Spain has a new bright idea. The government there looked around at the absolute mess of the modern world and decided they found the villain. It isn't the broken economy. It isn't the fact that everything costs too much and works too little. No, the problem is the phone in your kid’s hand. The Spanish government aims to ban social media for anyone under the age of 16. Just like that. They think they can snap their fingers, pass a piece of paper, and suddenly teenagers will go back to playing with sticks and reading dusty books. It is laughable. It is the kind of delusion that only happens when people in expensive suits spend too much time talking to each other and not enough time living in the real world.

Let’s look at how this is supposed to work. How do they plan to actually stop a fifteen-year-old from getting on the internet? Have you ever met a teenager? They are smarter than the people making these laws. If you put a digital wall in front of a kid with an internet connection, that kid will dig a tunnel under it before you finish laying the first brick. We are talking about politicians who probably still ask their assistants how to save a PDF file. They are trying to outsmart a generation that was born with Wi-Fi in their blood. The kids know what a VPN is. The politicians think a VPN is a vitamin supplement. It is not a fair fight.

But let’s talk about the parents. This law is really for them, isn't it? Mom and Dad are tired. They are exhausted. They gave the kid the tablet at age three because they wanted five minutes of silence at the dinner table. They used the screen as a cheap babysitter. Now the kid is hooked, the brain is rotting, and the parents want a bail out. They want the state to come in and be the bad guy. They want to say, "Sorry, Junior, I would let you watch those stupid videos, but the Prime Minister says it is illegal." It is lazy. It is a total surrender of responsibility. You want the government to raise your children because you are too busy scrolling through your own phone to do it yourself.

Why do politicians do this? Why do they waste time on laws that cannot work? It is simple. It looks like work. Real problems are hard to fix. Fixing a job market is hard. Cleaning up corruption is hard. But writing a ban? That is easy. It makes for a great headline in the morning paper. "We are saving the children!" No, you aren't. You are signing a piece of paper that will go into a dark drawer while the kids download a workaround app. It is theater. It is a show put on by people who need you to think they are useful. They are not useful. They are just loud.

And then there are the tech companies. Do you think the billionaires in Silicon Valley are shaking in their boots because Spain is angry? Please. They are laughing. They have more money than most countries. They have armies of lawyers. They will just put up a little pop-up window on the app. It will ask, "Are you 16 years old?" The kid will click "Yes." The company will say, "Well, we asked," and they will go right back to selling that kid’s data to advertisers. The entire system is built on addiction. You cannot legislate away an addiction that makes this much money. The machine is too big, and it is too hungry.

Here is the funniest part of the whole circus. By banning these apps, the government just made them cool again. Before this, social media was just something everyone did, like breathing or complaining. It was becoming boring. Now? Now it is contraband. It is the forbidden fruit. Every kid in Spain is going to want an account just because some old guy in a government building said they couldn't have one. It is basic human nature. When you tell a human "no," they hear "try harder." You are creating a black market for dance videos.

This is a very European thing to do. Europe loves rules. They have more rules than people. They think if they write enough regulations, the world will stop being chaotic. They are obsessed with control. They think they can tame the internet with a sternly worded letter. It is cute, in a sad way. It is like watching a dog bark at a thunderstorm. The internet is not a place you can govern like a city. It is a flood. You get wet, or you drown. Those are the choices. Trying to put a fence around the ocean is a waste of concrete.

So, good luck to Spain. Good luck to the parents waiting for the police to turn off the internet. It isn't going to happen. The box is open. The monsters are out. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, no matter how hard you squeeze. We are all stuck in this digital nightmare together. Banning it just means you are closing your eyes and pretending the fire isn't burning while the house falls down around you.