Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

621–630 of 719 posts

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

#621

Post by ngngngng »

isaacremuant wrote: post #395

Laws can't and shouldn't substitute good parenting. Laws of this kind only make it worse for everyone and teen who knows a bit will find ways to bypass them. It's a bad slippery slope to even more government overreach in what was once, an avenue for democratisation of the conversation and freedom: the internet.

> Laws can't and shouldn't substitute good parenting.

Right. Why did we make smoking illegal for kids? Should have just let the parents stop them.

Why did we make child labor illegal? That was just bad parenting allowing the kids to work the mines.

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

#622

Post by thomastjeffery »

jstarfish wrote: post #615
thomastjeffery wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have recognized a significant part of the motivations behind this, but you're missing a key detail: pornography. The Corporation for the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - which is currently embarrassed to be known colloquially as the Mormon church - has declared "pornography" to be one of the most menacing and dangerous things in our society. Most of the people in Utah's gover…

"Children's privacy" isn't a thing. They are wards of their parents, whose basic fucking job requires they have some clue where the kid is and what they're getting up to. Then you bring up porn, something illegal for children to be accessing anyway. You are aware of this, yes? Shame on parents for daring to uphold the law in their own homes.

Legality is not morality.

It is a parent's responsibility to ensure their child is safe, and that does involve some level of intrusion. It doesn't mean reading their diary or listening in on every conversation they have with their friends. How else can a child learn healthy boundaries?

Is it really a surprise to you that many humans under the age of 18 are watching porn? A vague legal threat never stopped me, and it's not going to stop most teenagers. No matter what the law says, that is the reality we live in.

As I see it, changing the legal age for porn consumption would be a political nightmare, not because it's hard to argue that teenagers should be allowed, but because it is hard to argue that teenagers should be marketed to as direct consumers. Personally, I find this entire situation counterproductive, but the tacit allowal of teenagers to watch porn (and not necessarily pay for it) without prosecution has been a workable compromise.

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

#623

Post by vineyardmike »

nodemaker wrote: post #438
vineyardmike wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> needs to be stopped at all costs. I can think of a few prices I wouldn't be willing to pay. This bill is one of them.

Wait till you have kids who get their lives destroyed by Meta products.

While I am admittedly not a parent, I promise you that my approach to parenting would be to parent my children and not every child in the state.

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

#624

Post by folkrav »

tstrimple wrote: post #590
folkrav wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading these comments about people relying on SO - a site founded in 2008 - at age 11, doesn't make me feel any younger, and I'm not even that old (inching closer and closer to my mid-30s). I got into Linux and bash/Python scripting by following tutorials on random shady sites and reading official documentation and manpages. Let's just say it wasn't as seamless as Googling an issue and having a SO thread directly an…

Certainly you participated in related forums right? Before SO I was much more involved in online communities like https://gamedev.net/ which are also at risk due to this sort of bill.

I actually did not, for some reason. I was on a bunch of phpBB forums in high school, but none surrounding programming/tech. I was obsessed with music and gaming way more than IT stuff, back then. I initially learned programming more as a means to an end (my first scripts were to automate backups to an external drive, transfer stuff between Windows/Linux, that kind of stuff), and just generally for my own enjoyment, than a real plan to do anything with it. I don't even think I realized it was a potential career path before I was already out of high school lol

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

#625

Post by chickencatsoup »

RockRobotRock wrote: post #145
raincole wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure many of us wouldn't have been a programmer if we hadn't had access to SO/Github around 17.

Reddit is also an incredible resource for niche, constructive topics like learning how to build a computer. You could draw the line anywhere you want for social media.

I mean, this is why it's a common thing to append reddit.com to your google searchs nowadays. Seeing how others solved problems or getting a feel for their opinions on certain things is actually super useful.

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

#626

Post by CapstanRoller »

tstrimple wrote: post #592
systoll wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to even do that. The law defines 'social media platform' in terms of what account holders can do, and 'social media company' in terms of the number of account holders. It really goes out of its way to distinguish 'users' and 'account holders', and if there are no account holders, it’s not social media. Apparently.

So kids can visit 4chan, but not TikTok. Makes sense.

If we ignore the content associated with them, 4chan and other imageboards are actually a nice low-speed format for casual online interaction: the content is divided into threads, the board catalog can only hold some amount of active threads, threads have a finite lifespan measured by post count, threads are auto-pruned after a while, there's no secret sauce algorithm to game your attention span (catalog has simple rules for sorting by thread activity and such), visual content is limited, etc.

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

#627

Post by komali2 »

hayst4ck wrote: post #382
komali2 wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you that social media is a social toxin. Kind of like alcohol or heroin. The solution for all three I think is the same. Don't allow the government to pass laws criminalizing these things, because that has bad outcomes. It's a lot easier to say "the government isn't allowed to restrict bodily autonomy" than it is to for example try to write into law the 800 different specific exact scenarios where societ…

I don't think criminalizing is the right approach. I think taxing them for usage that exceeds a reasonable amount of time might be a reasonable policy. I think it would be ok to 100% tax any advertising profit gained after 1 hour of use. I suppose that creates a conflict of interest because then the government directly benefits from over-use which is its own hazard. I think the most American approach would be to codi…

> I think you're saying the treatment can be worse than the disease, and I agree.

Basically yes.

> Where it becomes less clear is the Fox News case you stated because Fox News is actively trying to destroy the idea of rule of law.

I only use the Fox news example as a wake up call to conservatives cackling gleefully as the government of Ohio shutting down access to a social media platform.

Actually the core of my fear revolves around that: the American government at all levels, in any state, is highly reactionary, and I'm afraid of it using its newly discovered power to get away with this sort of thing to start banning communication among leftists. Or, something I think it will try in the next two years, banning communication among LGBT people.

Well, I guess this is where I wish communities had more power to organize their own protections and arrangements. Imagine if one town wanted to ban fox news for example, the USA government would probably step in and enforce a lawsuit against them. It seems the power dynamics are out of wack.

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

#629

Post by camhart »

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…

I think it's far more likely this bill is due to the high teen suicide rate in Utah.

[1] https://utah-health.shorthandstories.com/state-of-suffering/...

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

#630

Post by geraldwhen »

7sidedmarble wrote: post #404
geraldwhen wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But have you actually played Roblox? It’s absolute toxic trash. Almost every single game is a front for purchases, and those that aren’t are barely games at all. Many Minecraft mods are one time purchases that are way, way better than anything Roblox produces, but Minecraft is so buggy that it’s truly not suitable for kids, or anyone for that matter. Minecraft will continuously corrupt saves, so you need to fully rei…

>Minecraft is so buggy that it’s truly not suitable for kids, >My kids aren’t allowed to play games I wouldn’t play. Nothing says 'hacker mindset' like your parents deciding for you what games you should and shouldn't like.

I would play most any game that isn’t in app purchase multiple-premium-currency trash. I have multiple consoles and macs, so most things are covered.

Games explicitly banned: Roblox, for ads and IAP

Minecraft, because the second time I had to reinstall it on a ps5 to fix a corrupted installation was too much.

Any game by gameloft, etc. If it has a purchase price it’s probably fine. I also don’t let my young kids watch game of thrones.

Post reply on HN