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Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

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Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#201

Post by lukasm »

trey-jones wrote: post #53

As a parent who gave my oldest child a (very used) smartphone just before she turned 14, I would be in favor of making smartphones illegal under age 15 (or some other number, higher or lower I don't care). I'm pretty sure they're worse than cigarettes for the future of humanity.

I fully agree. There should be a complete ban on social media and similar addictive platforms for those under 16, and a nighttime ban (10 p.m.–7 a.m.) for users aged 16 to 18.

We basically give cigarettes to children.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#202

Post by energy123 »

iamnothere wrote: post #198
energy123 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an overly nonspecific criticism. It's more of a compliment of your own cognitive abilities rather than something tangible I can map onto my comment.

Name-calling now? I’ll give you the fourth option that you neglected to include: - Kids continue to use social media despite the ban, with some using sketchy circumvention services or older friends to gain access, and with others driven to totally unsupervised social media in foreign countries and/or the dark web, with predictable results. The majority of kids rightly see the restrictions placed upon them as unreason…

It's a question of magnitudes. There will be at least one kid who does what you're saying, but how many? My strong intuition is that it'll be a small number, too small to cancel out the benefits. The appeal will be largely gone when the network effects are gone. So I say run the experiment in one country and observe the outcome and adjust accordingly. That is the least idealistic position.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#204

Post by AppleBananaPie »

pembrook wrote: post #200
cycomanic wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This has to be done carefully because prohibition breeds desire and adults will absolutely try to force the attitude of 35 year olds onto 15 year olds forgetting a lot of life lessons have to be learned through experience and not just told. The interesting tidbit in the case of social media and smart phones is that they are at least partially pushed by the parents (I've seen plenty of examples of parents demand tha…

Lots of bending over backwards and appeals to authority to rationalize an emotional feeling of "This time is different." Again, every generation thinks that. This time might be different. But it's probably not.

Letting people figure out cigarettes were bad for them took a very long time, and if social media is another form of addiction why not treat it how we treat other addictive products?

We could assume that this time is different and people, well children and minors specifically, will learn to avoid the addiction rather than banning them like alcohol, cigarettes and gambling.

This time might be different. But it's probably not.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#205

Post by jjtheblunt »

worik wrote: post #162

I am in New Zealand and we are debating this now I am a dissenter. A ban for children is onerous and how can it be enforced? Who will be punished for infractions? Better a legal code of conduct for platforms that want to raise revenue in your jurisdiction (the important ones, that the state has leverage over). The code should do two things: 1. Prohibit the targeting of individuals below 21 2. Mandate moderation of sp…

how would you effect what you propose, though, and would such be significantly more difficult to realize than what denmark is proposing?

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#206

Post by teekert »

eikenberry wrote: post #153
trey-jones wrote: post #53

As a parent who gave my oldest child a (very used) smartphone just before she turned 14, I would be in favor of making smartphones illegal under age 15 (or some other number, higher or lower I don't care). I'm pretty sure they're worse than cigarettes for the future of humanity.

I did close to the same with my kids.. their PCs were in a common room, they got their first phone at 14 and it stayed at the downstairs charging station at night until 17. IMO it worked great and both our kids have a healthy relationship with their phones and tech in general.

I got my first smartphone at 23 (an HTC touch) and have an unhealthy relationship with my phone ;)

You’re lucky. Some kids do prefer the real world.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#207

Post by 9cb14c1ec0 »

amiga386 wrote: post #127
notepad0x90 wrote: post #41

It sounds extreme, but I support banning usage of anything that runs software for children under 13. Under 13, children are still developing their minds, it is important for their welfare that they learn how to function without technological dependencies. You know how in school they used to tell us we can't use calculators to solve math problems? Same thing. It can't be done by individual parents either, because then…

I was programming age 5 in BASIC. Raspberry Pis are the modern equivalent and I think every child should have one. > they learn how to function without technological dependencies. So like the Amish? Or are they still too technologically dependent and children need to be banned from pulleys, fulcrums, wheels, etc.?

Pulleys fulcrums, and wheels are not addictive.

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#208

Post by iamnothere »

energy123 wrote: post #202
iamnothere wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name-calling now? I’ll give you the fourth option that you neglected to include: - Kids continue to use social media despite the ban, with some using sketchy circumvention services or older friends to gain access, and with others driven to totally unsupervised social media in foreign countries and/or the dark web, with predictable results. The majority of kids rightly see the restrictions placed upon them as unreason…

It's a question of magnitudes. There will be at least one kid who does what you're saying, but how many? My strong intuition is that it'll be a small number, too small to cancel out the benefits. The appeal will be largely gone when the network effects are gone. So I say run the experiment in one country and observe the outcome and adjust accordingly. That is the least idealistic position.

As long as it’s not my country and you don’t try to apply your rules extraterritorially, fine. (And feel free to block US-hosted services if you don’t like the way we run things.)

Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15

#209

Post by [deleted] »

trey-jones wrote: post #53

As a parent who gave my oldest child a (very used) smartphone just before she turned 14, I would be in favor of making smartphones illegal under age 15 (or some other number, higher or lower I don't care). I'm pretty sure they're worse than cigarettes for the future of humanity.

[deleted]
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