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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

#41

Post by zo1 »

nickjj wrote: post #18
goda90 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dr…

You could come up with corner cases and odd delineations for those former examples too. Yet we all know the gist of the laws and manage to somehow, on the aggregate, prevent kids from engaging in said activity.

E.g. alcohol. How do we stop kids form drinking alcohol? How do you define alcohol? What about kids medicine that includes alcohol, what about medical procedures that insert substances with alcohol content. What about shops that get conned by kids with fake ID. What if the label gets scratched off and kid doesn't know it had alcohol. What if a parent gives their child a sip of beer. What about old home remedies that include whiskey. What about colic medicine that has alcohol, okay What about carving exceptions for babies, etc etc etc.

Granted some of those are contrived, but it's not as black and White as you think.

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

#42

Post by lsiunsuex »

Ekaros wrote: post #24
pfdietz wrote: post #7

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

2nd amendment seems to already been over turned. Children cannot own for example fully automatic weapons. And in some states firearms in general.

The 2nd amendment is very much alive and kicking. Those of us that would like to defend ourselves will fight for 2A.

To your point, children cannot own weapons. Most states are a minimum 18 years old for if not 21.

Full automatic weapons have been banned from civilian production for decades now. Semi automatic weapons are not weapons of war; are not the death machines non-gun owners think they are.

I was very anti gun until we (the wife and I) had a need to defend ourselves. We were literally put in a self defense position. We're both all in now and actively train ourselves and educate ourselves. More so, friends that are anti gun are no longer anti gun once they go to the range with me and are educated on what a semi automatic weapon actually is.

TL;DR - anyone anti gun is simple uneducated in the matter.

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

#43

Post by Clubber »

zo1 wrote: post #27
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.

While people are on the fence about it, our children are having their youth, innocence and brains destroyed by tiktok et al. Those platforms are cancer to adults even, let alone impressionable kids... yet here we are still debating it and faffing around about "1st amendment yaddi yadda".

>children are having their youth, innocence and brains destroyed by tiktok

For one, ease up on the hyperbole if you want to be taken seriously. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt because the news is nothing but hyperbole these days, so it's easy to pick up the habit. Second, most kids aren't having "their youth, innocence and brains destroyed." The news takes the edge cases, amplifies them and presents it as the norm to peddle fear because fear sells. Nothing ever is bad as the news makes it out to be, but they gotta make a dollar, you see how bad the news business is since the internet?

FWIW, my kid uses social media and just connects with her friends. Nothing overly malicious goes on, they just goof off. I've checked.

You really wanna protect the kids from anxiety and whatnot, block the news and all the talking heads trying to manipulate the next generation to their political opinions.

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

#44

Post by thsksbd »

lsiunsuex wrote: post #20

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 so…

(Putting aside if the law is good or bad and the constitutionality of it.)

Put criminal penalties to the directors if no reasonable attempt to keep kids out.

Plus corporate death penalty if they purposely target kids.

Then how they enforce it doesn't really matter as long as there are periodic investigations. The personal risks are too great and the companies will figure it out.

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

#45

Post by pfdietz »

mrstumpy wrote: post #31
pfdietz wrote: post #7

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

Children don't have the same standing with the constitution as adults. I don't remember the exact term but children have their rights restricted all the time. They do not have free speech in school for instance. They certainly have limits to their second amendment freedoms. So I don't think this bill will have constitutional issues. Personally, I'm all for a federal restriction on addictive social media for kids.

So, a law preventing children from receiving religious instruction would also be constitutional, in your mind?

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

#46

Post by alistairSH »

lsiunsuex wrote: post #20

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 so…

Yes, some (all?) ask for DOB/age at sign-up.

If I remember correctly, at one time Google even tried to enforce it and there were usability problems with typos and wrong dates and things - there was no verification and no easy way to fix an error. IE, if a mid-40s adult accidentally entered 1/1/2024, they'd be locked out. And if a kid entered 1/1/1977, they'd have an account (but not way to correct that date when they eventually turned 18).

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

#47

Post by insane_dreamer »

As the parent of an 11 year old, I wholeheartedly agree. The science is pretty clear that social media has had a very detrimental effect on teens' mental health. We should treat it like we do other substances that are harmful for teens; once they're older they are better able to make wiser decisions as to if, when and how they want to consume social media.

It may be impossible to enforce outside school, but so is the 13-year old limit on opening accounts (my kid's classmates all have accounts; they just lie about their age). But that's not a reason not to have it on the books, as it sets a social standard, and more importantly puts pressure on social media companies.

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

#48

Post by zo1 »

Clubber wrote: post #43
zo1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While people are on the fence about it, our children are having their youth, innocence and brains destroyed by tiktok et al. Those platforms are cancer to adults even, let alone impressionable kids... yet here we are still debating it and faffing around about "1st amendment yaddi yadda".

>children are having their youth, innocence and brains destroyed by tiktok For one, ease up on the hyperbole if you want to be taken seriously. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt because the news is nothing but hyperbole these days, so it's easy to pick up the habit. Second, most kids aren't having "their youth, innocence and brains destroyed." The news takes the edge cases, amplifies them and presents it as the…

I exaggerate for a reason, because I feel strongly about it and think that it does do those things in a literal sense.

Besides, I've consumed tiktok and seen the content. It is nowhere near appropriate for children, it's night and day.

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

#49

Post by andy99 »

causal wrote: post #36

I might be the only one here in favor of this, and wanting to see a federal rollout. It is not reasonable to expect parents to spontaneously agree on a strategy for keeping kids off social media- and that kind of coordination is what it would take, because the kids + social media companies have more than enough time to coordinate workarounds. Have the law put the social media companies on the parents side, or these k…

I'm in favor of kids not using social media, but not of the government forcing this on people nor spinning up whatever absurd regulatory regime is required. And the chance of actually enforcing it is zero anyway. It's no more realistic to expect this to work than to expect all parents to do it as you say. It's just wasted money plus personal intrusion that won't achieve anything.
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