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Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

cnn.com

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Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#111

Post by MildlySerious »

dwedge wrote: post #108

Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical but, while I think current social media is bad for children, I'm very suspicious of the current international agreement that it's time to take action, especially with all the ID verification coming from multiple avenues

Two things can be true, and I am in the same boat. Should the next generation have their brains fried by ad-tech corporations and their algorithms? Absolutely not. Should the overdue off-ramp from this trend be the on-ramp to mass-surveillance and government overreach? Also a firm no.

Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#112

Post by androiddrew »

Alternative headline: household spyware cash machine forced to pay $20 for being bad.

If you want to punish Meta then you have to punish the wonder boy who runs it. Not even share holders can fight off the guy spending 80B on the metaverse.

Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#113

Post by intended »

dwedge wrote: post #108

Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical but, while I think current social media is bad for children, I'm very suspicious of the current international agreement that it's time to take action, especially with all the ID verification coming from multiple avenues

Meta is lobbying to push age verification to the OS level.

I have read the OSINT report from Reddit. The data it has is being interpreted as Meta orchestrating a global lobbying scheme.

However the data is equally if not more supportive of Meta simply taking advantage of global political sentiment to position itself better.

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but the HN zeitgeist seems to be resistant to the idea that tech is the “bad guy” today.

I work in trust and safety, and have near front row seats to all the insanity playing out today.

Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#114

Post by sixsevenrot »

polyomino wrote: post #51
skybrian wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theoretically we don't actually need proof of age. Websites need to know when the user is attempting to create an account or log in from a child-locked device. Parents need to make sure their kids only have child-locked devices. Vendors need to make sure they don't sell unlocked devices to kids.

Children do not want child locked devices and they will find alternatives

As with smoking, alcohol, sex, drugs etc

Children who are smart enough to get access to a given vice without getting caught are more likely to be mature enough to be able to cope with that vice.

Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#115

Post by lynndotpy »

sizero wrote: post #110
montroser wrote: post #104

Cost of doing business...

This. Meta made $60B in net income in 2025.

Has anyone in leadership at Meta faced even the prospect of jail time for what they've done over all these years?

Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#116

Post by eqvinox »

montroser wrote: post #104

Cost of doing business...

"We went a little over the line to figure out where the line is, so, we can now guarantee you, dear shareholder, that we're extracting the absolute maximum possible value! Isn't that splendid!"

Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#117

Post by b65e8bee43c2ed0 »

dwedge wrote: post #108

Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical but, while I think current social media is bad for children, I'm very suspicious of the current international agreement that it's time to take action, especially with all the ID verification coming from multiple avenues

given that it's happening simultaneously with the war on E2EE and general purpose computing, their goals are as transparent as it gets. the West is at this point only a decade behind China.

Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#118

Post by pocksuppet »

bradley13 wrote: post #77

We don't want age verification, and we do want E2E encryption. Yet, because Meta is an evil company, we cheer on this judgement. Reality, folks: you can't have both.

I think we don't want mandatory age verification or banned encryption for everything. However, you can't hide behind "it's not the law" as a shield for everything. Thanks to ubiquitous spyware, Meta knows damn well the age of almost all of its users, and if someone who's 40 is sending first-contact messages to 10 unknown 13-year-olds every day, it seems important to know what those messages say. They know this stuff is happening and they care about not being liable, not about your security.

We can assume Meta has backdoored its E2EE somehow anyway.

Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#119

Post by expedition32 »

dwedge wrote: post #108

Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical but, while I think current social media is bad for children, I'm very suspicious of the current international agreement that it's time to take action, especially with all the ID verification coming from multiple avenues

Tech bros deliberately made digital crack for kids and corporations refuse to moderate online content.

There is no conspiracy the general public is faced with a crisis and they are desperate for a solution.

The teen suicide statistics do not lie.

Re: Jury finds Meta liable in case over child sexual exploitation on its platforms

#120

Post by benrutter »

MildlySerious wrote: post #111
dwedge wrote: post #108

Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical but, while I think current social media is bad for children, I'm very suspicious of the current international agreement that it's time to take action, especially with all the ID verification coming from multiple avenues

Two things can be true, and I am in the same boat. Should the next generation have their brains fried by ad-tech corporations and their algorithms? Absolutely not. Should the overdue off-ramp from this trend be the on-ramp to mass-surveillance and government overreach? Also a firm no.

I really wish this take was more prominent. I really don't buy that mass-surveillance should be required for age verification. There are plenty of very smart people who have created much more complicated things than a digital age verification that doesn't track every time you use it.

This also isn't helpful, but I think the sudden push of urgency isn't helping. The internet has existed without any kind of age verification or safety measures for about 30 years. We could have used that time to have a sensible conversation about policy trade offs, but instead we've waited till now to decide that everything has to be rushed through with minimal consideration.

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