71% of people support a ban on social media for children [Infographic]

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More and more regions are considering new age restrictions on social media access to limit children’s exposure to potentially harmful material and online connections.

And in general, most people support such measures, as shown this latest visualization from the team of Visually capitalistbased on research conducted by Ipsos in June/July this year.

As explained by Visually capitalist:

“Ipsos surveyed more than 23,000 adults in 30 countries and found that the global average support for banning the use of social media by children under 14 now stands at 71%, with a significant increase in support in most regions compared to the previous year.”

This growing sentiment could lead to more restrictions on social media use, and ideally more agreement on investigative and enforcement measures, to ensure greater uniformity in approach.

To be clear, all major social apps already have age limits:

As such, the change to a 14-year restriction would not technically be a major shift, although the greater emphasis here is on enforcement and banning young children from social media apps, in accordance with these regulations.

That’s the bigger challenge, and there’s currently no one-size-fits-all approach determined to work best at detecting user age.

But the platforms are improving their measures, while age verification providers are also improving their accuracy, potentially paving the way for stricter enforcement.

Which, based on this data at least, could lead to stricter restrictive measures in the near future.