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Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

reuters.com

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Re: Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 years old is crazy, but by the time they are 15-16 it becomes difficult to restrict them from things their peers all do. There needs to be a wider push from all parents or more of a consensus from society that these platforms are dangerous.

Yes, the platforms need to be regulated more for minors. But also, prohibition has never been a very effective method with teens. Just look at how college kids drink when they get to college. The sudden removal of parental restriction has a lot to do with that if you ask me. I think this is better approached with broad education, and stronger regulations on the platforms themselves. Part of the problem is that many p…

Drinking is down for young adults and teens. My pet theory is that Covid broke the chain of party and drinking culture being passed down. (This is entirely speculative, and based on a single chart I saw.)

The relevance to your point being that removal of parental restrictions don't seem to be doing that anymore.

Education is definitely a good idea, but do note any plan that depends on education gives up the next 5-10 years before results are seen. Works great for societies and countries that think that far ahead.

America in particular has an extra challenge, since Big Tech is based here, and threats to revenue streams will be met with immense opposition.

Re: Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

#52
post #8

It blows my mind that parents let their children use these platforms with these safety features. I just found out yesterday that my cousin lets their 5ish year old have a TikTok account, but they have to allow or deny anyone who follows. How absurd is that. It doesn't block anything about what they view (I assume they relied on this safety feature), and there's no way that vetting who can follow (family and friends)…

I know someone similar who gave their kid a phone at age 6. 95% of the time I see them they're on TikTok.

Child safety features are not going to solve this problem. All it takes is one parent giving their kid a phone with an adult account and all that progress is undone. I am convinced it is going to take a cultural shift for any positive change to occur - self-policing and, if necessary, social stigma.

This kind of behavior of giving young children phones will have to be outmoded in a generation or two. Until then, there is going to be a lot of growing pains.

Re: Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

#53
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on their faq: https://www.tiktok.com/support/faq_detail?category=web_accou... > You shouldn't see mature or complex themes, such as: > • Profanity > • Sexually suggestive content > • Realistic violence or threatening imagery > • Firearms or weapons in an environment that isn't appropriate > • Illegal or controlled substances/drugs > • Explicit references to mature or complex themes that may reflect personal exp…

Whenever I see a list like this, I wonder to myself: "Who gets to decide the list?" Why are we letting companies just decide on their own what's appropriate for "minors?"

You could have, at least back when Trust and Safety roles weren't getting crushed by the AI stick.

Theres tons of research which can be brought to bear, genuine problems and challenges that require deep, thoughtful work, and some of the greatest people you will work with.

It is also absolute madness. There are so many insane, broken things about how safety is provided in the world, that you will feel like you are in a Elizabethan slaughter house, just at species scale. This is all excluding the world of child safety. Adding that to the mix gets you to existential nihilism quite rapidly.

Re: Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

#54
post #22
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on their faq: https://www.tiktok.com/support/faq_detail?category=web_accou... > You shouldn't see mature or complex themes, such as: > • Profanity > • Sexually suggestive content > • Realistic violence or threatening imagery > • Firearms or weapons in an environment that isn't appropriate > • Illegal or controlled substances/drugs > • Explicit references to mature or complex themes that may reflect personal exp…

Curious what they consider an “appropriate environment” for firearms and weapons

I don't know what TikTok thinks, but I could imagine a target shooting sporting event as one such example.

Re: Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

#55
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to think there's a difference between being fed misinformation & braindrot day in, day out and having to look for them yourself.

Is YouTube or Twitch really better? I don't think people are going to go "Oh well, TikTok is gone now, guess I'll finally go read through my backlog of academic papers on quantum theory"

YouTube is has a lot of great educational content. Maybe TikTok is too, I don't use it, but I find most short-form content to be of questionable value.

[edited to change "full" to "has a lot of" because Youtube has plenty of brain-rot too]

Re: Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the average person is not equipped to understand the implications. being educated / intelligent means you have likely picked up some neuroscience knowledge and it has stuck for you over the years. Even if it is not your "field" we all have a brain and if you like knowledge then you recognize it's useful to know about it. The average person, especially the below average person, is better off trusting others tha…

> You need to talk to your cousin. No one else is going to. This is absolutely true. > being educated / intelligent means you have likely picked up some neuroscience knowledge and it has stuck for you over the years. People in Russia and China have almost 30 percentage points more tertiary education levels than Americans do. Nonetheless social media is even more pervasive and popular in China than anywhere else in th…

>People in Russia and China have almost 30 percentage points more tertiary education levels than Americans do. Nonetheless social media is even more pervasive and popular in China than anywhere else in the world. Like with the panic about video game fixation, harmful time wasters are almost certainly an effect, not a cause, of something else.

I don't know about Russia but China social media is no where close to American Social Media. There is generally time limits, content restrictions and other things that make the two not similar.

When people go "Social media is a problem", they are generally referring to western social media where it's profitability over any external harm they are doing.

Re: Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

#57

> TikTok in August agreed to settle three U.S. lawsuits brought by young people who accuse social media companies of designing their platforms to be addictive and harming their mental health. I am so happy I do not live in US where an idiot harms themself and non-idiot has to pay them.

What libertarian utopia do you live in?

Re: Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

#58
post #8

It blows my mind that parents let their children use these platforms with these safety features. I just found out yesterday that my cousin lets their 5ish year old have a TikTok account, but they have to allow or deny anyone who follows. How absurd is that. It doesn't block anything about what they view (I assume they relied on this safety feature), and there's no way that vetting who can follow (family and friends)…

I have kids. We’re social. Spend a lot of time meeting new parents all the time. I have never heard of a 5 year old with a TikTok account. I think your cousin is so far into the outlier end of the parenting tail that nothing they do is going to make any sense in the context of common parenting practices.

Alternative theory: your bubble is small, and you socialize with parents who have similar values to your own. And I'm gonna guess that your income or wealth is in far outlier territory. I've seen kids raised like this; in my generation the concern was kids glued to TVs all day, and some of those kids turned out okay. But in my family, it's the parents who grew up glued to screens who are raising the most screen-addicted kids.

Re: Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the average person is not equipped to understand the implications. being educated / intelligent means you have likely picked up some neuroscience knowledge and it has stuck for you over the years. Even if it is not your "field" we all have a brain and if you like knowledge then you recognize it's useful to know about it. The average person, especially the below average person, is better off trusting others tha…

> You need to talk to your cousin. No one else is going to. This is absolutely true. > being educated / intelligent means you have likely picked up some neuroscience knowledge and it has stuck for you over the years. People in Russia and China have almost 30 percentage points more tertiary education levels than Americans do. Nonetheless social media is even more pervasive and popular in China than anywhere else in th…

I recall China having instituted limits on gaming for children. I believe there are limits for social media as well.
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