Yes, some teens are creative with uploading videos, most are not. But teens can still be creative with a smart phone, just don’t post that stuff on social media.
There were pedophiles, porn, extreme gore, cults, scams and a primitive notion of brainrot. Music and games (not that I played games, but honestly my mum thought that this is why I liked computers and what I was doing) were generally thought to turn kids into killers.
Computer users even in the best conditions (and not children) were looked at negatively- as if they were no life losers. The techbro thing, and the normalisation of computer use is a very modern notion.
FWIW I had the same exact situation as the parent, and heard it all from my mum. The computer was considered undesirable at best and actively harmful at worst.
My point is: on a societal level, the numbers are pretty clear that teens consume too much media (and social media is even more addictive) and their skills and attention span deteriorate.
The “computers were considered dangerous” means that people generally thought they were dangerous, especially to children.
Every generation has grumpy old people complaining about the youth. I see the dumb TikTok videos that grumpy old people complain about today, and they're about 2 steps above the absolute slop Gen X adults used to watch in the early 2000s: reality TV. Now grumpy old people watch political streamers saying we need to ban (new thing) because it's making kids stupid.
Do I believe the UK is doing this for the right reason or the right way? Absolutely not. But I also don't agree with the comparison of now and when I was a kid/teen.
We just didn’t have those back in the day.
99% of today's social media usage is the opposite of productive, too bad the laws concentrate on policing internet use though.
But was access to that outlet really that free for you? I remember our main computer being in the middle of the living room where everyone in the family could potentially see what i was doing on the computer. I remember dial up being extremely expensive (or "broadband" have really low monthly caps) or the connection dropped the moment anyone would pickup the phone at home. Or use of computer/internet in schools being in public. I also remember all i had to learn to overcome these limits and the choices (cost/benefit analysis) i had to make to overcome those barriers. Those barriers not only provided the learning opportunities but also the necessary friction to reevaluate patterns and decisions.
Do you think the current state of access really replicates that? Are barriers really only "bad"?