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France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

rte.ie

101–110 of 172 posts

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#101
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have not learnt anything from the war on drugs, even though many people compare social media to drugs.

That comparison is misguided. You can stop social media abruptly and not feel any withdrawal.

https://www.reddit.com/r/perth/comments/1pmvcml/my_14yo_is_l...

I think it depends on your definition of withdrawal, but it seems that some teens did experience something analagous to it here in Australia.

I think this counts in favour of the ban, myself.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#104
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if they need age verification they will ask for everyone's ID, that is why they are doing that in the first place.

They're doing this because it's bad for teen mental health, and polls keep showing 70% support and 15% opposition.

Yeah and all internet surveillance is to catch terrorists and pedophiles. Of course almost every action can be justified by some positives, but let's not pretend it is what it is. Getting an ID behind every username has a lot more benefits than protecting a shrinking population that does not vote.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#105

I've noticed that there's a decent amount of people who had benefitted having access to computer and internet really early on that seemed to be pro on banning teen access to social media, is there a reason why? the social media of today don't seem all that much different from the internet forums of back in the day if algorithmic amplification is the reason then I'm not sure why social media as a whole has to be banne…

There are supposedly studies linking social media to various negative consequences. For example, according to the Mayo Clinic, social media can: - Distract from homework, exercise and family activities. - Disrupt sleep. - Lead to information that is biased or not correct. ... Ah, just like that public health menace, the public library. I don't believe "social media" is actually injurious to youths. The studies saying…

Gambling doesn’t cause physical harm either, but it’s also banned for children. It’s similar to social media in that both are made to be as addictive as possible and they exploit human psychology.

I think it’s telling that many people here who work in tech don’t want social media for their kids, but there are no comic book readers who want to ban comics for their kids.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#106
post #84
post #29

Just the other day the FT put out an article that the current generation of graduates are so serially online that they freeze or go silent when faced with basic small talk questions. I have encountered this for myself. A few months ago New York banned phones at lunch and was discussed on HN [1] We live in times where parents and schools no longer have the authority to enforce behaviour and social media is peer pressu…

> We live in times where parents and schools no longer have the authority to enforce behaviour ...What? They certainly can, if they're banning certain behavior?

It is one thing to ban something on paper, another to actually ban it in practice. In France, mobile phones for students in college (junior high school) have been banned but surveys of schools suggested only 9% of the schools actually banned the phones, citing practical and financial constraints. [0]

0: https://www.ouest-france.fr/education/les-telephones-bientot...

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#107
post #29

Just the other day the FT put out an article that the current generation of graduates are so serially online that they freeze or go silent when faced with basic small talk questions. I have encountered this for myself. A few months ago New York banned phones at lunch and was discussed on HN [1] We live in times where parents and schools no longer have the authority to enforce behaviour and social media is peer pressu…

I feel all of this has been going on for the last 50 years. TV and video games were a substitute for a normal environment for kids to develop in the at the end of the last century. > We live in times where parents and schools no longer have the authority to enforce behavior Yes but the problem is much deeper. I often observer various "families" with their kids on holidays. The French and the Brits are really a nightm…

You clearly have no kids

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the social media of today don't seem all that much different from the internet forums of back in the day I’m not trying to be a jerk, but did you actually participate in “Internet forums back in the day?” I couldn’t think of anything more different than contemporary social media. Internet forums in late 90’s and early 00’s were something special. Hell, I had more “internet friends” from online forums attend my wedd…

4chan is old enough to drink. Something Awful is from the 20th century. Don't pretend that transgressive internet content is some novel challenge that today's youth must face for the first time.

You are mistaken if you think it is about transgression. Old forums had no algo feeds to manipulate the content you saw and steer you. This is the issue, not so much the content itself.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#109

This kind of legislation is frankly just bad. Any TV station in america could have broadcasted the worst things in the world to thousands of people affecting their lives together. You know how we handled that? Legislation on the broadcasters. We didn't stop kids from watching TV.

TV the broadcast station was held responsible for the content they distributed and if they failed too much they would loose their access to the radio spectrum and unambiguous stop to exist.

The rules online is different. Not only are they not responsible for the content they distribute, but when they do break the law anyway the only punishment that they get is a small fine.

Around 30% of facebook advertisements are scams. That would not had worked with TV stations of old.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#110
post #98

What a weird idea to isolate teens from a platform instead of regulating it. It’s like if children were forbidden to drink a soda at a bar because they also sell alcohol. Enforcing platform’s safety and educating users (young and old) would be much better to help everyone be healthy in a connected world.

> It’s like if children were forbidden to drink a soda at a bar because they also sell alcohol The comparison is wrong. It would be more "It is like if children were forbidden to be in a smoker room, just because they are not the one consuming". Yes they should be forbidden, because they do not need to smoke themselves to feel the negative effects. Even without "porn", "murdering/violence" or other controversial cont…

My comparison is about the alarmism and you are doing the same by equivaliting chatting with friends online to smoking which can give cancer.

We are ourselves now on a sort of social media platform which shows it’s possible to be responsible and use it wisely with a better design and more rules. Framing the decision in France like a fight against a nocive substance is lazy and avoid talking about nuanced regulation and digital literacy which are more effective approaches. There are studies showing that regulating adolescent social media use is better than a ban for example.

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