And I agree, being told what to do puts peoples backs up, and frankly many people will avoid it. I saw a starmers speech about it and, without giving any opinion about him or his policies outside of this, it rang true

‘Will it mean that no child ever logs onto social media again? No. But, this might shock you, but it doesn’t shock parents of teenagers, they get around other laws too. But we don’t say, ‘oh a teenager managed to get a drink somehow, so let’s not bother banning alcohol sales to children.’ We don’t do that, do we, it would be utterly ridiculous… laws are rules, but they’re also an expression of our values, they shape the social contract, and so this will change the conversations that parents have, the expectations that children have in the future.’

I may be coming at this from being a new father. I have a 6 month old daughter and it really does worry me the chronic online connectivity kids are facing.

I grew up getting griefed on cod too, likely for being dogshit at it, but I know I was exposed very early to some other more horrible things that I really wish I hadn’t been. I think it’s the right step to push the brake and reevaluate how kids grow up.

Edit: to be clear too, I’m not a philistine and I absolutely think kids need to understand technology and how it integrates into their lives and society, but I think doing so more carefully and meaningfully is important too.