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Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

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Re: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

#21

Post by iwontberude »

hansvm wrote: post #12
Shamar wrote: post #2

The documents provide smoking-gun evidence that Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok all purposefully designed their social media products to addict children and teens with no regard for known harms to their wellbeing, and how that mass youth addiction was core to the companies’ business models. The documents contain internal discussions among company employees, presentations from internal meetings, expert testimony, and e…

How did that work mechanically though? At YT we were banned from doing basically anything with pre-18yo data, even if we only suspected they might possibly not be an adult -- no A/B tests, no ML, no ad targeting, no nada. Did leadership design a system where those sorts of things would happen anyway? Were there just enough rogue teams to cause problems?

For business, government, and religion: achieving scale and centralization necessarily leads to corrupt outcomes. This is also where Marx’s legitimate criticisms of capitalism turn into a solution which is essentially its doppelgänger, a scaled system of corruption with absolute authority with the rhetorical veneer of democracy.

Re: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

#23

Post by jmcgough »

lostlogin wrote: post #5
idle_zealot wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone paying attention knew. A smoking gun means that legal action is possible. Or it would be in a better time.

It might, but would that achieve much? Tobacco has done ok.

Tobacco paid billions of dollars, and we've heavily restricted where it can be used, where it can be advertised, and who can buy it.

Re: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

#24

Post by corranh »

shaftway wrote: post #11

I feel like there are some key differences between the companies though. The second one outlined for Meta is: > Heavily-redacted undated internal document discussing “School Blasts” as a strategy for gaining more high school users (mass notifications sent during the school day). This sounds a lot like Meta being intentionally disruptive. The first one outlined for YouTube is: > Slidedeck on the role that YouTube’s au…

With the looping TikTok-style shorts, YouTube seems to be more habit forming than ever.

Re: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

#25

Post by shimman »

betaby wrote: post #22

Meanwhile 2 billion Coca Colas are sold per day. That's over 75 million kgs of sugar/day - no one bats an eye. Teen/kid addiction to sugar was and is a priority. Social networks is a sugar for minds.

You must have been a child when Michelle Obama said that children needed better food and half the country lost their collective minds. Hard to do anything when corporations control what most legislation is passed.

Re: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

#26

Post by uniq7 »

sagacity wrote: post #6

It's good to see that many countries are working on lesiglation to protect children and teens against this, since the companies clearly aren't trying.

The problem is when government's solutions go through identifying everyone and collaterally tracking their actions.

In the same way parents can be blamed for not keeping their children safe around guns/alcohol/drugs, they should also be blamed for not keeping the children out of digital dangers, and keep mandatory age verifications out of here.

Re: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

#27

Post by RajT88 »

And why not? AAA game companies have been reported to have psychologists on staff to help make their games more addictive.

We don't police big tobacco very well on making their products more addictive. We seem to be fine with expanding gambling - where I live (not Nevada!) slot machines are everywhere. Nice restaurants even will dedicate corners to slot machines - not just seedy bars. Sports betting apps are all over streaming ads, and their legality is expanding even though when they are legalized in an area the divorce and loan default rates go up measurably.

Why would we regulate big tech if we don't bother with anything else?

The kids are just the latest victim of a long ongoing trend.

Re: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

#28

Post by jmusall »

mikkupikku wrote: post #10

I fully expect this to get ignored like all the other similar revelations. Heads should roll, literally, but nothing will happen. Does anybody have any earnest hope for reform? Even in Europe where the public is supposedly keyed in, and where there is some political traction for getting away from American companies, nobody seems to take the idea of banning these corporations seriously.

I think the possibility of banning certain sites at least for minors is being discussed, after Australia set the precedent. But this of course has downsides, too, as some form of verification has to be implemented, that would almost certainly reduce anonymity and carry risks to personal data protection. A complete ban is unrealistic since people actually like to use these platforms. Plus, it would certainly entail massive political repercussions from the US government. This is already happening when US American companies are simply fined in the EU.

Re: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

#29

Post by jacquesm »

RajT88 wrote: post #27

And why not? AAA game companies have been reported to have psychologists on staff to help make their games more addictive. We don't police big tobacco very well on making their products more addictive. We seem to be fine with expanding gambling - where I live (not Nevada!) slot machines are everywhere. Nice restaurants even will dedicate corners to slot machines - not just seedy bars. Sports betting apps are all over…

> And why not?

Because it is simply wrong.

> AAA game companies have been reported to have psychologists on staff to help make their games more addictive. > We don't police big tobacco very well on making their products more addictive.

Three wrongs don't make a right I guess.

Re: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"

#30

Post by draw_down »

RajT88 wrote: post #27

And why not? AAA game companies have been reported to have psychologists on staff to help make their games more addictive. We don't police big tobacco very well on making their products more addictive. We seem to be fine with expanding gambling - where I live (not Nevada!) slot machines are everywhere. Nice restaurants even will dedicate corners to slot machines - not just seedy bars. Sports betting apps are all over…

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