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Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

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Re: Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

#561

Post by pjc50 »

rayiner wrote: post #558
pjc50 wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This should be seen in the context of the huge set of anti-trans laws and the Florida book banning. There is going to be another attempt at making it illegal for kids to hear about non-straight people at all. And outing kids to their parents, even at risk of violence, is a part of that. The "land of free speech" always has a big "not you" exemption that can be wielded against people who aren't WASPy enough. Edit…

> The "land of free speech" always has a big "not you" exemption that can be wielded against people who aren't WASPy enough WASPs are the ones pushing pornographic books in schools. Florida is one of the most diverse states in the country.

Neither of those things are true? The books being banned are not pornographic?

Re: Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

#562

Post by dgacmu »

rayiner wrote: post #551
dgacmu wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These generalizations ignore the specific - Utah has long been an outlier on things like teen suicide rates (about #10), antidepressant use (#1) [1], and before that valium. It has a very specific set of cultural features that are not necessarily the same as the broader studies you note. (I'm from Utah; three of my friends killed themselves as a teenager, and all three had aspects of what the GP was talking about. It…

Utah isn’t an outliers: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/... . Sparsely populated rural areas tend to have high suicide rates. Vermont and Oregon are at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of theism and culture, but have similarly high suicide rates. New Hampshire and Maine are also higher than Mississippi and Alabama. Reducing theism (mandatory social interaction and social support)…

Salt lake city is not a sparsely populated rural area, and its suicide rate is about the same as the state's overall rate (24 vs 20.8).

Could be some altitude effects as a sibling comment observed, though SLC at only 4200 ft isn't in the Denver range.

But Utah also had a large rise in teen suicide over times that align also with the social media hypothesis: https://utah-health.shorthandstories.com/state-of-suffering/...

(It went from already high to awful)

Re: Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

#563

Post by williamDafoe »

What a joke every teenager knows how to cloak themselves with a VPN to evade parental access restrictions & new tech will emerge to thwart all these laws! Google builds infra to make sure your kids have 24/7 access to YouTube! I know I used to work there! The only restriction we could impose at our house was to turn off the router at midnight!

I freaking HATE google / YouTube for filling my kids' childhoods with Smosh videos instead of real books or high quality active play.

And yes my son flunked out of college because of online social media - twice! He's got ADHD which makes him a perfect target for the addiction phd psychologists employed at social media and videogame companies! For these online tech vampire companies addicting your kids is like shooting fish in a barrel! And yes I'm a cs phd who got my start in network security!

As a left-wing free speech parent STILL STRUGGLING against online addiction with a 21-year old son who is STILL spending 24/7 to waste time online I'd put the threat up there with : hard drugs & gambling addiction. Yes it's that severe for a not trivial part of the population. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Re: Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

#565

Post by WeylandYutani »

morbia wrote: post #365
heavyset_go wrote: post #306

I feel like this is a response to the exponential popularity of sites like r/exmormon among younger generations. For example, look at these exceptions. It seems like organic, unapproved discussion between users is what the bill is trying to stifle: > (D) news, sports, entertainment, or other content that is preselected by the provider and not user generated, ... (Q) to permit comments on a digital news website, if th…

Gay guy here. I have always said that these sort of laws designed to protect children will do precisely the opposite. An LGBTQ child is effectively forcibly outed by this law, potentially before they've come to terms with their sexuality / gender themselves. Whilst I don't doubt social media causes a lot of harm on children growing up, giving parents full access to your messages is not the solution. In my opinion, ba…

It is well known that more teens commit suicide in insular religious communities.

It's not social media it is people driving other people to despair. Ofcourse you can't really fix that.

Re: Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

#566

Post by McSwag »

nicoburns wrote: post #412
McSwag wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think this a reasonable rebuttal, but there must be some middle ground here. Generally speaking, I can block TikTok sure, but because it’s so ubiquitous, my kids are ostracized because all their friends have access to it, they still pass around the content like drugs, alcohol and tobacco. It almost becomes one of those things that because they’re not allowed to have access to it, it does just as much damage, soc…

Doesn’t the fact that drugs, alcohol and tobacco (which are already illegal for kids) are available in this way illustrate how useless a ban would be? If you want to protect your kids from these things then you need to educate them and get them to enforce the rules themselves.

Yes, parental controls are not are replacement for teaching kids why this stuff is damaging. It’s not an excuse to be lazy parents. Kids need to hear their parents say it (with the why). Setting limits instead outright blocking can be helpful. It sets the stage for letting the kid decide if they would consider what they just watched be viewed as inappropriate, which believe or not does happen, but some content really shouldn’t be available to them at all.

Re: Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

#567

Post by Mizoguchi »

whats_a_quasar wrote: post #518

I think that people aren't giving enough credence to the reason Utah gives for the restrictions: The teen mental health crisis. Social media has radically changed the social lives of adolescents, and as a result anxiety, depression, self harm, and suicide have all skyrocketed. The data on this is not ambiguous [1]. And there's now a lot of evidence that social media and smartphones are the cause of the crisis: they s…

It would be interesting to see also how much time are couples spending with their kids as it seems to be more common to have now both parents working long and tiring hours (purely observational). With the continued increase in the cost of living it would be reasonable to think that many kids are actually spending more time alone at home, particularly those in lower income families.

Re: Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

#568

Post by McSwag »

datavirtue wrote: post #502
swexbe wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of 13 y.os do not have access to drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

Uh...are you a parent of teenagers? Because that statement is not true and smacks of Ivory Tower thinking.

I mean it’s somewhat true, if it were legal for 12 year olds to have these things AND it was marketed toward them, way more kids would be have it than not. That’s not to say they can’t get it now, but it’s harder and somewhat self regulating because the stigma around doing something illegal.

Re: Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

#569

Post by EGreg »

_heimdall wrote: post #430
EGreg wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it matter whether it has more than 5 million accounts? Why not 50K accounts?

Because every law we write is ultimately arbitrary. Lines have to be drawn through massive swaths of gray area, those lines are entirely arbitrary and should be a sign that making laws like this is pointless. The 90s Era gun ban that Biden was so proud of is a perfect example. They had to include so many caveats and arbitrary descriptions of what makes a gun an "assault rifle" that manufacturers just dodged the rules…

I meant where does this law mention 5 million ?

Re: Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

#570

Post by WeylandYutani »

smooth_remmy wrote: post #169
monksy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not surprising at all for Utah. That is a highly Mormon run state that has strong stances on how you should live your life. Even if you are a "goi" (I use the word loosely to illustrate the cultural metaphor in a us v them mentality) to them. What is amazing is that they have this strong stance on how to restrictively govern the people inside their borders, but yet expect to have a western lifestyle support them…

> That is a highly Mormon run state that has strong stances on how you should live your life. Even if you are a "goi" (I use the word loosely to illustrate the cultural metaphor in a us v them mentality) to them. I think you're crossing a line here. You are accusing the Mormons in Utah of having a us-versus-them mentality. But your own comment tries to turn readers against Mormons. Never forget: The Missouri Executiv…

Mormonism was persecuted because it was a sex cult and it refused to follow American law.
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