A social media ban is becoming prevalent all over the world. In the United States, Tiktok is being banned for national security reasons. In Australia, social media is being banned for all residents under 16, to prevent them from causing self-harm. After a long time dominating kids’ phone use, countries are beginning to crack down, here’s my opinion. I dislike it a bit, I can understand Tiktok, not because of apparent violations of national security, but because many dangerous trends have come from the app, like eating Tiepod laundry detergent. It claimed 8 lives, and resulted in 12,000 poison control center calls. The others? Not so much. 

Not all things on social media are bad, yes there’s fake news everywhere on social media, but at the same time, not all posts are untrustworthy, just some of them. There’s also the issue of freedom on the internet, with no social media comes less freedom, which could make people furious with their governments, leading to unrest. Also, social media is the main cause of many people’s entertainment, without social media, it could cause a lot of people to be bored more, sure they’ll eventually find a way to cope, but in the meantime, it’ll be rough, and who knows what some teens will do when they’re bored, maybe they’ll bully someone, maybe they’ll start spraying graffiti everywhere, who knows? 

There are a few undeniable benefits of a social media ban, though, first of all, a lot of misinformation could lead to people believing the wrong things without any proof or research whatsoever, social media is also fertile ground for cyberbullies, and, although rare, this bullying does lead to fatalities, 4,500 THOUSAND people die every SINGLE YEAR from cyberbullying by taking their own lives. 10% of people have tried to take their lives from cyberbullying. But all in all, removing social media would still be a massive violation of people’s internet rights.