LettersAs global bans tighten, Hong Kong must act against social media harm

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words. The recent case of a 13-year-old girl in Tseung Kwan O who stole HK$380,000 from her mother’s safe to buy virtual gifts and tip live-streaming content creators on RedNote has again drawn public attention on teenage social media usage. It makes me wonder: do teenagers have sufficient maturity to use social media? Australia strictly prohibits minors under 16 from holding accounts of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, X and more. Authorities now plan to double the maximum penalty for companies breaching the law to A$99 million (US$68.6 million). The UK is going further. The government plans to introduce a similar ban for under-16s by spring next year, while also blocking potentially risky features like live-streaming and communication with strangers. These restrictions will apply to a range of online services, including on gaming sites. AI chatbots which simulate intimate relationships with under-18 users will also be forbidden. France and Denmark are also introducing similar bans, among other jurisdictions. Such legislation address the potential downsides of adolescent social media usage. Without proper parental guidance, teenagers risk being exposed to inappropriate content including pornography and violence. Just last month, Philippine authorities temporarily blocked the violent video game Gorebox after they discovered the 14-year-old suspect in a fatal school shooting was an avid player. Heavy social media use increases the risks of cyberbullying. Rewarding content creators by sending virtual currency and gifts during live streams not only poses financial risks but also feeds the trend of unhealthy beauty standards. Meeting strangers online raises the risks of “naked chat blackmail” for underage girls. As a highly developed metropolis, Hong Kong should also move to protect our adolescents from inappropriate social media usage. According to a recent poll of 686 Hong Kong adults, more than 60 per cent of them support legislation banning under-16s from accessing social media. Our government should follow the example set by Australia and other jurisdictions. To address age verification and VPN loopholes, authorities could mandate biometric HKID authentication and deploy firewalls to throttle suspected encrypted traffic. Users’ system administrator privileges can be restricted to prevent them from modifying network settings. Julia Chan, Ma On Shan Lawmaker’s conduct a stain on his office I was astonished by the arrest of Professor William Wong Kam-fai for various traffic offences and his handling of the incident. As the respected associate dean of engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a Hong Kong lawmaker and a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top political advisory body, he is expected to abide by the law. He should be perfectly aware of the potentially dire consequences of drink-driving. Yet after crashing his car into two parked cars on university campus on the night of June 29, Wong fled the scene, returning only when police officers arrived to investigate the incident. He was arrested after failing a breathalyser test. After his arrest, he did not report it to the legislature as required by the code of conduct, and even attended the handover flag-raising ceremony on July 1 as if nothing had happened. Thankfully, his arrest was later exposed by the media. As a teacher, Wong failed to be a role model for students. As a lawmaker, he fell short of public expectations. Wong has since resigned from the Legislative Council. Still, his behaviour has hurt the image of the legislature. I am glad Legislative Council president Starry Lee Wai-king is taking the matter seriously, and echo her call for legislators to be “more rigorous in their conduct”. Stanley Lam, Tsing Yi Europe sweats over its air conditioning dilemma I refer to the article, “In heatwave-baked France, ‘madness’ and chaos grip air-conditioner shoppers” (July 2). Many European nations recently suffered a deadly heatwave. Temperatures broke June records in several countries, including Germany’s highest ever 41.3 deg C. Fatalities included old people who had no air conditioning installed at home and who lived alone. Many people may be shocked to know that only about 20 per cent of households in Europe – including in advanced nations such as Britain and Germany – have installed air conditioning. The late Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew once called air conditioning a most important invention in history for enabling economic development in tropical climates. About 80 per cent of Singaporean households have air conditioning, not to mention nearly all its offices. With heatwaves becoming commonplace, how much longer can Europeans tolerate the heat without air conditioning? The cruel reality is many places impose restrictions on air conditioning installation, including conservation rules that disallow alterations to the building facade and environmental rules that control energy consumption. Even if permission is granted, getting their hands on an air conditioning unit could take some time as demand outstrips supply. I am all for environmental protection. It is right to cut back on energy consumption, but this must be done in a sensible and reasonable way. Trying to save energy during a heatwave crisis would bring more distress. Randy Lee, Ma On Shan

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Readers discuss the growing awareness of the risks teenagers face, the arrest of a lawmaker for drink-driving, and the heatwave in Europe

Readers discuss the growing awareness of the risks teenagers face, the arrest of a lawmaker for drink-driving, and the heatwave in Europe