Albanian authorities introduced on Saturday a one-year ban on TikTok, the favored quick video app, following the killing of an adolescent final month that raised considerations over the affect of social media on kids.
The ban, a part of a broader plan to make faculties safer, will come into impact early subsequent yr, Prime Minister Edi Rama stated after assembly with mother and father’ teams and lecturers from throughout the nation.
“For one year, we’ll be completely shutting it down for everyone. There will be no TikTok in Albania,” Rama stated.
TikTok didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark exterior regular business hours.
Several European nations together with France, Germany and Belgium have enforced restrictions on social media use for youngsters. In one of many world’s hardest laws concentrating on Big Tech, Australia accepted in November an entire social media ban for youngsters beneath 16.
Rama has blamed social media, and TikTok particularly, for fuelling violence amongst youth in and out of doors college.
His authorities’s resolution comes after a 14-year-old schoolboy was stabbed to loss of life in November by a fellow pupil. Local media had reported that the incident adopted arguments between the 2 boys on social media. Videos had additionally emerged on TikTok of minors supporting the killing.
“The problem today is not our children, the problem today is us, the problem today is our society, the problem today is TikTok and all the others that are taking our children hostage,” Rama stated.
Source: www.dailysabah.com