Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Texas judge rules TikTok misled users on child safety feature

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 83 posts

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

#61

Post by doctorpangloss »

intended wrote: post #59
doctorpangloss wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

yes, if you buy into the 200% opposite philosophy as mine, then the words you are saying make it sound like i am wrong and you are right haha. i guess my point is: it doesn't really matter if they institute limits on gaming for children. the fact that kids want to play games all day - the fact that they need to create limits is a SYMPTOM of the problem. are you getting it now?

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

#62

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

lemmetellya wrote: post #33
consensus1 wrote: post #14

There's only 3 options for the internet: 1. free for all 2. locked down with ID checked age gates 3. sanitized with no adult content at all If we put responsibility for keeping kids safe on companies we will get 2 or 3. The only good option is that parents need to actually parent their kids.

What about: 4) Human moderated in smaller communities 5) Self run reputation systems Plenty of communities exist out there that aren't a free for all, do not perform id checks, have adult content, and are free from children.

> 4) Human moderated in smaller communities

People have basically decided that they don't actually want this.

I know I don't want to visit 10+ different websites on regular basis to keep up on discussions of various interests I have.

> 5) Self run reputation systems

Isn't that basically the upvote/downvote systems used by reddit and HN?

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

#63

Post by stickfigure »

doright wrote: post #52
jjice wrote: 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…

You sound so certain that these other parents are being negligent. Despite the fact that my 9yo doesn't have a phone or tiktok, I'm going to argue the other side's case.

You're right "we don't know what it does to kids brains". But that means we should give parents discretion. Some parents want to run an experiment where they give their kids constant tiktok. Maybe we'll find out in a generation or two that this was bad, good, or a nothingburger.

I'm in my 50s. I have watched sooo many moral panics evaporate to nothing. TV, video games, D&D, heavy metal music, porn, literal satanism, and now everyone's favorite whipping boy, social media.

Let it go. Parent your own child, let other people parent theirs.

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

#64

Post by [deleted] »

stickfigure wrote: post #63
doright wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You sound so certain that these other parents are being negligent. Despite the fact that my 9yo doesn't have a phone or tiktok, I'm going to argue the other side's case. You're right "we don't know what it does to kids brains". But that means we should give parents discretion. Some parents want to run an experiment where they give their kids constant tiktok. Maybe we'll find out in a generation or two that this was b…

[deleted]

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

#65

Post by esseph »

intended wrote: post #51
Grombobulous wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

Weed took its place.

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

#66

Post by pmdr »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #42
pmdr wrote: 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"

I'd say it is, if you stay away from shorts.

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

#67

Post by immibis2 »

stackskipton wrote: post #56
doctorpangloss wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 Ameri…

It used to be a meme to point that American TikTok was all (pre-AI) slop while Chinese TikTok was delivering children math and physics lessons.

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

#68

Post by izzydata »

ryandrake wrote: post #43
izzydata wrote: post #10

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.

You're not going to achieve coordinated, collective action by placing the burden of acting on the individual. It never works. If collective action has to happen to solve some problem, it needs to either 1. be so strongly incentivized such that it's the only sensible thing for individuals to do, or 2. be mandated top-down and enforced. You can't just shout "My solution relies on everyone independently doing X!" It nev…

I agree that probably won't happen that way. There also won't be much in the way of regulation until society slowly realizes the dangers.

I think we are currently in the process of finding out now that there have been people on social media from birth and are now adult members of society.

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

#69

Post by consensus1 »

lemmetellya wrote: post #33
consensus1 wrote: post #14

There's only 3 options for the internet: 1. free for all 2. locked down with ID checked age gates 3. sanitized with no adult content at all If we put responsibility for keeping kids safe on companies we will get 2 or 3. The only good option is that parents need to actually parent their kids.

What about: 4) Human moderated in smaller communities 5) Self run reputation systems Plenty of communities exist out there that aren't a free for all, do not perform id checks, have adult content, and are free from children.

Neither of those address the problem of children accessing adult content. If there is no ID check how do you know there are no children on them?

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

#70

Post by consensus1 »

intrasight wrote: post #50
phendrenad2 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long do you think you'll have #1 and #2 before someone in government realizes they can dox people they don't like?

Government and taxes are the price we pay for having a civilization. If you don't trust your government institutions to do good by you, then you could go live on a deserted island somewhere and see how that works out for you.

Yes, you have a point. I must give the government more power because the only other alternative is to go live on a desert island by myself. Hard to argue with that brilliant logic.
Post reply on HN