Newest example is Greece with a proposed ban of "social media" for kids, see Guardian today https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/03/french-headquarters-elon-musk-x-raided-paris-cybercrime-unit
I will fully support such a ban for Switzerland, does anyone know if something is in the works?
Multiple EU countries moves to ban social media, any plans for Switzerland?
byu/piika12 inSwitzerland
Posted by piika12
18 Comments
I think we should go further and also ban books
tbh I would support it, social media is the scourge of our time and protecting our youngest from it is not a bad thing
Anyone who fully supports this ban is not thinking it through, it could work but with major changes; Social media is THE main way express yourself freely and while I agree 9y/olds shouldn’t be doomscrolling TikTok and YT shorts and IPad kids are a whole other problem. It’s the parent’s responsibility not the government’s to mediate. I think minors are already significantly fucked over by society and this would only add to that.
Then how would you ban socialmedia for teens without having ID control, meaning a total control on identity online?
EU is also going full control
My concern is that this will go along with mandatory ID for adults as well. I’m really not into social media but I’d really like to keep watching cute cat videos on Youtube without mandatory ID.
a ban is stupid. it will lead to the same issues but covertly and ultimately a fully regulated, gatekeeping internet: pay, ID check etc.
we need a less predatory system, user controlled algorythm. parents should be able to set the algo for their children.
bans are stupid. but itll boost VPN business i guess
Yeah… what about investing in education and teaching how to live with social media? Like many of us are fine with social media, because we learned how to use them.
Ah sorry investing in education is communism, let’s pretend we will ban it and do nothing in the end (or rules with tons of ways to avoid them or impossible to enforce)
Kids that are at risk will still find a way to access them if there is an id control, it will only be used to monitor the traffic of everyone else.
Like cigarettes and alcohol, ban it for kids and watch the problematic ones still manage to get some
Controlling social media for kids? That’s called “parenting”.
Look, if you force an age check, then you are forcing an ID verification of some sort. For everyone, because adults will have to prove they are not kids.
Do you really think it is s good idea to have everyone’s real identity associated with everything they post? Really?
Even if you trust the government (and do consider the fiche affair, and the proposed changes to the vüpf), this ID information will be in the hands if private organizations. It will be hacked. People will be doxxed.
Imo this needs a parenting solution, not a tech / software one
no because this isn’t targeted for kids, it’s a way to introduced ID control on the web
Social Media is a huge problem, but banning would be same as banning free speech.
In Ticino and Graubünden a popular initiative has been launched to propose a ban of smartphones in schools: https://www.rsi.ch/info/ticino-grigioni-e-insubria/Divieto-smartphone-a-scuola-riuscita-l’iniziativa–3284438.html
Dumbest thing I’ve read all week
I bet if one would ask these politicians what social media is, one would get wildly different and vague answers. And any follow up on how to enforce it would likely lead to insufficient or extreme measures.
Definitely will not be possible. because „everyone has responsibility abiut their own actions“. as you are easily able to go around this, we should tax it and the government should get money out of it instead of letting it slide…like stuff to smoke and alcohol should also be taxed more. That same stuff should then benefit the ones who are actually living healthy
A lot of people here have no idea what they’re talking about.
1. Banning social media for kids doesn’t mean banning social media as a whole. It is an actual good way to protect children.
2. It doesn’t require a complete identification of a person to know their age. E-ID can just send data about your minimum age without revealing the identity.
3. It is not only parent’s responsibility to protect children, parents cannot be watching them 24/7. We live in a society and we all are responsible for future generations.
4. Anonymity on social media is very destructive in general. One thing is to have an ability to express yourself, another is to have anonymous accounts and bots spreading misinformation and propaganda, or trolls cyber bullying people into self harm.
All of this is just a scheme to launder in digital id tools and systems.
I’m amazed how people are begging for nanny states. Parenting is the job of parents. Also this is just another way to control the internet. I assume a ban will be done with some electronic ID so that big brother can make sure we are good citizens….