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Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

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Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#111

Post by josephg »

iamnothere wrote: post #79
dmje wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeh, no. Parents are doing what they can, but it inevitably comes down to “but my friend x has it so why can’t I have it” - so all and any help from government / schools is a good thing. This is so, so, so obviously a nasty, dangerous technology - young brains should absolutely not be exposed to it. In all honesty, neither should older ones, but that’s not what we’re considering here.

[flagged]

Would you want your kid to be ostracised from their community at school? Do you think that would be good for them?

IMO it’s much better - for everyone - to ban this stuff at the community level. Then there’s no FOMO.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#112

Post by dataflow »

> The move would give some parents — after a specific assessment — the right to let their children access social media from age 13. It wasn’t immediately clear how such a ban would be enforced: Many tech platforms already restrict pre-teens from signing up. Officials and experts say such restrictions don’t always work.

This makes it almost sound like a no-op once enough children convince their parents to give exemptions. Hopefully it works out better than that.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#113

Post by iamnothere »

delusional wrote: post #55
tiagod wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't the proposal involve automated scanning of all instant messages? How isn't that equivalent of having an automated system opening every letter and listening to every phone call looking for crimes?

Not from what I can tell. From what I can read, it only establishes a new authority, under the supervision and at the digression, of the Member state that can, with judicial approval mandate "the least intrusive in terms of the impact on the users’ rights to private and family life" detection activities on platforms where "there is evidence [... ] it is likely, [...] that the service is used, to an appreciable extent…

> platforms that are likely to contain child pornography

So every platform, everywhere? Facebook and Twitter/X still have problems keeping up with this, Matrix constantly has to block rooms from the public directory, Mastodon mods have plenty of horror stories. Any platform with UGC will face this issue, but it’s not a good reason to compromise E2EE or mandate intrusive scanning of private messages.

I would not be so opposed to mandated scans of public posts on large platforms, as image floods are still a somewhat common form of harassment (though not as common as it once was).

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#114

Post by angiolillo »

arcfour wrote: post #69
mrtesthah wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the kid feeling left out at school when they're the only one without a smartphone and can't participate in their friends' activities.

...and this needs to be solved with a law? Kids feeling left out over something well and truly inconsequentual?

Not necessarily a law, but it requires some form of collective action.

I highly recommend discussing a smartphone pact such as http://waituntil8th.org with fellow parents before anyone in their friend group gets a cell phone.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#115

Post by mtoner23 »

SunshineTheCat wrote: post #76
trey-jones wrote: post #53

As a parent who gave my oldest child a (very used) smartphone just before she turned 14, I would be in favor of making smartphones illegal under age 15 (or some other number, higher or lower I don't care). I'm pretty sure they're worse than cigarettes for the future of humanity.

Crazy to think how less government would need to act like a mom if there were one or two parents out there who were familiar with the word "no."

oh yeah, children famously do what their parents are told. especially when it comes to interacting with their friends. and they never are more adept at understanding technology and circumventing parental controls.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#116

Post by aanet »

This ban (or attempt to regulate), similar to Australia's, is at least 10-15 years too late to be honest. It likely would have stopped or lessened the negative impact of FB (and its ilk, but mostly FB, tbh) on much of the society.

Now we know, of course, and everything in hindsight is 20/20.

It's STILL worth trying to regulate social media, now emboldened and firmly established as a rite of passage among youth, adults, and older generations.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#118

Post by SaltyBackendGuy »

Barrin92 wrote: post #107
SunshineTheCat wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crazy to think how less government would need to act like a mom if there were one or two parents out there who were familiar with the word "no."

For one there is no indication that parents are any more literate in regards to digital practices than their kids. More importantly the constant appeal to the responsibility of parents misses that this is a collective action problem. The reason most parents give up to regulate their children's online activity is because the children end up isolated if an individual household prevents their kid from socializing online…

> For one there is no indication that parents are any more literate in regards to digital practices than their kids

This one hit me recently. My 4th grader has a friend who is on tik-toc and has a phone. Me, living in a bubble, where other parents I've met are terrified of social media and phones for their kids, was shocked when I met the mom and she wasn't aware of all the negative impact of social media. But, like with smokers, you can tell them it's bad for you but it's up to them to quit.

It's absolutely a collective action problem.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#119

Post by josephg »

arcfour wrote: post #100
davzie wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of those examples result in social ostracism from peers.

I think you are massively overstating how important it is to the kids that they have a social media account. How can it hold that kids would be ignored in real life because they don't interact virtually?

> How can it hold that kids would be ignored in real life because they don't interact virtually?

Easy. If half the conversation happens online, and your kid wasn’t part of that, they’d constantly need to be “filled in” when they got to school.

Imagine if your company used slack but you weren’t on it. You could still go to all the meetings, but there would have been conversations held and decisions made that you wouldn’t even know about. You would feel like you were on the out. Banning an individual kid from social media would be just the same.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#120

Post by iamnothere »

dlisboa wrote: post #47
delecti wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think a law which restricts "social media" will be crafted delicately enough to affect Instagram and Facebook but not HN?

I'd gladly give up HN if it means Instagram and Facebook are eradicated. Yes, yes, "those that would trade liberty for security...", but we were better off without any form of social media at all.

I often wonder if posts like this, along with the people who want to ban all cars, etc are just rage bait. Fortunately most of the population disagrees with your preferences. I give “general social media ban” around a 1% chance of success.
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