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Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

reuters.com

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Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#81

Post by barbazoo »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #72

Why ban social media when ad-supported media is the culprit? Remove the incentive (to get users to doom scroll, to polarize, to impulse buy…) and you change the behavior. I remember when social media was sane 15+ years ago. The problem is the business model, not socializing. It's crazy to ban it when being a teen is the beginning of socializing!

How come ad supported TV existed for decades without destroying children's mental health?

The algorithms create the engagement, the engagement lures in the ads, not the other way around, at least that's what I think right now.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#82

Post by nxor »

emulatedmedia wrote: post #59
protocolture wrote: post #31

Its crazy how the AusGov has just tried to turn this into some kind of nationalistic celebration. Passing laws isolating children isnt to be celebrated by lighting up national monuments.

Isolating children from what? If anything, this will make they spend more time with their friends and family

Absolutely second this, and I am part of the younger generation. Technology is isolating. Social media feeds superficial relationships. The anxiety it creates is so worrying.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#83

Post by JumpCrisscross »

WorldPeas wrote: post #67
hallole wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hugely decisive! Feels more like a policy for idyllic hypotheticals. "Suppose we could ban social media..." well, hey, they actually did it. I'm very interested to see how their socializing evolves in response to such a shock. Do the social behaviors of pre-internet times re-emerge? "Third spaces" reappear overnight? We shall see!

I think one must also re-evaluate how in modern times a parent can be charged (by a perfect stranger) for the crime of neglecting their child when allowing them to rove unrestricted outside (within reason). I've heard of this happening in both the US and Australia, the HOA mindset really needs to die.

> a parent can be charged (by a perfect stranger) for the crime of neglecting their child when allowing them to rove unrestricted outside

This is more about criminalising poverty than anything about parenting. I live in a rich part of Wyoming. The kids are fucking feral.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#84

Post by yifanl »

barbazoo wrote: post #81
rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #72

Why ban social media when ad-supported media is the culprit? Remove the incentive (to get users to doom scroll, to polarize, to impulse buy…) and you change the behavior. I remember when social media was sane 15+ years ago. The problem is the business model, not socializing. It's crazy to ban it when being a teen is the beginning of socializing!

How come ad supported TV existed for decades without destroying children's mental health? The algorithms create the engagement, the engagement lures in the ads, not the other way around, at least that's what I think right now.

Well arguably TV did destroy people's brains, just a lot slower and less efficiently.

And in fairness, dosage is the difference between a painkiller an a heroin addiction.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#86

Post by jamesbelchamber »

spwa4 wrote: post #64
N_Lens wrote: post #8

Quite a decisive move by the Australian government. I don't know if it's a move in the right direction or not but the research clearly shows that around the time social media became mainstream, teens' and preteens' mental health took a nosedive (Especially girls).

Thinking about this this will of course fail. Because teens will do what they did before online: make their own social networks. But by necessity these will be small. I hope that's what will happen. That this is only really a problem for FANG, for the tech industry and doesn't actually prevent social media.

While FAANG undoubtedly have chosen profit over safety I'm not yet convinced non-FAANG social media is significantly safer, in terms of mental health, antisocial behaviour or predation.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#87

Post by nxor »

kevin061 wrote: post #57
d3Xt3r wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget the children, no one should be subjected to the brainrot that is TikTok. Or any form of vertical short videos for that matter.

True.

Could not have said it better. The harm these apps are doing is so immense. Why form any hobby at all when you can scroll four hours of tik tok a day?

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#88

Post by mvdtnz »

N_Lens wrote: post #8

Quite a decisive move by the Australian government. I don't know if it's a move in the right direction or not but the research clearly shows that around the time social media became mainstream, teens' and preteens' mental health took a nosedive (Especially girls).

Is this around the same time we started over diagnosing mental health disorders?

'Life being stressful is not an illness' – GPs on mental health over-diagnosis

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2pvxdn9v4o

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172682

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#89

Post by youngNed »

hollow-moe wrote: post #85

Nice! Soon enough they'll be forbidden to be outside during the day too, to avoid taking any risk crossing these "adults" thing probably.

And cigarettes! What next booze!?

Libertarianism really does hit a wall when it comes to kids, in so many ways, doesn't it?

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#90

Post by safety1st »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #72

Why ban social media when ad-supported media is the culprit? Remove the incentive (to get users to doom scroll, to polarize, to impulse buy…) and you change the behavior. I remember when social media was sane 15+ years ago. The problem is the business model, not socializing. It's crazy to ban it when being a teen is the beginning of socializing!

I don't think it's just the ads, I mean we had magazines, TV, and the web, they all had advertising, and no population-level impact on child & teen mental health impact was observed as these were adopted.

Then we got the one-two punch of social media apps on phones, and everywhere we saw these get adopted, we saw depression and anxiety increase en masse.

My own theory is that if you have to pick one thing it's the phone, because screen time/attention skyrockets when you get one of those, and they can have you freaking out about whatever clickbait they're feeding you pretty much 24/7. When I grew up there was just a computer in the den and when I wasn't in the den, whatever I'd viewed on it was out of sight, mostly out of mind.

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