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California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

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Re: California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

#91

Post by falcolas »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #74
voidfunc wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't we just put everyone in a box after they are born and feed them through a straw like a hamster so they can't possibly ever harm themselves? People need to take responsibility for themselves.

Ditto. It's my job to not shit in the pool. And, it's your job to avoid it if I do shit in the pool. The idea that people can do whatever they want and the consequences are 100%, completely on the heads of other people to deal with is a hilariously juvenile view of personal responsibility.

And if someone intentionally "shits in the pool" repeatedly, they should expect legal action to be taken against them. At a minimum, being forbidden from coming back.

Re: California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

#92

Post by mc32 »

jerrya wrote: post #68

In recent days, I've seen many of these topics discussed by quite well respected First Amendment lawyers on Twitter. The current that ubiquitously runs through their tweets is that their understanding of the 1A informs their advocating for courts to find that the First Amendment prohibits basically any regulation on social media sites including transparency of moderation policies or decisions, identification, regulat…

Parents should "parent" but children are not with their parents 24x7. They are often in school or in the company of peers who may offer contradictory influence advice and counsel.

Re: California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

#93

Post by vorpalhex »

esrauch wrote: post #67
voidfunc wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't we just put everyone in a box after they are born and feed them through a straw like a hamster so they can't possibly ever harm themselves? People need to take responsibility for themselves.

Do you think cigarettes and alcohol should be legal for sale to children? What about advertising specifically targeted at getting kids interested and hooked on cigarettes? What about child labor? Why not let just parents decide what's right for their kids? There's some behaviors of corporations interacting with children that are correctly regulated in the interest of the broader society we live in. It is completely v…

Oddly enough, in most states it's legal for a parent to furnish alcohol to a minor.

I remember being given a glass of wine or a beer occasionally growing up. I think this is something that my parents did to discourage underage drinking my making it boring (which worked, at least for me).

That works because the parent is mediating.

Re: California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

#94

Post by heavyset_go »

czhu12 wrote: post #72

Creating regulations like this may end up acting as a regulatory moat for existing social network companies. This probably makes the overall social media pie smaller overall but guarantees incumbents slice of the pie. We've seen this happen in other highly regulated areas such as healthcare, telecommunications, etc. I suspect the way things are trending, in 10 years, very few entrepreneurs would be willing to start a…

If this is a concern, lobby for applying the law to companies or social networks over set sizes. Tangential laws are proposed in the EU that apply to companies with market caps over ~$80 billion, for example[1].

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/24/22994234/eu-antitrust-leg...

Re: California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

#95

Post by jquery »

parenting_ wrote: post #30
dahdum wrote: post #5

If only there was a way parents could exert some sort of influence or authority over these children to prevent what they believe is harmful. We could call it “parenting”.

A controversial take. We should consider individuals aren't able to parent their kids effectively. Would you rather trust two exhausted individuals or a huge army of trained professionals at payroll by government to parent the kids? There is very less transfer of knowledge and the worldview of individual parents is often limited. If there is an organization parenting thousands of kids, they can run A/B tests, see res…

Yeah but you can’t replace parental love so easily. So maybe a compromise solution where the government raises the children while the parents are at work in the mornings and afternoon, and the parents take over afterwards in the evening? Maybe let parents have the weekends to spend more time with their children? We can call this arrangement “public schooling”.

We could make the government portion of raising kids flexible and offer more time to parents with longer hours. Call this “extracurriculars” maybe. Thoughts on my novel idea?

Re: California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

#96

Post by thenerdhead »

andrewstuart wrote: post #3

Why don't people take personal responsibility for things? Why does there always have to be an option to sue someone?

You know how as a parent if you do something like read a book, your kid will imitate you?

Imagine majority of parents glued to a smartphone and their kid wants to imitate them. The parent allows it because they are addicted to the device and don't know how to cope / moderate it.

Kids are a reflection of their parents, if we ought to solve a problem, it should also be for internet addiction of the previous generation.

Re: California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

#98

Post by falcolas »

drewnick wrote: post #60
Gustomaximus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) We decided for highschool for the first phone. Some parents give smart watches so the kids are contactable but don't have a big screen. 2) I have the Google controls. That said, its as you say kids can circumvent controls so the best thing you can do is have this conversation. We've spoken a buch of times with the kids about how other kids will look at gore/porn out of interest/shock value but they should choose n…

This is excellent advice, and points out how difficult parenting actually is. None of what you mention is easy, or path of least resistence. Especially waiting for highschool for the phone. We did sixth grade and we regret it now that our middle schooler is mildly addicted. We are spending this summer working on that.

I think it's fair to postulate that a high schooler will have the opportunity to become just as addicted. I'd even postulate that one cause will be the lack of experience self-regulating the use of a cellphone.

And let's not forget the bullying and peer pressure a child who does not have a cell phone will endure. I saw this happen with a niece I tutor first hand, sadly. Not to mention that a good portion of her assignments come via the web or an app these days - which is super frustrating for me.

Re: California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

#99

Post by voidfunc »

esrauch wrote: post #67
voidfunc wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't we just put everyone in a box after they are born and feed them through a straw like a hamster so they can't possibly ever harm themselves? People need to take responsibility for themselves.

Do you think cigarettes and alcohol should be legal for sale to children? What about advertising specifically targeted at getting kids interested and hooked on cigarettes? What about child labor? Why not let just parents decide what's right for their kids? There's some behaviors of corporations interacting with children that are correctly regulated in the interest of the broader society we live in. It is completely v…

> 1. Do you think cigarettes and alcohol should be legal for sale to children?

Yes. But age limits on them should still exist but be lowered (to say 13). Parents need to teach their kids how to responsibly enjoy vices. In general I think all vice laws should be purged from the books.

> 2. What about advertising specifically targeted at getting kids interested and hooked on cigarettes?

I'm okay with some limits on addictive advertising but I largely think it is parents responsibility to teach their kids how to properly evaluate purchases and understand what addiction is so they can avoid it.

> 3. What about child labor?

Depends on age, but I'm OK with kids working as young as thirteen in many capacities. Even younger kids can work in some more limited jobs.

> 4. Why not let just parents decide what's right for their kids?

Parents should be deciding what is right for their kids... they are _their_ kids. The government is too far abstracted away from families to know what is best for a kid.

Re: California parents could soon sue for social media addiction

#100

Post by dahdum »

falcolas wrote: post #87
pkaye wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about require that parents not provide a cell phone to a child before a certain age?

I have to ask, how is it better to restrict children (not everything you can do with a smartphone is tied to social media) than the corporations that target them, that intentionally create addictive experiences?

Could you define addictive experience? When does an experience cross that (apparently bright?) line?

I ask because it looks to me like every restaurant, bar, food producer, video game company, social media company, hotel, cinematic universe, book series author, and basically any consumer product or service is optimizing for repeat business.

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