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

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251–260 of 506 posts

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

#251
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's about kids. Its serious problem, every parent knows this. It has some scary negative externalities. Related issue, but not the same issue.

>Its serious problem, every parent knows this

Not "every parent knows this"; lots of parents fiercely oppose their kids being banned from access to decentralized information and communication sources. Would you prefer your kids get all their information from textbooks written by Glisaine Maxwell's father, all their news from sources owned by zionist-aligned billionaries?

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

#252
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question, how is it different than tobacco, driving, alcohol, all the things we gate by age for what seem to be valid reasons?

First, tobacco and alcohol companies absolutely are regulated. Second, traditionally the age gate for cigarettes and booze is for the seller to look at your ID just to verify your age, then forget you. The process was not to establish your identity and follow you around forever, tracking and selling your behavioral data , which is a way these Internet based age gates have been implemented, and the logical conclusion…

Nowadays grocery stores do scan the ID, so maybe there is some tracking

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

#253
post #94

Good, social media is cancer on society and will only get worse with LLMs, Deepfakes etc. All the astroturfing in favour of social media couldn't possibly change my mind on how harmful social media has been on society.

Without social media the majority of the populace would be completely misinformed on everything and the current Iran war would have 60%+ support like the Iraq war did, how is that possibly a better world?

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

#254
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You haven’t had children growing up during the last two decades have you?

Why am I being forced to prove to my OS that I am an adult just because of your inadequate parenting skills?

Isn't the OS thing specifically California state law? If so, the answer is "California is unfortunately very influential": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_effect

(And I'm saying this as someone who doesn't live in the US, nor care to).

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

#255

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…

Would you recommend that same approach to other vices like gambling, prostitution, and heroine? If not why are some vices more distinguished for you than others?

Also, you can have both: substance education and prohibition. Those factors need not be exclusive.

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

#256
post #94

Good, social media is cancer on society and will only get worse with LLMs, Deepfakes etc. All the astroturfing in favour of social media couldn't possibly change my mind on how harmful social media has been on society.

> All the astroturfing in favour of social media couldn't possibly change my mind What astroturfing? This is the most popular moral panic of our times. Yours is the default normie position...basically what is leading to all this poorly thought out legislation being emotionally shouted by the mob into existence. Just so you're aware, all the worst laws are the ones created when the populace has been emotionally riled…

I had the same position before there was this panic. Facebook became popular around 2008 and was cheered on as some boon to society, and I was saying this thing needs to die. Also thought it was ridiculous how many of my middle school classmates had iPhones.

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

#257

We can't even get countries to agree on a unified drinking age, but somehow the whole world is simultaneously coming to the conclusion that you need to be 16 to use social media, and websites and operating systems all need North Korean ID verification to prove you're over 16. There is a zero percent chance this is organic

> There is a zero percent chance this is organic

Who exactly has a vested interest in starting a worldwide conspiracy to ban social media for kids?

FWIW as an adult in my 30s, social media has caused me far greater harm than even binge drinking. I can't even imagine growing up as a teenager under the social media microscope

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

#258

We can't even get countries to agree on a unified drinking age, but somehow the whole world is simultaneously coming to the conclusion that you need to be 16 to use social media, and websites and operating systems all need North Korean ID verification to prove you're over 16. There is a zero percent chance this is organic

People have been drinking alcohol since time immemorial. Our laws need to overcome those longstanding cultural standards that vary greatly across the globe and therefore laws will be different too.

It varies by country, but I would guess most political leaders didn't grow up in the era of social media, so there isn't some ingrained belief that kids actually need this stuff. And with growing globalization, it makes perfect sense that many new laws would be similar because they are both motivated by the same factors and can be used as examples for each other.

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

#259
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why am I being forced to prove to my OS that I am an adult just because of your inadequate parenting skills?

Wait what? How did we go from "Users of social media need to be at least 16" to "Users of OSes need to prove they are adults"?

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Debian-Undecided-Age-Laws

I have nothing against Instagram asking me if I am over 16, but these laws end up with my OS not allowing requests to instagram unless I prove to it that I am over 16 with a photo ID is where we're going.

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

#260
post #107
post #103

Doing this without the parents on board does not work. Kids can lie about their birthdate by a few years. Facial age estimation has error bars of like 5 years and many teens don't have any ID. Younger kids use a parent's phone. Many are not supervised by parents or have parents who are complicit/encouraging in getting them more access. Oh you could be famous! But it is clear that more persistent identifiers online wi…

You gotta start somewhere.

Legislation and law is not the place to just throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.
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