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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

#331

Post by kennywinker »

goykasi wrote: post #320
jiayo wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many social media sites allow you to do anything without an account? Twitter used to be wide open but X competely locked down. Instagram lets you click 2 things and then the paywall pops up. I'm not sure about Facebook but it isn't much better.

Twitter required a login long before the rename or Elon owned it. He actually removed that restriction for a while before reenabling it. And with some simple div removal, IG doesnt require a login to view content. This is true about a lot of the paywalled sites.

That doesn't sound true to me... Idk specific policies, but my experience was that I was never logged in to twitter on my desktop and I was never login-walled out until recently under elon.

edit: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/30/tech/twitter-public-access-re...

> People without a Twitter account or who weren’t logged in used to be able to scroll the platform’s homepage and view public accounts and tweets. But as of this week, when such a user opens the platform they are met with a screen prompting them to sign up or sign in to Twitter.

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

#332

Post by mlrtime »

mfrc wrote: post #218
aurareturn wrote: post #25

>Critics have said the bill violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections for free speech and that parents, not the government, should make decisions about the online presence of their children of all ages. It's extremely difficult for parents to stop their children, especially early teens from using social media. This law should make it easier and it would put the work on Meta, Snap, Tiktok, Pinterest…

Why should companies be forced to help parents supervise their own children? It's ironic that DeSantis is all about parental freedom yet wants to turn the companies into a nanny.

Should liquor stores be required to stop children from buying alcohol?

Should 7-11 be required to stop children from buying pornography magazines?

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

#333

Post by exabrial »

I'll be the odd guy out and say it should probably be illegal to attempt to enter a contract (AUP, privacy policy, etc) with a minor anyway (for a lot of reasons around exploitation), so I don't _really_ have a major issue with this at face value.

I know the devil is in the details though, so kinda curious what the actual provisions are.

The alternative is a free internet, where we don't need accounts to do things, because we're not building or storing advertising profiles on users. Hmmmm... imagine that.

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

#334

Post by somethingreen »

dangus wrote: post #213
oliwarner wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H.B.3 only prohibits these minors holding accounts on social media. They can still browse, as can anyone without an account and age verification. You'd be able to view a business's information, watch videos, etc etc etc, just not create your own. It also has conditions for which sites are affected by this law. The site has to have doomscroll and already be popular with kids. Google Maps isn't what they're targeting.…

What I’m really unclear about is whether providers are required to use an actual ID to age verify. Does anyone know? The bill summary on the Florida senate webpage says: > Such commercial entities must verify, using either an anonymous or standard age verification method, that the age of a person attempting to access the material harmful to minors satisfies the bill’s age requirements. It sounds to me like “anonymous…

Anonymous verification could be something like OAuth. Government run or certified probably. You'd need to provide an ID to OAuth provider once, but the actual service requesting verification would get as little as your age and email.

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

#335

Post by bear141 »

scarface_74 wrote: post #223
oliwarner wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H.B.3 only prohibits these minors holding accounts on social media. They can still browse, as can anyone without an account and age verification. You'd be able to view a business's information, watch videos, etc etc etc, just not create your own. It also has conditions for which sites are affected by this law. The site has to have doomscroll and already be popular with kids. Google Maps isn't what they're targeting.…

The last thing we need is to force everyone to have ID to “protect the children” before I can go on to a site on the internet.

“Think of the children!!!” Has been used for a very very long time to enact terrible laws and quietly remove rights. It is everywhere you look.

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

#336

Post by wannacboatmovie »

morkalork wrote: post #273
oliwarner wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

H.B.3 only prohibits these minors holding accounts on social media. They can still browse, as can anyone without an account and age verification. You'd be able to view a business's information, watch videos, etc etc etc, just not create your own. It also has conditions for which sites are affected by this law. The site has to have doomscroll and already be popular with kids. Google Maps isn't what they're targeting.…

This is not true! I was looking at a hair salon and bakery recently. Both, being run by millennials, have nothing but a google maps listing and an Instagram account. But I don't have one and after looking at a few photos of cakes and hairstyles, it gives me the boot and asks me to sign in to see more! Adding mandatory government ID to that is crazy.

They sound like incompetent business proprietors. When did having a website become something exclusively for old people? Millennials are in their 30s and 40s.

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

#338

Post by rokkitmensch »

Buttons840 wrote: post #216
aurareturn wrote: post #25

>Critics have said the bill violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections for free speech and that parents, not the government, should make decisions about the online presence of their children of all ages. It's extremely difficult for parents to stop their children, especially early teens from using social media. This law should make it easier and it would put the work on Meta, Snap, Tiktok, Pinterest…

> It's extremely difficult for parents to stop their children, especially early teens from using social media. I'm trying to decide whether it's "extremely easy" or "extremely difficult" for parents to stop their children from having a cell phone. One the one hand, all you have to do is not spend money and not buy a phone, easy. And yet, almost every kid has a cell phone, so evidently it is hard for parents to say no…

I had a conversation with a mom recently where she wanted my input on her media choices because she thought what I was doing was cool and admirable.

It all fell apart when she realized that she'd have to yank the XBox, the PS*, the Switch, etc.

Her kid, and all of the other entitled ones with endless access to everything on the internet, are utterly intolerable when they come over -- until they go outside with my kids for a few hours and come back in with their heads reset!

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

#339

Post by wpasc »

pests wrote: post #321
appplication wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without speaking to merits, the entire point of this law is to reduce usage by minors. So being able to do less without an account is a feature through this lens.

The question was about merits though, you can't just ignore the question. How do teenagers find and discover businesses when they are locked behind a sign up wall for social media?

This is an unfair parallel, but it's like worrying about businesses who advertise on pornographic sites or on cigarette boxes. Allowing visibility to businesses who advertise on a certain platform could be judged (by society, law, and voters) to be outweighed by the need to restrict youth access to social media. There is a variety of precedent in society and law in restricting youth access to something that is otherwise deemed legal. Just because businesses advertise on social media (in my opinion), the decision to restrict access should not be altered by that advertising strategy.

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

#340

Post by hackable_sand »

jl6 wrote: post #107
II2II wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> tackling the issue of mental health What if reducing social media usage was a good way of tackling mental health issues?

That is for the individual to decide, just like any other malady.
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