Often, decades pass between a harm appearing and societies fighting it. Scientists knew by the 1950s that smoking killed. The UK finally banned children under 16 from buying cigarettes in 1986. Now an international movement is belatedly forming to stop kids from ingesting another toxin: social media. After Australia’s pioneering ban on its usage by under-16s last year, countries including Indonesia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and France are considering bans for children. The case seems unarguable. Social media have worsened teens’ mental health, empowered criminals and shattered people’s concentration to the point of making the world stupider.
通常，从某种危害出现到社会开始应对，往往要经过几十年。早在20世纪50年代，科学家们就已知吸烟致命，而英国直到1986年才禁止16岁以下儿童购买香烟。如今，一场国际运动终于姗姗来迟，旨在阻止孩子们接触另一种“毒素”——社交媒体。在澳大利亚去年率先禁止16岁以下儿童使用社交媒体后，印度尼西亚、瑞士、荷兰和法国等国也在考虑对儿童实施类似禁令。理由似乎无可辩驳：社交媒体加剧了青少年的心理健康问题，助长了犯罪活动，并让人们的注意力更加分散，甚至让世界变得更加愚蠢。