“Prohibition of social networks creates a paradox”, Chinese academic alert

Para Li Ke, a PhD student at Shanghai University of International Studies, argued that well-intended restrictions push minors into unregulated online spaces where they face greater risks.

“The ban creates a paradox: children become skilled in evasion, but lack cyber literacy to protect themselves”, Li Ke said, by presenting his conclusions at the University of Macau, in the Interdisciplinary Doctorate Forum: Digital Transformation and Social Equity: Studies in technology, identity and humanity.

Li criticized the ban on social media for children under 16 in Australia, the first such legislation in the world, which triggered a wave of similar laws at a global level, but also exposed profound flaws in this approach.

The Australian law of 2024 obliges platforms to prevent access to children under 16 years of age, as it was later applied by countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia. Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are considering implementing similar measures.

Li considered that after governments applied hierarchical control through law and regulation, children started to resort to a “subtle resistance” to counter or overcome these restrictions.

Quoting a study published in a British medical journal, the researcher reported that approximately 86% of Australia’s children under 16 had access to at least one restricted platform the week following the implementation of the ban, with 15% to 19% admitted to using fake accounts or VPN to circumvent restrictions.

A VPN is a virtual private network that allows you to hide or modify your location.

A separate investigation of the Center for Media Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing showed that VPN downloads in Australia increased almost three times by the time the ban was executed, while the use of the WhatsApp messaging network also grew, “indicating that the social needs of minors simply migrated to alternative spaces”.

I read that, in everyday life, children also use the loan of adult identities, often with the consent of parents, to register accounts and “are reusing study platforms and games with milder moderation, transforming them into spaces of social conversation covered”.

“ This ‘digital deviation’ carries serious risks’, warned Li, because “the increase in covert use impairs family and school supervision, leaving minors exposed to unregulated platforms where ‘cyberbullying’ [threats or intimidation via the Internet], fraud and predatory behaviour are more likely”.

The academic described what she called “protection paradox”, which happens when a government tries to create “an absolutely safe and risk-free environment” to protect the children, but who end up “structurally weaken” the ability of these to develop self-protection skills through “risk-based attempt and error”, and “potentially triggering even more destructive risks”.

The academics therefore urged governments to go beyond the “static age threshold” and “include children as active participants in policy design”.

Parents Should “focus on children’s online relationships and experiences, rather than rigid screen time inspections” and should “cultivate digital literacy” for young people to learn about existing risks.

“The digital environment changes rapidly, any static ban will have difficulty adapting”, concluded Li, stressing that “government strategies should evolve in parallel” the behavior of children.