UK Proposed Social Media Regulation For Young Individuals

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STA Law Firm

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STA is a full practice law firm headquartered in Dubai with offices across UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah) and overseas (Bahrain, Delhi, Doha, Luxembourg, Moscow, Portugal and Mumbai). We work alongside several groups of companies within the Oil and Gas, Maritime, Logistics, Real estate, Construction, Hospitality and Healthcare sectors in the region and internationally providing them with our signature bespoke and cogent legal advice. We successfully represent our clients at various courts and arbitration centers across the UAE. We are also approached by several investors internationally who wish to find suitable business partners in the region.
Communication and self-expression are a more significant part of many people's lives now than ever before.
United Arab Emirates Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment

Introduction

Communication and self-expression are a more significant part of many people's lives now than ever before, and also, on top of this, being able to locate, access and form opinions on the works and views of other is also a much more widespread practice than was ever previously possible. This shift has occurred in large part, due to social media.

If one were to take a moment to think about this, it is not impossible to take a look into the past, where only a couple of decades ago, sending letters was the primary method to communicate, and finding and meeting other people was a far more substantial and difficult task than it is now. Social media allows for many new forms of communication, and importantly, it is accessible to billions of individuals and organisations around the world.

Here we will consider the fact that social media platforms are widely available for today's youth. There are millions of individuals who are under the age of 18 who can go online and, at a most basic level, leave likes on the content they approve of or are fond of, which, in the modern age of data and the internet, can give rise to privacy concerns. The UK has proposed a regulation which looks to provide more secure protection to the younger generation.

18 and Over to Like?

There are numerous organisation and entities out there, both with good intentions and bad, who use data such as the likes a person leaves on social media, to gather information about them. Most are aware of this fact, though plenty are not, and especially among children and teenagers, this could give rise to serious privacy issues.

The proposed UK law would remove the ability to leave likes and similar actions on social media platforms for people under the age of 18. This change would likely leave many unhappy, though the reason stated for doing so protects the longer term and more important interest of the people impacted, whether they are aware of this or not.

Time will tell if and when this regulation will come into effect, though it is currently under consideration in the UK.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

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