Letter: For and against Australia's child social media ban (1)

From Keith Anderson, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia

I think most of the criticism of Australia’s effort to ban social media for people under 16 is an example of the proverb, “The best is the enemy of the good” (23 November, p 15).

Certainly, this proposal provides opportunities for improvement, but in the absence of something better, it is good enough.

At the risk of nitpicking a nitpick, I think the quibble that the age of 16 is an arbitrary cutoff point is an attempt to invent a complaint. This age might not be perfect, but when push comes to shove, good enough is good enough.

Ideally, all governments everywhere should have been more proactive and introduced appropriate legislation while the social media issue was a small problem, before it became a huge juggernaut that is almost impossible to control.