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Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

abcnews.go.com

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Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

#11

Post by m2fkxy »

tnbp wrote: post #5
akerl_ wrote: post #2

This makes me think of how, as a child, every site asked “are you over 13”, and I diligently clicked “yes”. Some more clever sites asked for my birth year… forcing me to do the arduous work of taking the current year and subtracting 14. Though I suppose the real plan here is to pass the law and then have the government selectively prosecute social media companies for having users under 16.

Some more clever sites asked for my birth year… forcing me to do the arduous work of taking the current year and subtracting 14. But why? You could have just picked a year that worked, and sticked with it. Obviously, there's no way of telling which year works, but you could have bruteforced that just once.

probably the thrill of living on the edge.

Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

#12

Post by justinclift »

tnbp wrote: post #5
akerl_ wrote: post #2

This makes me think of how, as a child, every site asked “are you over 13”, and I diligently clicked “yes”. Some more clever sites asked for my birth year… forcing me to do the arduous work of taking the current year and subtracting 14. Though I suppose the real plan here is to pass the law and then have the government selectively prosecute social media companies for having users under 16.

Some more clever sites asked for my birth year… forcing me to do the arduous work of taking the current year and subtracting 14. But why? You could have just picked a year that worked, and sticked with it. Obviously, there's no way of telling which year works, but you could have bruteforced that just once.

> Obviously, there's no way of telling which year works

Um, it's simple maths. Guessing you're meaning something else though?

Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

#13

Post by goda90 »

pfdietz wrote: post #7

I can't see how this could pass 1st amendment scrutiny.

How would it be different than age restricting voting, driving, or alcohol and tobacco sales? It seems there's precedent for treating minors differently than adults in many ways.

Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

#14

Post by bedhead »

Not sure how I feel about this, but I don't hate it, theoretically. I'm sure it's hopeless in practice. It might be a worthwhile experiment if nothing else. But a piece of legislation will never be an adequate substitute for good parenting.

Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

#15

Post by LeifCarrotson »

bamboozled wrote: post #10
goda90 wrote: post #9

I'm still on the fence about government doing a parent's job here, especially for kids under 13, but I can't stand that no one pushing these bills has come up with an actually reasonable age verification method.

You could say the same about smoking I guess ? For kids under 13 to see any of the content , ask them to enter a credit card ?

Adults should not have to enter a credit card to, say, read HN. But kids should. And therein lies the problem...

Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

#16

Post by dpkirchner »

pfdietz wrote: post #7

I can't see how this could pass 1st amendment scrutiny.

There's no downside to passing unconstitutional bills. They just need to become law and remain in effect long enough to be useful in electoral campaigns. When the courts strike the law down, they'll be painted as activist justices and yadda yadda we've seen all this before.

Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

#17

Post by stronglikedan »

bedhead wrote: post #14

Not sure how I feel about this, but I don't hate it, theoretically. I'm sure it's hopeless in practice. It might be a worthwhile experiment if nothing else. But a piece of legislation will never be an adequate substitute for good parenting.

I'd like to see more science proving that social media is bad for kids before I see lawmakers enacting laws around the theory. That said, I think 16 is too high an age. Kids go into high school at ~13, so I think that would have been a more reasonable age to consider. The hard truth is that most kids don't seem to have access to "good parenting" by any reasonable standard, and parenting is hard with good parenting being harder (not an excuse).

Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

#18

Post by nickjj »

goda90 wrote: post #13
pfdietz wrote: post #7

I can't see how this could pass 1st amendment scrutiny.

How would it be different than age restricting voting, driving, or alcohol and tobacco sales? It seems there's precedent for treating minors differently than adults in many ways.

> age restricting voting, driving, or alcohol and tobacco sales

I think those things are a bit more black and white.

How do you define social media? Is HN social media? You engage with others through comments, posts are ranked and it has voting elements as well as your profile has a gamified score for upvotes. Is a Disqus comment on any website social media if that's how we broadly define social media? Where do we draw the line?

You could make a case that leaving reviews on a site are a form of social media too. You can post something there and feel like you need to check back in hopes someone leaves a like or replies. If it were a wearable item you might take a picture of yourself and now hope people engage with it.

Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

#20

Post by lsiunsuex »

As a Floridian and someone in IT - I'm curious how this will be implemented

I can't remember the last time I signed up for a new social network; do they ask age? Is it an ask to Apple / Google to add stronger parental approval? Verify drivers license #?

We heard about this days ago on local news and I've been struggling to figure out short of are you 16 years or older how this is gonna get done and how do you fine someone if it's breached.

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