The majority of Irish children say they and their peers would circumvent a government social media ban if implemented, a survey has shown.
A state-run report by Coimisiún na Meán say 67 per cent of child respondents claim that any attempts by the government to prohibit them from using social media would be ineffective, as “children would find a way to get around it”.
Minors in the oldest cohort polled were the most confident in the fact that Irish children would be able to outsmart any prohibition, with 83 per cent of 16 and 17-year-olds saying that any prohibition would be widely circumvented.
Amongst those polled, only 11 per cent of young people said that a ban could prove effective.
The majority of children polled also were of the view that they should be able to make their “own decisions about using social media”, that a prohibition would harm their ability to independently learn, and that it would be “better to teach children… about staying safe online” rather than banning them from the platforms.
The survey results run contrary to the official government position, with the Irish state one of many European countries aiming to prohibit children from accessing much of the internet.
Human rights orgs have warned that any such prohibition could have serious knock-on effects on individual freedoms, preventing many children from receiving support for problems they may face in their lives.
It will also harm the rights of adults in countries that implement the prohibition, forcing them to engage with invasive digital ID checks that risk seeing their personal information compromised.
EU efforts to implement the ban have faced numerous issues, the largest of which being a French court ruling a blanket ban on children accessing social media as unconstitutional, as it would violate their freedom of expression.