Age limits and social media

Sir, – On Tuesday the Tánaiste Simon Harris said the Government will “plough on” with national age limits for social media, even if there is disagreement at EU level (“Ireland may enact age limits for social media even without EU agreement, says Simon Harris”, News, February 12th).

I believe the solution to this imbroglio lies in high-level EU regulation and a massive societal education programme. I am not convinced that age limits are an effective way of dealing with social media addiction for our young people‚ when the real issue is the unacceptable content.

The ban feels like a quick fix. We are removing something that feels like it is dangerous, ergo the problem is solved, but it has not been resolved.

There is also very little discussion about how we will deal with social media after 16, and how we deal with it as adults, as well. It’s not as though the bad effects of social media disappear when one turns 20, 25 or 30. – Yours, etc,