This is the most horrifying thing in all of this. People with a prison guard mentality are already thinking how to enforce the rules in an even stricter way. Rules that are violating freedom of information, one of the most basics Western freedoms. Yes, there are no repreciations for the violating them at first, the frog is getting boiled slowly, but give it a few years and people who let their child use social media will be treated as criminals and put in prisons. Everything "for the sake of children."
> freedom of information, one of the most basics Western freedoms.
Children's access to info is limited in all societies.
No it isn't; children have always been able to borrow the same books from libraries as adults, read the same newspapers. Just now much of the information doesn't live in books or newspapers.
Movies have ratings and entry to hall is restricted. Games have rating and ability to buy them is restricted. books allowed in school libraries is heavily curated and sometimes restricted by law or vested groups. It is illegal to sell R18 magazines to a minor.
Movie ratings are voluntary in the US. Restrictions on selling porn to minors are orthogonal to movie ratings. It's generally legal for a theatre to sell a ticket for a PG-13 movie intended for 15-year-olds to a 12-year-old who hasn't received parental permission. Most theatres would refuse to sell the ticket, and most parents wouldn't let their 12-year-old child go to a movie theatre alone, but the bulk of the responsibility of preventing children from watching inappropriate movies falls on parents and guardians.
Banning children from social media is like banning children from movie theatres. A ban should consider that (1) different restrictions are appropriate for different ages of children (e.g. 12 vs 15), (2) depending on the country (e.g. the US with the First Amendment to the Constitution), children may have information access rights that parents can take away but governments can't, and (3) children in unhealthy relationships with parents or guardians (e.g. transphobic/homophobic parents of LGBTQ+ kids) should be able to access some kinds of social media without letting their parents/guardians know.