Social Media for Youth: A Liberal-Critical Perspective on the New FCYIQ Position

The latest press release from the Federal Commission for Children and Youth Issues (FCYIQ) on young people's use of social media appears modern and balanced at first glance. However, upon closer examination, it leaves a bitter aftertaste. The narrative of "empowerment instead of prohibition" sounds good – but it leads us once again into the familiar dead end: more regulation for platforms, less trust in people.
Source: Original article

Regulation as Reflex – Not as Solution

When a state commission once again demands legislative intervention, it demonstrates above all one thing: the political reflex to solve problems through norms rather than through responsibility. The FCYIQ emphasizes the importance of children's rights – rightly so. But deriving new regulation from this as a foregone conclusion is hardly convincing.

Regulation has barely reined in the tech giants so far. They have the personnel, lawyers, and resources to creatively circumvent every new rule. Anyone who believes that yet another layer of regulations will suddenly show effect misunderstands the reality of the digital market. Regulation has often had symbolic effect in the past, rarely practical effect.

What Really Helps: Information and Education – But State-Organized

The report at least acknowledges the importance of media literacy. However, the consequence is not thought through to its end. For media literacy does not emerge in a vacuum, nor does it emerge in the spare time of parents who, alongside work, childcare, and household duties, hardly find time to digitally accompany their children.

If we truly want young people to deal with social media in a mature and critical way, then the state must finally take its educational responsibility seriously. Media literacy must not remain a pedagogical elective subject, but must be taught in a binding, structured, and nationally uniform manner. Not voluntarily, not project-based, but institutionalized – like reading, writing, and arithmetic.

And yes: Only the state can accomplish this. Private initiatives are commendable, but they lead to a patchwork of asymmetric opportunities.

Participatory Rules – A Beautiful Thought with Little Reality

The FCYIQ relies on "participatively developed rules." Sounds democratic. But it's hardly so in practice. Actively involving young people in standardization processes is didactically valuable, but politically ineffective. The major platforms operate globally, scale innovation weekly, and have no incentive whatsoever to adapt to the discursive processes of a small state.

Participation yes – but as an educational element, not as the core of state regulatory strategy.

A Liberal Conclusion: Trust Instead of Paternalism

The state should not dictate to young people how old they must be to use TikTok. It should give them the tools to understand TikTok critically. Anyone who relies on prohibitions or half-baked regulatory fantasies misunderstands the dynamics of the digital world.

Maturity does not arise through paragraphs, but through education. And this education must be guaranteed by the state – comprehensive, modern, and mandatory.

Everything else is symbolic politics. And that helps no one – least of all the young people who are actually the focus here.