cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49761199
If you have been wondering about the effectiveness of the social media ban of under 15 year olds, this study got you :)
Spoiler: 92%+ of kids age 14-15 in Australia still use it ๐ฅณ
Meanwhile IMO forced verification of users had a much better success rate ๐
Source: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w35162/w35162.pdf
The study talks a lot about a kind of entourage effect. It seems as though, if more than a third of their friends are on social they will attempt to by-pass the age filters. The age filters are reported as "easy" or "very easy" to by-pass. I'm not sure if it's mentioned in this paper but you don't need a fancy vpn or whatever. Some kids draw on a mustache. Some just screw up their face to look wrinkled.