Honestly, I’m pretty sure people just want free money from Zuckerberg. That said, it’d be stupid to deny how destructive some of Meta’s content, especially Reels, can be. But whether that’s Meta’s responsibility or the responsibility of people who can’t stop themselves from consuming it is a philosophical question.
New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
441–450 of 457 posts
Re: New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
#442Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rubbish. Yes, you can decide that the child will eat vegetable and do their homework. Did you grow up in a hippie commune? It is as easy as deciding that the child will not leave the table until the vegetables are eaten, and will not leave his room before homework is done. Grow a spine, set rules, and enforce them. That is how responsible adults are made. If not, your children will still be children when they grow up…
Interesting, so this was effective when you were a child and you only listened and never did anything your parents told you not to? Sounds like if that was effective it might be your personality, but most people aren't like that. The vast majority of kids will require borderline abuse to force them to do things on a regular they don't want to. If they are forced, it tends to breed rebellion behind their parents back…
> If they are forced, it tends to breed rebellion behind their parents back (there's a reason that the stereotype of the naughty "preachers kid" exists).
That's part of parenting - i.e not being agreeable, correct?
Re: New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
#443Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is not a net win when Justice is solely a destructive force. The absence of restoration to those harmed is a mutual burden.
It’s a penalty. Just years in prison, it’s not about restoration, it’s about punishment.
Reading your comment is also a minor penalty.
Re: New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
#444Re: New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
#445A lot of people on this story are making the usual snarky remarks that, oh, this is just a slap on the wrist—some trivial proportion of Meta’s global revenue. And that is true, but unlike the EU, for example, New Mexico is a tiny jurisdiction. It only has a little bit more than 2 million people. So actually, a fine—or a judgment—of $942 million that applies just to New Mexico is enormous. If you look at Meta’s revenu…
How many Meta customers are in jail now?
Scared to touch that one, it seems.
Re: New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
#446Earlier quoted context omitted.
But, to be fair, many companies hire organizational psychologists and other such people to make their products addictive and to understand exactly how to make the most money on you and get the most time from you. Even the rewards program at the grocery store near you is tailored in such a way to maximally please you and keep you shopping there
Many companies got regulated to hell and back, as a result. There are no meth companies, the cigarette industry is regulated as far as we can take it, opiates and medication is regulated with punitive damages levied (once evidence passes a threshold). Gambling is highly regulated (and prediction markets will be as well, eventually) I don’t remember off the top of my head, but I believe even reward programs will have…
Yes, but the social media companies WANT regulation. The absence of it creates a no-win situation where self-regulating cedes grounds to your less scrupulous competitors and not regulating leaves you open to head scratcher lawsuits like this which only apply to your industry and not other industries doing the same thing
Re: New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
#447A lot of people on this story are making the usual snarky remarks that, oh, this is just a slap on the wrist—some trivial proportion of Meta’s global revenue. And that is true, but unlike the EU, for example, New Mexico is a tiny jurisdiction. It only has a little bit more than 2 million people. So actually, a fine—or a judgment—of $942 million that applies just to New Mexico is enormous. If you look at Meta’s revenu…
This analysis actually understates how massive and outsized the penalties are. The court ruling only applies to children in New Mexico under age 18. New Mexico has ~450,000 people under age 18, of which roughly 140,000 are between ages 13-17 (Meta officially requires age 13+ to use their platforms). Recent Pew surveys of U.S. teens ages 13–17 show ~70% of teenagers use Instagram and ~30% use Facebook. In New Mexico,…
> Which creates some bizarre incentives, minors get rewarded for signing up for the platforms that are harming them in the first place.
Oh please. Was the whole "calculation" just to make this seem like a well considered argument, or what?
If the payout was to an entity other than the harmed one, you could say now that entity has incentive to have those minors harmed, instead. "Bizarre", heh.
Re: New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand now that this line >and Meta pays out to the affected parties probably won't come to pass, which I agree is not nearly as good. But I was responding to that possibility, as put forward by the the parent.
The line you conveniently skipped is > Which creates some bizarre incentives
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Re: New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
#449Earlier quoted context omitted.
> minors get rewarded for signing up for the platforms that are harming them in the first place. Vietnamese labor laws require higher salaries and more time off for working in hazardous/toxic conditions. These jobs become more attractive than the less toxic/hazardous ones.
i don't think you're thinking through the incentives-- with higher labor costs the employer has an incentive to take steps to make the job less hazardous.
You say this is as though I were dunking on the idea of hazard pay, and that my dunking deserved a riposte dunking. I am not against hazard pay. Companies have not eliminated hazardous work in Vietnam yet, so the incentive has not gone all the way to its intended end.
Re: New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
#450Earlier quoted context omitted.
The platform isn't actively harming. It's actively driving them to content they engage with. What they're choosing to engage with is harmful. The fact their parents let them on the platform is the crazy part, but the state already extracts vast amounts of money from them.
Why punish S.E. Massengill? It’s the parents, after all, who willingly allowed their children to drink sulfanilamide. Hell, if the children simply closed their mouths when the spoon is in front of them, they’d be perfectly fine!
This is a silly comparison. Social media doesn't instantly kill your children, and we've known it's bad for them for ages now so parents have had time to adjust. Give kids devices, win stupid prizes.