The sliders climb every year. In 2022, the amount of 11- and 12-year-olds using a social network has increased by another 10 points compared to 2020. It now peaks at 87% (Heaven’s Born Social study). A phenomenon that the deputies want to curb, who recently voted almost unanimously for a bill creating a numerical majority at 15 years old. The idea? Oblige social networks to actually verify the age of people when registering and impose the authorization of parents before 15 years. Interview with Axelle Desaint, director of Internet without fear and coordinator of Safer Internet Day, an annual meeting to raise awareness among the youngest about digital uses.
L’Express: At what age do young people start using social networks and what do they do on it?
Axelle Desaint: There is a very rapid rejuvenation in this sphere. Officially, social networks prohibit children under 13 from registering. But there is no real verification. Arriving at college is a pivotal period when young people are encouraged to join these platforms. And in 2022, nearly 90% of under-13s regularly use one. What is more striking is that more than 50% of children aged 8 to 11 have a TikTok account. [NDLR : étude Thémis 2021]. And parents are not always well aware of this phenomenon.
At this age, managing personal data and image is difficult. The interfaces are not designed for this category of users. A network like TikTok, on the contrary, encourages them to expose themselves, since it is based solely on the production of images and videos. On startup, when you haven’t fed TikTok’s algorithm yet, it’s more likely to push videos of pretty sexualized choreography of young girls and young women. Kids see them and say, “OK, this is how I should introduce myself.” We thus see children staged in outfits and postures that are out of step with their age. And they are of course not aware of the audiences to which they expose themselves. It is therefore important that parents realize that children are now present in these spaces very early and that they regain control over them.
Precisely, we often have a critical look at the behavior of young people on social networks but is it not, much more, the way in which their adult relatives manage this subject which is not up to par?
We feel that there is an awareness of the parents but that they do not yet have all the keys. In one of our recent studies, 93% of parents said they made their children aware of digital issues. But if they have only a partial vision of their uses and the risks of these tools, their prevention will be incomplete. Parents also often have an ambiguous position on the subject. They are uncomfortable because they do not feel competent or exemplary. Not competent because they have the feeling that young people fully understand these tools and that they do not. In reality, young people are far from mastering these platforms so well and a lot of the advice to give them comes down to simple common sense (explaining to them the importance of speaking properly to others on the Internet, of not anyone, etc). The other point is that parents themselves do not feel exemplary on the subject of social networks. Sometimes it suits them, during a car trip or after a long day at work, to have a child caught on the screen.
What do you think of the current bill on a numerical majority at 15?
There are positive elements because the 13-year limit in the general conditions of use of the networks is not verified and therefore not respected. Note, however, that the GDPR [NDLR : règlement général sur la protection des données] already established this notion of numerical majority at 15 years since it considers that below this age, a user cannot consent alone to the processing of his personal data. In theory, there was therefore already a regulation requiring social networks to verify age. The problem was the lack of planned control. The new bill introduces this obligation to check and the idea of sanctions if the check is not carried out. It also has the advantage of putting parents back at the heart of supporting their child in digital technology. What remains unclear is the technical aspect: what tools will be used to verify the age of users? In the past, that’s often where things stumbled. However, we see new avenues emerging. This will be a determining factor in the success of the system.
If effective tools are found to control the age of users, will this bill respond appropriately to the problems you observe?
What is missing in the bill is the education and awareness component. If we don’t explain to teenagers how these platforms work, how this attention economy works in which they are not customers but products, they will no longer have an informed use of these tools at 15 years old. The other gray area is what is planned for young people already registered. Because there is already an entire generation present on social networks. Will they be included in the device or will it only apply to new users?
Monopolized attention, harassment… We rightly hear a lot about the risks that social networks can present for young people. Do these platforms also have positive aspects for this population?
There are not only negatives in the balance sheet of social networks, far from it. First, they have become a central tool in maintaining social ties. It is easier to keep in touch with friends, even if they live far away. At a time when young people are building their identity and sometimes feel alone, they also often find communities on these platforms that make them realize that they are not alone, that others have the same questions as them. At the level of the image, it is ambivalent. On the one hand, smooth and perfect bodies are highly emphasized. On the other hand, social networks have also made it possible to bring out discourses positive body and to show body types that we weren’t used to seeing before, which helps young girls to accept themselves. And then they are platforms where we can promote what we are and what we do, which remains a very human need. We all need recognition. But you have to understand how these tools work and the comments that can be associated with certain content.