France moves to ban minors from social media, should South Africa do the same?

CapeTalk's John Maytham chats to social media lawyer, Sarah Hoffman.

Listen below:

"We've seen an increasing number of testimonies and exposure of the way in which social media companies are not making these platforms safe environments for children, and are very easily exposing them to harmful content, eating disorder content, and violent content. The developing brain is simply not really able to handle being subjected to this algorithmic content that is just flooding inappropriate content and addictive content their way."

- Sarah Hoffman, Social Media lawyer

French lawmakers recently made bold recommendations to curb social media use among minors.

They proposed a complete ban for children under 15 and a digital curfew for teens up to 18. 

According to reports, the move follows months of testimony from families, tech executives, and influencers – all pointing to the harmful effects of platforms like TikTok on young people’s mental health, focus, and self-esteem.

Hoffman says legislation like this could offer much-needed relief to parents...

"While legislation is not the only solution to address the increasing harms of so many social media channels and platforms to children, it certainly has a role to play in that it takes that responsibility for the first time off parents and puts it on big tech companies."

- Sarah Hoffman, Social Media lawyer

She warns that many platforms are designed to exploit teen vulnerabilities for engagement, not protect them. 

"At the end of the day, these companies are businesses, and they will always prioritise user engagement over the safety of our children. There was recently something exposed about TikTok showing that it could actually detect that when a teenage girl deletes a selfie, it then pushed more content around skincare products, makeup, get-ready-with-me tutorials...  because they knew that that particular child was more vulnerable – basically that it's going to generate return on investment from advertisers."

- Sarah Hoffman, Social Media lawyer

Hoffman explains that it's not about banning tech completely, but about creating an online space that is safe for developing minds.

As South Africa grapples with rising concerns about teen mental health and screen addiction, she suggests it may be time for local policymakers to consider similar regulation. 

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