A social media ban won’t keep my teenagers safe – it just takes away the place they love

‘The internet is still a place for like-minded people to gather and nurture nurture community,’ Anna Spargo-Ryan writes. Photograph: Mint Images/Tim Robbins/Getty Images/Mint Images RF

In the olden days, I sat in front of an enormous CRT monitor and waited for my 14,400-baud modem to connect. For a few hours I talked to my friends via internet relay chat (“online”). When I was finished I stood up, left the family room and hung out with my cats (“offline”).

The distinction between online and off has changed a lot since then. Relationships moved from LiveJournal to IRL. We had to use email for work. Banks closed their physical branches in favour of apps. Slowly but surely, our “online life” just became life. Society now straddles the two worlds, with the same terrible people gathering in dog parks and neighbourhood Facebook groups.