The UK's "Social Media Ban" is official - Here's how you should talk about it.

© Off-Guardian Org
It's official, the United Kingdom is getting its own Australia-style "social media ban" for everyone under 16.
In fact it's going to be "Australia-plus" according to insiders, with some kind of 'curfew' expected to part of the final roll-out.
Yes,
Sir Keir Starmer has been sitting on that pot for quite sometime and finally decided to...well, you know.
The total list of platforms the proposed ban will target hasn't yet been released, but it is known that YouTube, X (Twitter), Meta (Facebook), Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram will be hit, and that some others - including BlueSky - will not be.
Despite claims to be empowered to move "speedily", the
ban isn't expected to come into force until next spring, which gives a nice little window for a few things to potentially happen.But I'm not here to analyze the ban or speculate on agendas or next steps.
The ban is announced, it will likely happen, and it's on all of us to resist it, and the first stage of resistance is acknowledging the real problem.
How we talk about and argue against these things matters. - A lot.
Because discourse that doesn't acknowledge or understand the real nature of the problem can unwittingly aid the push for authoritarianism.
Already we're seeing the public discussion around the ban be steered, either intentionally or otherwise, in directions that actually support the government position.
So, here's four arguments you must NOT make against the social media ban.
Comment: Switzerland, with a well-armed citizenry, is the model: