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A US Bill Would Ban Kids Under 13 from Joining Social Media

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Re: A US Bill Would Ban Kids Under 13 from Joining Social Media

#41
post #23

The issue as I see it isn’t going to be solved by forcing social networks to gather even more personal information about individuals (eg proof of ID and proof of age). The issue is how social networks are engineered, either by chance or by design, to promote negativity in the pursuit of engagement. If we can find a way to declaw social networks then we’d have a healthier ecosystem for all ages. But this is a much har…

I wonder if it really is harder, or maybe the solution is just less obvious?

Re: A US Bill Would Ban Kids Under 13 from Joining Social Media

#42
COPPA already exists and websites that properly adhere to it ask for age verification (granted usually in no verifiable capacity) and refuse service to anyone under 13 years old.

Personal anecdata, way back in the 90s in my childhood, a games website I used to frequent actually demanded potential users (read: kids) under 13 years old to fax in written consent from the parents to collecting information. Websites used to actually take COPPA seriously back then.

If this bill makes compliance to COPPA more stringent, well, the law already mandated it anyway. Kids and can't-be-arsed parents will find workarounds, no doubt, and the world will keep spinning.

As an aside, I would rather the US government handle identification (they already have all the goods anyway) than the likes of GAFA.

Re: A US Bill Would Ban Kids Under 13 from Joining Social Media

#44
post #39

This is movement is going to be widely regarded as on of the largest prohibitions in our era. * Whatever verification system a user has to do to prove they are older than 13 will also being to freak users out about 'whoes listening'. It's insane to think a First Name, Last Name, and Address might be tied to _every reddit account_. * That data will be used for government surveillance. Maybe I should start creating a h…

A system to verify age is not needed. Simply making it illegal and holding parents accountable is enough.

It's one of those things where perfection is the enemy of good. Some kids will do it anyways but parents can install hard to remove monitoring software on devices and the penalty can be similar to a somewhat serious traffic citation.

Re: A US Bill Would Ban Kids Under 13 from Joining Social Media

#45
post #39

This is movement is going to be widely regarded as on of the largest prohibitions in our era. * Whatever verification system a user has to do to prove they are older than 13 will also being to freak users out about 'whoes listening'. It's insane to think a First Name, Last Name, and Address might be tied to _every reddit account_. * That data will be used for government surveillance. Maybe I should start creating a h…

There are solutions like Yivi[1] (previously IRMA) that allow you to have a wallet of attributes signed by federal or local government (eg. "user is over 13" or "user lives in Wisconsin"). That way you never have to share your identity, just certain attributes that are specific to the use-case.

[1] https://www.yivi.app/en

Re: A US Bill Would Ban Kids Under 13 from Joining Social Media

#46

Don't know how this could be implemented in a good way (so FB etc do not get access to important identity information), but trying to limit social media for kids below 13 is a fantastic idea. One could wish the adults/parents would limit this themselves, but sadly this is seldom the case. For some reason it seems most parents really are clueless to the level of harm imposed by social media to their kids?!

I think it’s also that kids are far smarter than generally given credit for, and are perfectly capable of going behind their parents’ backs. What is needed, and has been for some time, is an identity service. This does exist in some parts of the world - here in Portugal, for instance, I access government services online with a smartcard, password and 2FA - and I don’t see why they couldn’t extend this as a general SS…

Because humans have the right to reasonable privacy, which is a prerequisite to protecting other human rights, such as activism and free speech.

Re: A US Bill Would Ban Kids Under 13 from Joining Social Media

#47

Don't know how this could be implemented in a good way (so FB etc do not get access to important identity information), but trying to limit social media for kids below 13 is a fantastic idea. One could wish the adults/parents would limit this themselves, but sadly this is seldom the case. For some reason it seems most parents really are clueless to the level of harm imposed by social media to their kids?!

I think it’s also that kids are far smarter than generally given credit for, and are perfectly capable of going behind their parents’ backs. What is needed, and has been for some time, is an identity service. This does exist in some parts of the world - here in Portugal, for instance, I access government services online with a smartcard, password and 2FA - and I don’t see why they couldn’t extend this as a general SS…

I don't understand that "behind parents back" bit.

My teen kids aren't on social. I know this because their dumb phones don't support it, and their computers are not permitted in their rooms (Kitchen table only).

I suppose they could get on, through a friends smart-phone, but that would be limited to the time they spend on the bus to/from school.

Re: A US Bill Would Ban Kids Under 13 from Joining Social Media

#48
post #7

Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to simply have parental education around the harms of social media for kids under age XYZ? I mean, I’m all in favor of the goals of this bill. I think social media is a horrible negative for people of all ages, but especially children since they largely don’t have the mental capability to defend against the smartest people in the world trying to hijack their brains. But I can’t see h…

How is parental education going for "don't do drugs" or "don't commit crimes"?

Much better than the "war on drugs".

Re: A US Bill Would Ban Kids Under 13 from Joining Social Media

#50

This seems like it would have been a great idea about thirty years ago, but would be functionally impossible to even try to enforce working from scratch today.

How would it be functionally impossible? At one point kids could buy cigarettes. Now, across hundreds of thousands of stores, they can't. There's only a few social media sites, it's seems infinitely easier. Trivial even.

If you went to the store and instead of looking at your ID, the scanned it and posted it on their website, would you agree? Would you be okay asking a 14 year old to post their ID online? I suspect your answer would be no to both.

Don't think for a second you scanning your ID and providing it to facebook/twitter/youtube would be at all safe.

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