THE UK JUST BANNED SOCIAL MEDIA FOR UNDER-16S

The UK has banned social media for under-16s, single-handedly saving childhood. The state would never lie to you. Come inside, it's fine.

Two British blokes in Vietnam on the under-16 social media ban, screen addiction, and the government that loves your kids more than you do.

We get into why the algorithm is a casino in your pocket, why the man whose top comment on the "I'M A SNAKE" video thinks it's his ticket to a better life, and why a benevolent state banning kids from social media while quietly rolling out digital ID for adults is definitely, definitely a coincidence. Prove your age, citizen. It's for your safety.

00:00 No iPhone until she's 16
01:30 Social media is not social
03:26 My top comment is my ticket to fame
06:18 How fast your life is going
09:50 The digital ID question
12:56 Come inside, it's fine

#SocialMediaBan #DigitalID #UKnews

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Transcript

0:00

I've had some brilliant news this week, which means I don't have to buy my daughter an iPhone until she's 16, and it's because they've just banned social media in the UK for under 16. So I told her, "You've got a British passport, it applies to you as well." Bless her. Sorry, no phone for you. Have a nice day. Yes, I said, "You can have a Nokia." Yeah, I'm sure she was, uh, absolutely delighted. Yeah. But I think, you know, joking aside, I think this is a really, really positive move, and hopefully this will roll into more countries around the world because I think access to social media when you're under 16 is not, not a good thing. I, I think, uh, it, it trains you to be messed up socially. And as we know, as we've talked about in various other episodes in the past, social media is, uh, not that social. It's designed as an algorithm to keep you hooked and on there and not actually talking to any other people apart from digitally with your thumbs. Uh, yeah, completely. And I mean, we've… I guess we've, we've talked about this a lot in previous episodes, which people are welcome to, uh, go back and watch again because nothing's really changed. Um, but yeah. Like, subscribe. Share. Send it as a gift to your friend. Um, but yeah. Or enemy. Um, but yeah, it's all those things that we talked about before, and I remember we mentioned even movies like The Social Dilemma, where sort of experts in the field explain how social media works. And it is that thing. You, you open Facebook, you're instantly engaging with a supercomputer with this algorithm directed straight at your brain, and it's, it's just there trying to pull the strings, trying to keep you on for as long as possible. Um- And that's all it is. And I, I don't really think should it even be allowed for adults? I think, yeah, but maybe it should come with health warnings 'cause it is, it is bad for your health. It's bad for your mental health, physical health, everything.'Cause while you're there to… You could be, you could be lifting weights, but instead you're gonna spend like 25 minutes scrolling TikTok. In that time, it's gonna directly impair your, your short-term memory, and by the end of it, you're gonna go, "I don't know what I even just watched." Mm. You know? And it's- Yeah … it, it causes depression, anxiety, all of these things. And there's various court cases in the pipeline now against some of these large social media companies 'cause they're, they're just-- they're literally wrecking, in my opinion, uh, but I don't know if that counts very much, but I think they're really wrecking people's lives, relationships, everything. I mean, of course, it's down to the individual. You don't, you don't have to be on these things all the time. You can walk away. You can put it down. You can have some self-control. But a lot of people don't, and it is difficult to have that self, that self-control because it's all designed in a way using the, the same tactics that they use in a casino of, um, what is it? Intermittent variable rewards. Mm. All of this kind of stuff, it's, it's wired into us this in this way to keep us there, and it's difficult not to. But I think there needs to be some kind of health warnings for everybody. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I find myself even with Shorts and, and watching videos, if you go and look at the history of your YouTube, you'll be surprised how many you've watched in, like, a, a certain period of time. But I've even found myself, like, reading the comments on short videos, which is the most inane, like, thing you could possibly spend your time doing. It's like watching a video and then being like, "Ooh, I wonder how many… how, how people have reacted to this video that I've just watched," and I'm gonna go and read the comments. I wonder what Dave in Coventry thinks. Yeah. I bet there's gonna be some amazing insights here on these comments. And I- I've done it, you know? And you see people in those comments that, that are presumably grownups like, "This, this comment's the most likes I've ever had on a comment." It's like, wh- when did we enter a world where somebody can create a video that's, like, a minute long, and then you can go and make a comment on that video about your opinion of it, and then because lots of people agree with your comment, you're like, you get this buzz of like, "I'm famous now." Yeah."Oh, yeah. Hi, nice to meet you. Yeah. What do you do? Well, you know that video, that short video with a guy saying, 'I'm a snake'? Yeah. Got the top comment on that, you know?" Yeah. And then all of a co- Oh, and- Go and carry on. Oh, and did you get a job after that? No, no, I don't. I'm just… I'm waiting for this to, to pay off. Like, surely it's gonna pay off. That video, "I'm a snake,"'s got 16 million views. My comment's got like half a million likes. It's gonna… That's my ticket Yeah. It's a ticket to a better life. To be famous for, for the sake of being famous. Um- Well, I've just kicked off my I'm a Snake commentary channel, and we're gonna make shorts about different videos and takes on the I'm a Snake guy. Oh, I've got a line of merch, everything. And then some of those comments things, comment sections as well, it's kind of like, um, it's like if you go to a zoo and there's monkeys, and they're just, like, flinging their own feces at each other. It's kind of the, the comment section of a lot of videos is just like that, and it gets so out of hand and crazy. Um, people so irate about what seems to be absolutely nothing. Um- Yeah. Yeah, I've been guilty of it, even to one of our… I don't know if he's a subscriber, but certainly a commenter. Arthur, I'm gonna apologize to you publicly on our episode 'cause he posted a comment the other day that was actually agreeing with us, and I thought he was disagreeing with us, so I went in and, you know, gave a little, a little ball kick, and then had to climb back down into my, you know, zone and, and apologize for my lack of reading skills. So- … just shows you- Good work … you know. Even, even us here at Temporally Scripted. So if you do wanna leave us a comment, you can. I'll misinterpret it, and I'll use Claude to come up with a witty response to whatever you say. Good call. Obviously not using Mythos or Fable. Yeah. And again, I mean, and, and obviously you're gonna be wasting your time commenting on other people's videos, but if you comment on ours, it's fine. Or it's the same as if you watch our shorts on YouTube. But they definitely don't have any negative effect. Um- No. No. No, not at all. And, and now you've said that, uh, it's funny, so th- I came across a guy the other day who started a channel, and his channel is spending an hour every day doing nothing until I stop watching short videos. So the video is him sitting in a, in a garden bench with, like, a bit of a voiceover, and behind him there's a clock that's, like, shows, you know, the one hour going by. Okay. And he just sits out there doing nothing for an hour so that he can stop scrolling, but he's making short videos about this process that people will watch- Right to presumably, at some point- It's … stop scrolling. I, I, I don't know. May- maybe on his main channel he's got the one-hour version. Yeah. So people watch a short and go, "Oh, right. Th- this is gonna be good." I'm gonna sit and watch this for an hour. A- and, and, you know, that's the, the sort of world that we've got to. It, it's weird, isn't it? I d- I think there's, there are so many things. Like, you wouldn't believe some of the niches of video that are out there now- And- … that people enjoy That I, I, I can only imagine, but I, I was just thinking, you know, it's like when you get sort of, well, I guess any age really, think how quickly your life so far has passed, how, how quickly it seems to have all just flown by, and how much more of it do you think you have left? Do, do you have double? That could be good. Well, being halfway through can be kinda scary. Is it less than that? That's, that's really scary. And how precious that time is and how quickly it goes, and you're gonna waste some of that time just watching some ridiculous video on some social media actually damaging your own health and just wasting the whole of that time when you could be doing so many other things Yeah. Yeah, and then subjecting children to it at the same time I think is, is totally out of order because at least at their stage of life they believe they've got something to live for and a future that will be better. They've not quite- … entered like the crushing depression of adulthood- Exactly … and bills and, you know, having to work 60 hours a week on, on something else which then you of course do need some brain rot for a couple of hours a day to drown your miseries. Now nobody's allowed to drink or smoke anymore 'cause that's-… socially unacceptable, you know? Yeah. But at least those things are… Well, they're socially unacceptable now in some ways, but they do come with health warnings, and I think that's one of the, the, the biggest things with social media is that it, it doesn't come with that warning. And it seems like it's only recently that it's actually being recognized some of the harms. And, you know, it's like, I don't know, and, uh, I mean, you mentioned like, uh, cigarettes for example. There's, there's laws to say you can't do that when you're under 16 or under 18. It doesn't, it doesn't mean that when you get over that age, all of a sudden Benson & Hedges is really good for you and healthy, you know? It's like it, it, it's still gonna kill you in the end. Yeah. Stick to like Marlboro Lights or something, you know? Yeah.'Cause then… But I, I, again, joking aside with all of that stuff, it's, uh, yeah, w- w- w- is w- I guess part of me is concerned of what they have in store for us next if they're now starting to limit the thing that was the new opiate for us. It's like, what, what have they got technologically that means that they don't wanna keep us from a young age stuck to social media screens all day? Or is it just that people are at an all-time trust deficit of like governments and control structures that they need to start making some laws that look like they care about us again so that- Oh, yeah people can kinda go, "Oh, well, look, they, you know, they banned social media for the under 16s. They, they must have our interests at heart." Yeah, can't be a, a group of sociopaths or anything like that. The- these people must actually really care and are definitely not just looking for votes. Um, but then of course, uh, uh, the, that's another really big concern with this. In the UK they're looking to bring it in, think it's in spring 2027, which I guess is- isn't that far away. But how are they gonna set this up? What are they gonna do? How are they gonna make sure that it's an adult accessing this thing? Uh- Mm. Y- that's gonna require some kind of input of data or ID. Is it then gonna be a, a slick way to get the, the digital ID system in that they've been wanting since the time of Blair? Uh, will it be some other way? But I think we can pretty much guarantee that there'll be some people that will be locked out of it unless they want to s- share specific data. Um, I don't know if that can be a way to, to control the only real outlets such as various social media, whether that's X, Facebook, YouTube, I guess that falls under it too, but that's where you would get, like, a dissent, where you would get people talking about things that aren't mentioned in the mainstream. And is it another way to curtail that or have more control of that? Mm. I don't know. But, but I really wouldn't be surprised. Um, 'cause often, as we've seen time and time again, it'll be this thing, "Oh, it's, we're doing this for your safety." "Oh, okay, thanks. It, this, this seems great." But then- Yeah. Oh, I bet. I bet you are all but then all of a sudden some of your freedoms have been taken away, or you somehow wind up broke'cause everything's really expensive. And it's like, uh, but it's always,"Oh, it's, it's just for your safety. Don't worry. We're, we're looking after you. Just c- come inside. Come inside. It's fine." We've got your interests as heart as always. Well, at the, the least the people at home can know that we will continue to call it out right here on Temporarily Scripted until we get closed down and we're not allowed because all of our people have been blocked out of social media, um, and cannot view us anymore. So yeah, that's, uh, fun times ahead, my friend. Good times to be building social media channels, that's for sure. It, definitely. So in the meantime, folks, don't forget, like, share, subscribe. Tell your friends. And we will see you in the next one. Buy the t-shirt. See you next time. Cheers, Adam. Goodbye.