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Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

bloomberg.com

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Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#201

Post by latexr »

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #151
LocalH wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The various laws being proposed don't tend to agree with that

Well, I don’t agree with any laws like that, they’re all silly. Nobody under 16 should be on social media for their own good, but it’s their parent’s job to prevent them from rotting their brains, not some governing body.

> but it’s their parent’s job to prevent them from rotting their brains, not some governing body.

The counter argument is that even if you want to do that as a parent, it’s hard when all your kid’s friends use the thing you’re prohibiting. It makes their life harder, and yours too in the process.

It’s worth noting the first initiatives to gate kids from social media did come from parents, who organised locally and collectively agreed on a course of action.

Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#202

Post by braiamp »

softwaredoug wrote: post #193

I feel like education, not abstinence, is the way forward. Prohibition doesn’t work. Educating consumers and holding companies accountable works. It historically takes time though for that pressure to accumulate to the point of having political will. We also need teen social media education - like we have about alcohol and drugs. Where we’re frank about the real research. Don’t moralize. Talk about the realities of t…

No, educating customers doesn't work. What works is creating safe products. Remove algorithm recommendations as the default option, make collecting personal individual data for any purpose other than what the customer explicitly wants, and you will see that suddenly "social networks" and every other product becomes safe to use for everyone.

Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#203

Post by PearlRiver »

10xDev wrote: post #164
foobiekr wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that it really is the 14-21 group that where it has the most (and increasing) influence. They should have banned it for under 18.

Today it will be First it was indoor smoking, now it will be for everyone born after 2008 in the UK.

The sad truth is that we were actually winning the fight against smoking. Until the industry invented vapes.

Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#204

Post by nine_zeros »

softwaredoug wrote: post #193

I feel like education, not abstinence, is the way forward. Prohibition doesn’t work. Educating consumers and holding companies accountable works. It historically takes time though for that pressure to accumulate to the point of having political will. We also need teen social media education - like we have about alcohol and drugs. Where we’re frank about the real research. Don’t moralize. Talk about the realities of t…

[dead]

Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#205

Post by afh1 »

softwaredoug wrote: post #193

I feel like education, not abstinence, is the way forward. Prohibition doesn’t work. Educating consumers and holding companies accountable works. It historically takes time though for that pressure to accumulate to the point of having political will. We also need teen social media education - like we have about alcohol and drugs. Where we’re frank about the real research. Don’t moralize. Talk about the realities of t…

This is not about kids. It's about surveillance.

Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#206

Post by 46493168 »

softwaredoug wrote: post #193

I feel like education, not abstinence, is the way forward. Prohibition doesn’t work. Educating consumers and holding companies accountable works. It historically takes time though for that pressure to accumulate to the point of having political will. We also need teen social media education - like we have about alcohol and drugs. Where we’re frank about the real research. Don’t moralize. Talk about the realities of t…

In what way does prohibition not “work”? It would be helpful to understand the success metric when evaluating whether a solution will enable the metric to be achieved

Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#207

Post by slopinthebag »

b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #197
softwaredoug wrote: post #193

I feel like education, not abstinence, is the way forward. Prohibition doesn’t work. Educating consumers and holding companies accountable works. It historically takes time though for that pressure to accumulate to the point of having political will. We also need teen social media education - like we have about alcohol and drugs. Where we’re frank about the real research. Don’t moralize. Talk about the realities of t…

You know what else has prohibition? Alcohol and drugs for minors.

Does it work? Minors never drink or do drugs?

Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#208

Post by pembrook »

pjc50 wrote: post #140
foobiekr wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that it really is the 14-21 group that where it has the most (and increasing) influence. They should have banned it for under 18.

I'd prefer a ban for the over 65s, who are especially vulnerable.

I think we should ban all media for all ages, and force people to evaluate the world from first principles using more rational evaluation and distillation techniques like those found in LLMs.

Age 25-65 Coastal elites with luxury beliefs are equally as vulnerable as over 65s, but they hold the levers of actual power, which is far more dangerous.

Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#209

Post by deepsun »

braiamp wrote: post #202
softwaredoug wrote: post #193

I feel like education, not abstinence, is the way forward. Prohibition doesn’t work. Educating consumers and holding companies accountable works. It historically takes time though for that pressure to accumulate to the point of having political will. We also need teen social media education - like we have about alcohol and drugs. Where we’re frank about the real research. Don’t moralize. Talk about the realities of t…

No, educating customers doesn't work. What works is creating safe products. Remove algorithm recommendations as the default option, make collecting personal individual data for any purpose other than what the customer explicitly wants, and you will see that suddenly "social networks" and every other product becomes safe to use for everyone.

Facebook was fine as long as posts appeared chronologically. The moment they started ranking it -- game over.

Re: Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

#210

Post by [deleted] »

foobiekr wrote: post #136
dfxm12 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please take a beat to think about how this would be implemented (it looks like it's not decided at this time) before reflexively saying "good" because the marketing sounds nice. This is how the US got swindled into accepting the PATRIOT act, et al. There are problems with social media, yes. However, these problems exist for children and adults. A reasonable way to tackle this issue would be to make social media safer…

There are problems with cigarettes, yes. However, these problems exist for children _and_ adults. A reasonable way to tackle this issue would be to make cigarettes safer for everyone, not just to exclude kids. These problems are not solved with an age check ... You may or may not be acting as an apologist for the sleaziest, worst industry on earth here, but you certainly sound like it, even if it is unintentional. As…

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