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THE ESCAPE
A U.K. Social Media Executive Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud
Even for its most vulnerable users, “habit formation” is the goal of social media platforms.
The U.K. Governemnt has announced plans to outlaw social media accounts for kids under the age of sixteen. “Children will be given back their childhoods,” the government said last month in a press release.
Predictably, technology companies are not happy about this. But the statement one social media executive made to The Times of London reveals how clueless and confused some of these people are when it comes to the effect their platforms are having on children.
The executive I’m talking about is Hugh Shepherd, founder and CEO of Liaura, a social media app made specifically for young kids. Speaking with The Times, Shepherd said the announced ban could hurt his business by making it more difficult for his company to turn its young users into compulsive users.
“Things like push notifications, for example . . . if we were restricted from using them altogether, I think that could be deadly [for us],” Shepherd is quoted as saying. “When you’re building a technology platform, particularly when you’re trying to get off the ground, habit formation is an essential part of it.”
