This Flex is Lowkey Cringe

It’s hard to imagine that there’s anything that could make social media more addictive to teens. But outlawing it might do the trick. Australia launches youth social media ban it says will be the world’s first domino. “More than 1 million social media accounts held by users under 16 are set to be deactivated in Australia on Wednesday in a divisive world-first ban that has inflamed a culture war and is being closely watched in the United States and elsewhere.” There’s no doubt that there’s something attractive about ungluing kids from their phones. But when I think back to my teen years, something not being allowed only tended to make it more attractive. Being 21 took a lot of the thrill out of scoring a six-pack of beer and legal dispensaries took some of the fun out of buying a joint. And one can safely assume that teens getting around a technological age barrier will be a lot easier than breaking other rules. BBC: Can you ban kids from social media? Australia is about to, but some teens are a step ahead. “It took 13-year-old Isobel less than five minutes to outsmart Australia’s ‘world-leading’ social media ban for children. A notification from Snapchat, one of the ten platforms affected, had lit up her screen, warning she’d be booted off when the law kicked in this week – if she couldn’t prove she was over 16. ‘I got a photo of my mum, and I stuck it in front of the camera and it just let me through. It said thanks for verifying your age,’ Isobel claims. ‘I’ve heard someone used Beyoncé’s face,’ she adds.” (There is some irony at play here. When Facebook first launched, it was only available to college students and then high school students. So in the early days of social media, you had to pretend you were younger than you were if you wanted to check out the newest social tech.)