I don't agree with any type of "outright ban". However, having EXTREME restrictions on these social media sites for children seems so obvious. I'd prefer a complete restriction on any content outside of friends groups, any algorithm restriction, etc.
Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
131–140 of 720 posts
Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
#132I don’t know where I saw this idea but instead of banning just force these companies to make their feed algorithms open source.
It would be much less heavy handed and would freedom increasing instead of decreasing.
It would work because There would be enough outrage over seeing nefarious topics being pushed that the companies would refrain.
Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
#133Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
#134This is good. Seriously, the damage it does is massive, kids should not be on Instagram, Snapchat, or Tiktok.
I have a hunch that you're right, but there are a few other things that coincided with the rise of social media, so it's hard to tell what has driven the change in kids' psyches. Among them is the explosion of pharmaceuticals that are routinely prescribed to kids.
The pharmaceuticals thing is unique to the US, but every country has seen a simultaneous rise in kids mental health issues, so that rules out pharmaceuticals.
Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
#135This 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.
it was always appropriate to lie and make up a fake age / date of birth on those signup pages.
Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
We don't even have to speculate, isn't it already the case for <13yo? Or is just Europe? Anyway - yeah, of course they're still on it. Expect less compliance and harder enforcement the older they are, not more/easier.
The only protection in the Us is technically “collection of personal information” via COPPA[0] which you can argue would kneecap social media. Any parent can provide consent for their child, however. Children themselves can also just click the button that says they are over 13 if it gets them what they want.
[0]: https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/childrens-onl...
Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
#137Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
#138I 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…
You can be in favor but in the US it is unconstitutional for a gov to broadly restrict speech. It's why each of these age verification + social media laws eventually get tossed. Legislators know this (or are too dumb to) but it's not their own dollars that are getting burned during this vote-baiting performance.
The FCC seems to get around that pretty easily not allowing nipples on Tv.
Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Several governments have already effectively banned sites like Pornhub by creating regimes where people have to mail their ID to a central clearinghouse (which creates a huge chilling effect.) The article talks about “reasonable age verification measures” and so saying it’s unenforceable seems a little bit premature. Also, you can bet those measures won’t be in any way reasonable once the Florida legislature gets thr…
Does this actually work or does it just push those same people to sketchier websites?
Re: Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16
#140Is Hacker News considered social media?
yes