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Florida's DeSantis signs law restricting social media for people under 16

reuters.com

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Re: Florida's DeSantis signs law restricting social media for people under 16

#61

Post by Ekaros »

pjc50 wrote: post #6

Is there a canonical decision of SCOTUS that children don't have First Amendment rights, and therefore it's OK to restrict their ability to post? (note that rules which require proof of age tend also to turn into rules that end anonymity, because it's more work to separate the proof systems) Edit: I ask a question about caselaw and end up at -3? Yes, I know, don't complain about downvotes, but I don't understand thes…

Technical question about free speech. Do you need to have right to see other speech to have free speech? So would it be enough for children to be able to post, but not read? As that would not violate their free speech.

Re: Florida's DeSantis signs law restricting social media for people under 16

#62

Post by mwigdahl »

brk wrote: post #34
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're 15, you're not allowed in a bar, and you're not allowed on a porn site, and you're not allowed to buy cigarettes. The list goes on and on. I fail to see how not being allowed on Facebook is different.

I think the argument is that there are no constitutional rights to bars, cigarettes, and porn. Social media is being held up as an example of "speech" here, which all US citizens are entitled to (at least in theory).

The question is whether the venue in which the speech is performed in is sufficiently public as to be exempt from regulation. Given that participation on these sites exposes participants to heavy commercial advertising, traffic analysis, and data harvesting, I think it's a reasonable stance that the state can regulate participation.

Re: Florida's DeSantis signs law restricting social media for people under 16

#63

Post by dotnet00 »

awkward wrote: post #49
newhotelowner wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why 18 and not 25?

Because at 18 people are responsible for their own actions, and restricting them after that is unreasonable and contrary to personal freedom. There's a consistent factoid going around that brains aren't done developing until the age of 25. It's frequently used as an argument to restrict young people. Looking at performance by age in fields like math and music, declining brain plasticity seems more like a reason to im…

Might as well raise the age of majority to 25, if the brain isn't finished developing they're obviously incapable of handling personal freedom!

Re: Florida's DeSantis signs law restricting social media for people under 16

#64

Post by II2II »

demondemidi wrote: post #22
mmkos wrote: post #16

Great. I think few people have any doubts about social media being a net negative for young people.

Young people? I’d say people in general.

Perhaps that is part of the problem with these laws: we are playing a game of whack-a-mole instead of tackling the issue of mental health. While I personally avoid social media due to privacy concerns, I have encountered other adults my age who have expressed that they avoid social media for reasons related to mental health. While walking through my neighbourhood, it is clear that there are many people with mental health issues that society has all but abandoned. Then there are the people who have issues that they do not talk about and cannot be seen.

Re: Florida's DeSantis signs law restricting social media for people under 16

#65

Post by dotnet00 »

II2II wrote: post #64
demondemidi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Young people? I’d say people in general.

Perhaps that is part of the problem with these laws: we are playing a game of whack-a-mole instead of tackling the issue of mental health. While I personally avoid social media due to privacy concerns, I have encountered other adults my age who have expressed that they avoid social media for reasons related to mental health. While walking through my neighbourhood, it is clear that there are many people with mental he…

You are literally posting to social media right now.

Re: Florida's DeSantis signs law restricting social media for people under 16

#67

Post by pjc50 »

Cheer2171 wrote: post #60
edgyquant wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These critics have no understanding of the law. We’ve been making exceptions for children for decades at least, probably since the beginning of the republic

I assure you I have an understanding of the law. This is such a a rude and preposterous assertion in bad faith. This is a law mandating ID verification for all children and adults. If you require controls for everyone below a certain age, you de facto require controls for everyone of every age who does not prove they are over the minimum age. In other words, even if you can legally discriminate against children, my r…

Indeed. We've been round this when Facebook etc (most recently Glassdoor) instituted "real name" policies.

I'm rather confused about HN's response to this because normally when a media platform voluntarily tries to censor certain kinds of bad behavior there's a massive backlash here, and now there's seemingly overwhelming support for simply removing a whole category of people from being able to speak at all, along with whatever real ID policy gets put in place to make it work.

Re: Florida's DeSantis signs law restricting social media for people under 16

#68

Post by [deleted] »

edgyquant wrote: post #7
aNoob7000 wrote: post #2

The law is going to be shot down quickly if it is an undue burden on adults getting access to social media websites and apps.

Doubt. The reigning in of social media companies is one of the few issues with overwhelming bipartisan support

[deleted]

Re: Florida's DeSantis signs law restricting social media for people under 16

#69

Post by CSMastermind »

dotnet00 wrote: post #63
awkward wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because at 18 people are responsible for their own actions, and restricting them after that is unreasonable and contrary to personal freedom. There's a consistent factoid going around that brains aren't done developing until the age of 25. It's frequently used as an argument to restrict young people. Looking at performance by age in fields like math and music, declining brain plasticity seems more like a reason to im…

Might as well raise the age of majority to 25, if the brain isn't finished developing they're obviously incapable of handling personal freedom!

I'd unironically support raising the voting age in the US to 25. I was an idiot when I was 18 and had no business picking a leader of any kind.

There's something to be said for waiting until people have actual life experience.

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