We are on the verge of becoming a surveillance state if we ban social media for any given age group

What does becoming a surveillance state have to do with the social media ban, you might ask? The answer is dangerously easy once I explain it.

To enforce a social media ban for any age group, platforms would need to verify your age in a way that is not fakeable—for example, by using your government-issued ID or doing a face scan.

This creates three major problems:

1. Data leaks

Theres a saying in cybersecurity: "No system is 100% secure," and with recent progress in LLM development^[1], it’s more true than ever. Currently, a data leak means that your email address and password for that service are being leaked—its not great, but as long as you use different passwords for different services, you should be good. But what happens when, to sign up, you have to upload a video of your face and your voice to that platform, or even worse, your ID? It’s catastrophic! Thieves would be able to use your likeness to scam relatives using your voice and face or commit cybercrime in your name.

2. Spying

But a company leaking sensitive information about you might not be your biggest issue. Have you read the TOS / privacy policy of Meta? No? Me neither. And although Meta promises not to sell or misuse sensitive verification data such as IDs or face scans, I personally do not trust a company with Metas history of privacy scandals to hold information that sensitive.

Meta has struggled in recent years to justify its advertising prices to companies, since over 53%^[2] of global web traffic is estimated to be automated. Being able to ban bots from its platforms therefore would be really valuable to an advertising platform like Meta.

Additionally, there would be almost no privacy, as you couldnt just generate a new email and be a new human to a platform. Companies could combine information even better and make even more money.

Side note: Im going so hard on Meta because they are heavily financing political groups that lobby for a social media ban in the US and in the EU.^[3]

3. The government

But not just companies are interested in information about you. The CIA, NSA, and other three-letter agencies have been spying on US and non-US citizens for decades. Although domestic surveillance is not allowed in the US for agencies without a judges approval, there is a loophole. Purchased data is allowed to be used without warrants. This allowed ICE to obtain phone location data and make countless arrests.^[4] (Not only ICE is doing it—former FBI director Kash Patel confirmed that the FBI has been using such techniques since 2023.)

Although I personally agree that social media shouldn’t be used under a certain age, we have to protect our digital privacy to prevent a 1984 scenario. Another way to protect children from social media algorithms is to help parents control the use of social media for their children.