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Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

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Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#291

As someone who is very pro Free Speech and hates censorships in general, banning these toxic social media especially for Kids is a good idea and as a parent, I am all in for it. If you cannot smoke/drink till 21, you shouldn't be able to do Social media till then. It is that bad especially for children.

Yeah, but why not also ban candy, soda, junk food, video games ect? If we can't trust parents to parent their kids then why not ban everything that possibly could be bad for kids?

Parents are not police, we as a society also need to define boundaries for what is bad, parents could also prevent their kids to go to work into mines when libertarians said that it was ok, but parents are not body guards, what if some parent is not fit and their kids take heroin? Is it ok for a kid to carry the effect of a life as toxic dependent because their parents couldn't police them well enough? If a kid is born with libertarians parents, should he suffer his whole life time just because hes born to retards?

What I am saying is that why you and other corporativists think that its ok for kids to suffer if their parents aren’t able to show them a balanced way to live and approach tech?

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#292

As someone who is very pro Free Speech and hates censorships in general, banning these toxic social media especially for Kids is a good idea and as a parent, I am all in for it. If you cannot smoke/drink till 21, you shouldn't be able to do Social media till then. It is that bad especially for children.

A 20 year old person is already old enough to use Social Media, smoke and drink. By 2 years at least. Y'all insane.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#293
post #255

Good. For once I’ll agree with the governance in Utah and say we should ban social media for kids until they are 18.

Why is it okay for a 19 year old but not a 17 year old? If they’re bad, they’re bad for adults, too? If they’re not inherently bad, then they can be safely used by responsible 16 year olds as well as responsible 18/19 year olds? We let 16 year olds operate deadly machinery traveling at many meters per second. Social media is at least less potentially harmful than automobiles.

Social media is also bad for adults. It's a lot harder to prevent adults from making bad choices for themselves than it is for kids.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#294
post #289

So if your app gets too "good" and users use it too much, then you have broken the law? Interesting logic to think through.

Think less “app too good” and more “big tobacco strategy”. Because let’s not kid ourselves: that’s exactly what these apps are trying to do – become as addictive as possible. On purpose.

Everyone wants to sell more; that's far too broad a category. Tobacco is bad because it is chemically addictive, and its delivery is paired with inhaling tar.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#295

So if your app gets too "good" and users use it too much, then you have broken the law? Interesting logic to think through.

If you’re filthy rich and become aware that your app is causing harm, and then don’t work to address it, you’ll want to start warming up the lawyers and lobbyists, yes.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> stop Meta from intentionally making their software addictive By regulating the existence of a 'next page' button? Curious if you can think of user interface rules that are less absurd.

Is that in the article? It's paywalled, and I can't find other mentions of that. I've assumed that the suit is over the fact that Meta intentionally and algorithmically seeks to test what content gets you to stay on their site and feed you more of that. I also don't remember the last time I saw a Next button on Instagram or Facebook. Maybe they have one for children? But if they're still proactively encouraging addic…

The lawsuit calls out infinite scroll and notifications. To be fair, I've not read the entire thing.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.41...

Whether we're regulating UI elements or a recommendation algorithm... It's one thing to say they're "encouraging addictive behaviors", but what's a rule that identifies what what part of a mobile app needs to change? It's an unproductive path.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but why not also ban candy, soda, junk food, video games ect? If we can't trust parents to parent their kids then why not ban everything that possibly could be bad for kids?

Most of those things have become subject to both government regulation and industry self-policing, and there’s continual debate over whether there needs to be more done and what shape it might take. Just getting to that point with social media will be a big win. The social media industry came on quick and got a free pass for a while, but it’s now more mature and needs to become more mindful of its social consequences…

[dead]

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#299
Several comments say we should ban social media for people under 18. Such a blunt, indiscrimate, careless solution may indicate the typical ages of HN members!

What do some people under 18 think of the problem and solutions? I'm not sure how many are here, but maybe some HN members could ask their kids.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids have been having those problems well before social media came along, so it's quite a bold claim to say they know social media made them worse. But it's a fair bet to say not a dime from the lawsuit will go to a single victim. So I'd take a really skeptical look at both sides.

> Kids have been having those problems well before social media came along Suicides seem to have gone up and social media use might have something to do with it. https://news.byu.edu/intellect/10-year-byu-study-shows-eleva... > Girls who used social media for at least two to three hours per day at the beginning of the study—when they were about 13 years old—and then greatly increased their use over time were at a hig…

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