‘Prosit’: Jason Azzopardi Welcomes Abela’s Social Media Child Ban Announcement
Lawyer and former PN MP Jason Azzopardi welcomed Prime Minister Robert Abela’s announcement that social media use will be banned for children aged 13 and younger.
“What’s good should be called good – well done,” Azzopardi said, as he called on the government and opposition to reach an agreement.
Azzopardi recently called for a social media ban among children after spending a day at the Juvenile Court.
He said the magistrate handling juvenile cases was so overwhelmed with work that she wasn’t even able to take a break from 9am until at least 6:30pm.
“It’s not just about the quantity of cases – you need to hear what we have heard,” he said.
“Nowadays, children younger than 13 can easily outsmart you. Wrongdoing has been deeply ingrained in many of them. They do what they see on Netflix, social media and video games.”
“I won’t go into details because they will shock you. However, when we were children, our delinquent jokes involved ringing our home doorbells and running away.”
“Nowadays children organise obscene activities based on what they see on this blessed social media and the graphic pornography they have access to.”
Azzopardi called for more magistrates to be assigned to the Juvenile Court and for the government and opposition to reach an agreement on a social media ban for children.
He pointed out that the likes of Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, France, Norway, Spain, Italy and a number of US states have all recently made moves in this direction.
“The government and opposition must agree that social media is robbing our children of their childhood and take action,” he said.
“A social media ban for children won’t be a silver bullet solution but it will solve and prevent a lot of cases.”
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