this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
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94
Poll finds 90% in favour of social media age ban, while advocates urge action for online harms (nationalpost.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Blisterexe@lemmy.zip to c/technology@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Polling shows that social media bans are overwhelmingly popular. This article is for canada but it holds true for the US. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/07/01/majority-of-americans-support-banning-social-media-for-kids-under-16/

Just wanted to share because I've seen people act like it's some anti-democratic conspiracy that these (bad) laws are going into place.

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[–] PierceTheBubble@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

The statistics appear to originate from from this pseudo study. All of the questions related to supposed "protection of children", are framed within this context, without concretely considering the possible downsides; which strongly biases participants' views. I also like how it typically reduces ages 18-54 to a single bracket (while statistics on page 18, demonstrating a trend of younger respondents, responding with reduced strength), and especially how it doesn't consider minors to be Canadians (18- being asked absolutely nothing, at all...).

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

They didn't poll under 18's because it's a political polling organisation and under-18's don't vote, I will say it is a bit strange they grouped the ages like that, since they usually don't, it seems to have been done for the page layout.

The other study linked only has one non-leading question, and a majority still supports a ban.

I don't support the current implementations but dismissing the specific poll is a bit silly.

[–] PierceTheBubble@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago

But it naturally skews the results, especially when baby boomers and gen X alone constitute 57% of all respondents: which are typically less digitally literate, and therefore even less considerate of downstream consequences. Am I missing something? Because I cannot find any reference to another study, if that is what you mean. I've seen my share of pseudo studies that governments desperately cling onto, and by all means, this appears to be another one of them.

[–] scratchee@feddit.uk 5 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Makes me think of the classic yes minister national service scene, https://youtu.be/ahgjEjJkZks

[–] PierceTheBubble@lemmy.ml 2 points 15 hours ago

Excellent video, and very applicable indeed! :)

[–] mynameisbob@lemmy.ml 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

nice... putting that in my pocket