We need to protect young minds against dangers of social media

The tech platforms have invaded every aspect of our life, and turned our brains to mush as we scroll endlessly through Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok.

We’ve been conditioned the moment we sit down to start scrolling for no purpose whatsoever. Hop on any bus or train, and you’ll see thumbs moving as fast as the wheels as they flick through content, jumping from page to page so quickly there isn’t even time to hit ‘like’ or post a smiley face let alone absorb what they are seeing.

Smart phones have transformed lives, but that has come at a heck of a price, and social media sits at the very heart of the damage.

You have to be 13 to open an account on any platform. The reality is no-one checks. The tech giants don’t care. We marvel at kids who can operate the remote controls to the telly aged just three, and then laugh as they start to send texts by the time they hit P1. It’s learned behaviour, and the exposure to everything on social media is a very real danger to their far from fully formed brains. If parents aren’t limiting that time and monitoring what they see, then the damage down the road will be real. Very real.

At its annual conference, the Association of School and College Leaders spoke of an increase in bullying, abuse and the malicious use of “deepfakes” against pupils and staff through social media. The tech platforms are causing real misery and disruption to classes. The ban on pupils accessing their mobiles during class time has to be advanced by both the UK and Scottish Governments, and parents have to back it instead of spouting the myth they need to be in contact at all times.

Put a smart phone in the hand of an 11 year old and you give them instant access to the good - fun games, pages of shared interested - and the downright dangerous; extreme violence, exploitation, terrifying hate speak, porn, and the insidious thoughts of dangerous ‘influencers’ who have all veered far deep into misogyny and the far right simply because they can turn words into weapons and, more importantly to them, money.

You don’t need to look for it either. One share from a friend is all it takes to open up a Pandora’s Box of horrors, and if that doesn’t hook then, then the algorithms will put it on a plate. The impact can be devastating - friendships destroyed, young lives skewed, and a whole new layer of anxiety poured on a generation that seems the least resilient in living memory.

So, what happens if you report a post or a page? I’ll tell you - absolutely nothing. The use of AI rather than humans to assess the words posted has rendered the process utterly meaningless.

I have reported direct threats of violence and found they did not breach Twitter’s community standards. I’ve flagged photos from Facebook pages which are clear acts of bullying and harassment, and precious little has happened.

What we might consider to be offensive, threatening words, the spread of grossly inaccurate information with zero fact checking, and the photographing of individuals going about their daily jobs - police and traffic wardens for example - they consider engagement, and without it, these pages become irrelevant.

It’s time to reset the dial.