# 【国際欄 #20】大人も影響されるフェイク情報・誹謗中傷。子どもとSNSの話をするなら気をつけたいこと（ゲスト：山口真一さん）

- Show: News Connect あなたと経済をつなぐ5分間 #ニュースコネクト
- Published: 2026-10-20
- Canonical: https://podc.club/en/episode/1608666340_a02065a0d707.html
- Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/81fb5eec/podcast/play/127705623/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-9-19%2F879c53cd-2909-c4aa-e3f1-562b18ff8394.mp3
- Source: Edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. Not an official summary.

Shinichi Yamaguchi (山口真一), professor at the International University of Japan's Global Communications Center (GLOCOM), laid out the concrete side effects of blanket social media restrictions on minors and the privacy risks that come with stricter age verification. He also described how Japan's policy direction shifted around late July 2026, and what parents and children can do together to navigate social media more safely.

## What this episode answers

### What side effects arise from blanket bans or restrictions on social media for minors?

Blanket bans push children toward smaller platforms that lack the safety features of major services — such as nighttime restrictions and parental monitoring tools — creating invisible harm in spaces parents cannot see, while also stripping children of social media's legitimate benefits as a means of expression, information gathering, and community.

### What risks come with stricter age verification?

Stricter verification using systems like the My Number Card requires services to collect and store sensitive personal data on minors, raising the stakes enormously if a breach occurs; and because children can simply lie about their age, tighter verification alone is insufficient without parallel reforms to how services are designed for younger users.

### What stance is Japan currently taking on regulating minors' social media use?

As of the recording in October 2026, Japan has no law restricting minors' social media use; deliberations had initially leaned against blanket regulation, but around late July 2026 the discussion shifted toward including age-based restrictions, and stricter age verification, service-level risk assessments, and transparency requirements are now all but certain to advance.

### What regulations are being discussed to address misinformation and deepfakes?

Discussions around revisions to the Public Offices Election Act include mandatory labeling of AI-generated content and temporary suspension of monetization for election-related content; Yamaguchi cited South Korea's ban on election-related deepfakes as a compelling reference case.

### How should parents approach their children's social media use?

Yamaguchi's research shows that families with more parent-child communication have fewer incidents of online trouble, and he stresses that rules children help create themselves last far longer than rules imposed by parents unilaterally.

## Article

## The Side Effects of Blanket Social Media Bans

Forcing children off social media entirely comes with real costs. Beyond denying them the platforms' genuine benefits — self-expression, information access, and a sense of community — outright bans inevitably produce workarounds. The danger, Yamaguchi explained, is that the smaller services children migrate to typically lack the nighttime restrictions and parental-monitoring features found on major platforms, meaning harm can spread unseen. Instagram's Teen Accounts, for instance, block direct messages from strangers by default — but that safeguard collapses the moment a child falsifies their age, exposing a fundamental limitation that no design tweak alone can fully close.

## The Age Verification Privacy Dilemma

Tighter age verification is necessary, yet Yamaguchi flagged a significant risk in approaches that rely on the My Number Card: services would end up collecting and storing sensitive personal data on minors, and the consequences of a breach would be severe. His prescription is a two-track approach — stricter verification on one track, and direct pressure on platforms to redesign their services for younger users on the other. Concrete changes he named include removing infinite scroll and modifying recommendation algorithms for accounts belonging to minors. Demanding these structural improvements from platform operators, he argued, is the most realistic path forward.

## How Regulation Distorts the Market

After Australia tightened its rules, Meta deleted large numbers of accounts; a similar response played out in Indonesia. For a company of Meta's scale, compliance costs are a rounding error relative to total revenue — but for small and emerging services, those same costs can be crippling. The problem compounds when each country sets its own age thresholds and verification methods, inflating the compliance burden for any company operating globally. The net effect, Yamaguchi warned, is that regulation ends up functioning as a barrier to entry that protects dominant incumbents and stifles market competition.

## Japan's Policy Design: A Debate at a Turning Point

As of the October 2026 recording, no Japanese law restricts minors' social media use. Yamaguchi participates in study groups convened by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Children and Families Agency, where the initial consensus had been that blanket regulation was undesirable. Around late July 2026, however, the discussion pivoted toward options that include uniform age-based restrictions. Three measures he identified as near-certain to advance are: stricter age verification, service-by-service risk assessments paired with required protective measures, and transparency obligations covering those measures. On the misinformation front, proposed revisions to the Public Offices Election Act have put mandatory disclosure labels on AI-generated content and temporary monetization suspensions on election-related material on the table, with South Korea's existing ban on election-period deepfakes cited as a useful reference.

## 'Learning Together' as the Best Defense

Yamaguchi's own research finds a clear correlation: the more time parents and children spend communicating, the less frequently children run into trouble online. Household rules that parents impose unilaterally tend not to stick; rules built collaboratively with children are far more durable. Adults, he noted, are themselves susceptible to misinformation and can slip into posting harmful content — a reality that should foster humility rather than a one-sided lecture to children. The core principle he returned to at the close was "respect others, and respect yourself." In an era when social media comparisons readily erode self-esteem, telling children — in both words and actions — that they are wonderful simply by existing forms the foundation for healthy platform use.

## Takeaways

- Blanket social media bans risk driving children to smaller platforms with weaker safety features, making regulation without careful attention to side effects counterproductive.
- Japan's policy direction shifted around late July 2026, and stricter age verification, service-level risk assessments, and transparency requirements are now expected to move forward.
- Families where parents and children communicate more have fewer online incidents, making collaborative rule-setting and mutual learning the most directly effective practical measure.