On Thursday, Australia became the first in the world to vote through the toughest law against social media to date, where young people under the age of 16 will be banned from using the apps.
Now Swedish politicians also want to make a move.
– No children should have these apps if you are under the age of 13, and then it is of course safest not to even have a smartphone, says Minister of Social Affairs Jakob Forssmed (KD) in Nyhetsmorgon.
On Friday, Education Minister Lotta Edholm opened up about introducing a 15-year age limit on social media in Sweden, this during a visit to Nyhetsmorgon. Jakob Forssmed also agrees that an age limit may be needed.
– Something most people don’t know, however, is that we already have a 13-year age limit in Sweden. Despite this, we have 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-year-olds who sit with Tiktok for days on end and are overwhelmed by quite extreme content, he says.
“The tech giants must take their responsibility”
The Minister of Social Affairs believes that he wants to see a change in norms to counteract the bad mood of young people caused by social media.
– You end up in a rabbit hole where you can have self-harming behavior and eating disorders served to you all the time for a very long time.
In addition to an age limit, Jakob Forssmed says that the addictive design of the apps should be removed.
– The tech giants must take their responsibility. It takes children’s childhood and ultimately they pay the price for the profits of the tech companies.
Calls for parental responsibility
He believes that the change is possible, due to legislation that the EU jointly pushed forward.
– It offers great opportunities to stop this addictive design. Such supervision is currently underway against Meta and Tiktok, but also around age verification.
The Minister of Social Affairs also calls for parents to help take their responsibility.
– No children should have these apps if you are under the age of 13, and then of course it is safest not to even have a smartphone, says Jakob Forssmed.
Today 08:42
Age limit for social media “Children pay for companies’ profits with their health”
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