it’s truly naive to assume that there aren’t underaged users simply lying about their age — which explains why I would occasionally, in the dead of night, get a random Reel with thousands of likes and comments of a child’s account trying to ‘make it big’ or ‘blow up,’ a concept that is extremely dangerous as it puts a spotlight on both a child and their accounts, putting them at risk of experiencing things such as public scrutiny and cyberbullying, eroding their privacy, as well as the potential for harmful individuals to engage with them.

Should there be harsher protections against children using social media?

Australia thinks so.

On Dec. 10, Australia officially banned all users under 16 years old from accessing any form of social media. The stated goal was to prevent younger users of these apps from interacting with harmful ideas and activities that may stem from them (such as trends like looksmaxxing) or from interacting with malicious people.

This is implemented via identification verification, through either facial scanning technology that approximates your age based on facial features, or through the submission of legal documents like an ID or passport through government-controlled websites, usually to confirm your age, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria and the Business Licensing Authority.

The ban does not punish the users but rather the apps themselves, holding them financially responsible for any potential slip-ups, with fines up to $50 million, if underage users are found on their platforms.

Many other countries are also contemplating following suit, with France approving a law that follows similar guidelines as Australia, due to pushes by President Emmanuel Macron according CNN.

“The brains of our children and adolescents are not for sale,” Macron said in a video released January 25, by CNN’s French affiliate BFMTV.

And many other European nations in the beginning stages of similar bans, according to Reuters.

Growing up “chronically online” with easy access to the internet and potentially dangerous subcultures and individuals was extremely risky, and even in spite of the numerous protections and proofings that were set in place, it was extremely easy for me to stumble across and engage with content that was extremely inappropriate for me, whether or not I wanted, which is what Australian officials are attempting to prevent, a sentiment that I agree on as well.

Everyone receives the same general information the moment they are aware of the internet and the concept of being able to interact with users from across the globe; Don’t share your personal information, don’t accept requests from strangers, don’t post impulsively, etc.

However, you don’t get advice regarding situations like someone sending your own address to you, or someone threatening to harm them self if you don’t send the pictures they want, or if someone older than you, pretending to be your friend, makes advances on you suddenly. And while there are websites and hotlines dedicated to advising victims on what to do after incidents such as grooming or cyberbullying, there is no explicit advice as to how to properly avoid situations. It is entirely dependent on a guardian’s (or even a child’s) own personal level of knowledge or discretion about online safety, and with the advancement of social networking, it is getting difficult for many to be able to properly navigate potentially harmful subcultures.

It’s not as simple as just closing the screen or ignoring them, and younger children are being exposed to situations like this when they interact with content online. While it’s cute to watch a toddler simulate a full blown get ready with me for the school day, it’s wise to take a lot of things into account.

Mary Atieno can be reached at atienom@duq.edu