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The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

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51–60 of 175 posts

Re: The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

#52

They are really underestimating the harm of being on these platforms causes. These platforms are the digital equivalent of heroin if heroin always came with either nazi or bolshevik propaganda. They are entirely focused on the axe they rightfully have to grind the whole age verification debacle they are not seeing the bigger picture. The major social media companies are undermining the foundations of our societies fo…

Lmao yeah, bolshevik propaganda. Hilarious.

Re: The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

#53
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have parental controls on devices. The change forced by the UK government is to give control to corporations, instead of the parents. Parents are much better at knowing their own kid's age than corporations are. Teens keep fooling the age verification (pointing the camera at a video game character, using fake ID, even drawing beards on their face with a pen). But they aren't going to fool their own mother, and the…

>We have parental controls on devices That's irrelevant because social media regulation is a collective action problem. No individual parent can restrict their kids access to social media without ostracizing it, it only makes sense if all parents together get their kids off these platforms.

[deleted]

Re: The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

#54
post #6

If governments want to set up online age gates, they should be responsible for providing an electronic ID system and enable privacy preserving age verification (zero knowledge proofs)

Implementation detail. Fine companies that allow minors access and they'll find a way to verify age by themselves. For liquor for example I don't think the govt actually specifies that you shall check ID they specify that you shall not sell to minors.

> they'll find a way to verify age by themselves.

Yeah, by outsourcing it to some shady company that sells all your private info to the lowest bidder. See Discord for example.

Re: The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

#55
post #20

The EFF is very wrong on this one. Some things are bad and we should keep children away from them.

We have parental controls on devices. The change forced by the UK government is to give control to corporations, instead of the parents. Parents are much better at knowing their own kid's age than corporations are. Teens keep fooling the age verification (pointing the camera at a video game character, using fake ID, even drawing beards on their face with a pen). But they aren't going to fool their own mother, and the…

This is a tricky one, but it actually gives control to the government, not corporations. The government now has rules which let them define what social media is and how big its market can be.

The government is, frankly, just better at deciding what's good for most children than their parents when it comes to matters of health. That's a controversial statement, but truthfully most parents are just not educated enough or strict enough to decide where the boundaries should be on their children's health.

Re: The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

#56
post #8

The EFF is very wrong on this one. Some things are bad and we should keep children away from them.

Parents are there to protect their children. The potential harm caused by eroded privacy and reduced control over our devices is not worth the perceived benefits of this policy in ensuring children’s safety.

Unpopular to say, but the government is just better at deciding what's good for most children than their parents when it comes to matters of health. Unfortunately most parents are just very uneducated or lacking in discipline, and no child should be punished in the name of freedom. That being said, age verification laws are obviously a bad way to do that. They should just ban specific categories of social media outright.

Re: The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

#57
post #42
post #13

About 2 million adults in the UK don't have government-issued photo ID. Certainly many 16-17 year olds will have trouble verifying their age. They're blocking huge sectors of the UK population from being able to use the internet normally.

Use *social media normally. Social media != The Internet. They’ll be able to use 99.9999% of the internet just fine.

YouTube is part of the ban.

Re: The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

#58

There's no defending social media, not for adults, not for kids, ever. It's a toxic trap which will do absolutely nothing good for and to its users. Keep the kids away from it, doesn't take an Einstein reincarnate to realize that.

Hacker News is a social media site, but not according to the UK government.

According to the UK government, YouTube is a social media site.

Re: The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

#59
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Implementation detail. Fine companies that allow minors access and they'll find a way to verify age by themselves. For liquor for example I don't think the govt actually specifies that you shall check ID they specify that you shall not sell to minors.

> they'll find a way to verify age by themselves. Yeah, by outsourcing it to some shady company that sells all your private info to the lowest bidder. See Discord for example.

Don't use the site then? Or sites can compete on which age verifies in the least shitty way?

I think we have been stuck in this way of life so long we can't imagine an alternative.

Re: The UK's new under-16 social media ban will cause more harm than it prevents

#60
post #6

If governments want to set up online age gates, they should be responsible for providing an electronic ID system and enable privacy preserving age verification (zero knowledge proofs)

Who is "government" Is it not the people? The people don't want this crap. It's a few zealots with their motives that are pushing this down society.

Your (the people’s) preferences are largely irrelevant here.

https://willbrownsberger.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Gile...

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