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Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

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Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#141

Post by chriscross »

JasonFruit wrote: post #126

I agree with the premise of this bill — that social media are harmful to young people — but disagree with the conclusion that therefore there must be a law. There are lots of things that can be harmful to children, like television, busy streets, caffeinated sugary sodas, and weight training, and we trust parents and other adults to guide children through those dangers, teaching them wise self-restraint along the way.…

I agree with you except that weight training/exercise has not only been shown to be safe, but also healthy in kids with normal health and development. There are extremes for sure, but the old adage that weight lifting will hurt you if you’re too young hasn’t held up to current research on the topic.

Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#142

Post by yamazakiwi »

jleyank wrote: post #111
hobbitstan wrote: post #110

If we lived in a sensible society, this would already be the case. The amount of damage social media has inflicted on younger generations is unsurpassed.

I don’t know. Cable news, network tv and religions have done damage to teens and younger in the past and it probably still continues. Sports coaches aren’t always pure, nor are families. Seems there’s lots of bad actors and influences. Unmonitored activity seems to be the concern, suggesting strong parental actions?

Until the Parent is the bad actor and then strong parental actions exacerbate the issue.

Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#143

Post by pmdulaney »

pwinnski wrote: post #135
pmdulaney wrote: post #115

Quoted post unavailable.

The cognitive dissonance required to see a group of people doing a stupid and bad thing and having your first response be "this is the kind of thing the opposite group of people would usually do," it's really amazing. "That boy doing X reminds me that I hate it when girls do X!" "That adult doing Y reminds me that I hate it when children do Y!" "That Buddhist doing Z reminds me that I hate it when Hindus do Z!" It's…

You misread me. I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing at all. I'm just pointing out that those on the left have a reason for being ambivalent about it inasmuch as, in addition to its laudable goals, it also has the side effect of making it more difficult for them to influence minors.

Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#144

Post by vikingerik »

iamthirsty wrote: post #128
tibbydudeza wrote: post #121

Never knew freedom of speech in the US has an age restriction - seem to vaguely recall some Supreme Court case involving a school board that limited the rights of their students in some case - think the SC said it was ok in some cases.

> Never knew freedom of speech in the US has an age restriction Freedom of speech is freedom from Government intervention. Social Media companies are private companies, and you can absolutely regulate what products & services have age limits, as the government isn't technically restricting speech.

This comes up in every such discussion: freedom of speech as a legal construct applies to governments, but freedom of speech as an ideal and principle is something that private platforms can support and encourage, or censor and deny.

We need a distinction for this, like "free as in legal" speech versus "free as in voice".

Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#145

Post by paroneayea »

JasonFruit wrote: post #126

I agree with the premise of this bill — that social media are harmful to young people — but disagree with the conclusion that therefore there must be a law. There are lots of things that can be harmful to children, like television, busy streets, caffeinated sugary sodas, and weight training, and we trust parents and other adults to guide children through those dangers, teaching them wise self-restraint along the way.…

I also can't believe how many other comments (not yours) in the comments on this post are like "this is a good idea" and "we should consider this" and etc.

I'm amazed. Most of the people on here responding as such are, I'm guessing, are people from my generation: "millenials" who grew up natively on the internet, probably even hung out on Slashdot and etc when that was big. Slashdot had a lot of problems (so does this site, not gonna lie) but OMG I can't imagine a post like this appearing on 2005 era Slashdot and 1/3 of the people being like "but why not this probably is a good idea".

I thought when my generation grew up and had kids, we'd try to stand up for digital rights as being important for the next generation, because we experienced why it was important ourselves. I am depressed by just how wrong I was.

Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#146

Post by gffrd »

hobotime wrote: post #119
gffrd wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes, really? And what do they fear the impact of this to be? (Honest question)

My fear is that culture of my people will be assimilated and co-opted. My culture is thousands of years old, and we've survived plagues, war, and murder. I'd like to transmit this culture to my children as I feel it's valuable.

What happens if your culture is assimilated and co-opted?

Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#147

Post by hobotime »

b3morales wrote: post #127
hobotime wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fear is that culture of my people will be assimilated and co-opted. My culture is thousands of years old, and we've survived plagues, war, and murder. I'd like to transmit this culture to my children as I feel it's valuable.

I wager though that if we grabbed a person from your culture from two thousand years ago they would find many differences comparing their experience of the culture with yours. It's inevitable that it will change and adapt over time. The only completely fixed culture is the one that has no participants any more.

Of course we've adapted and learned from our experience. But it's done by us and for us.

Unless invited, it's reasonable to reject others imposing their values on our culture.

Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#148

Post by pmdulaney »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #140
lesuorac wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just a photo, 2 photos (one of which _must_ be a drivers license) ! https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/HB00896I....

So no social media for anyone with a condition that prevents them from driving, or anyone whose licence was seized for driving offences.

Does Texas not also issue ID cards, in addition to driver licenses, for those who need an ID but cannot or do not drive?

Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#149

Post by dpkirchner »

chomp wrote: post #59
barbariangrunge wrote: post #18

Which social media? Does that include discord and forums? Reddit? Those are all social media too

From our business and commerce code: (1) "Social media platform" means an Internet website or application that is open to the public, allows a user to create an account, and enables users to communicate with other users for the primary purpose of posting information, comments, messages, or images. The term does not include: (A) an Internet service provider as defined by Section 324.055; (B) electronic mail; or (C) an…

I'm looking forward to the Big Government apparatus necessary to identify which sites are and are not "consisting primarily of news, sports, et al", and monitor such sites to ensure they don't change their feature set unnoticed. The GOP motto is the more government the better, right?

Re: Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18

#150

Post by LegionMammal978 »

iamthirsty wrote: post #128
tibbydudeza wrote: post #121

Never knew freedom of speech in the US has an age restriction - seem to vaguely recall some Supreme Court case involving a school board that limited the rights of their students in some case - think the SC said it was ok in some cases.

> Never knew freedom of speech in the US has an age restriction Freedom of speech is freedom from Government intervention. Social Media companies are private companies, and you can absolutely regulate what products & services have age limits, as the government isn't technically restricting speech.

How wouldn't this bill constitute government intervention? The government would be making it illegal for any person or business to run a social media platform that transmits the speech of minors, even if they want to run such a platform.
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