You usually apply bans like this to something that is unhealthy for _everyone_ e.g. smoking. So why isn't the focus on regulating social media to be better? It seems like it's not great for the whole population in its current form.
Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
261–270 of 453 posts
Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
#262You usually apply bans like this to something that is unhealthy for _everyone_ e.g. smoking. So why isn't the focus on regulating social media to be better? It seems like it's not great for the whole population in its current form.
"Bans like this" include drinking age, driving age, military service age, consensual sex age, R rated movie age, etc.
To which, I assume, the same question applies?
Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
#263It 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…
This is very extreme take. I learned to program at age 10. It is an amazing tool for mind development. Had to invent sine and cosine tables to make my computer games, before even encountering the concept at school.
same and about the same age. however, completely different times. I thought about this a lot and have safely concluded that if I was 9-10 years old now programming would quickly turn into gaming and doom scrolling and … given a choice now of not being exposed to it at same age or nothing until say HS I would choose the latter
Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
#264You usually apply bans like this to something that is unhealthy for _everyone_ e.g. smoking. So why isn't the focus on regulating social media to be better? It seems like it's not great for the whole population in its current form.
"Bans like this" include drinking age, driving age, military service age, consensual sex age, R rated movie age, etc. To which, I assume, the same question applies?
Generally those don't have population wide, negative impacts (except maybe drinking). I would compare it more to smoking which is considered a public health issue and we regulated smoking out of the market through a combination of safety regulations, limitations on marketing etc. Age bans were part of that but the ID checking requirements there were substantially less risky due to little no risks of retention.
Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
#265As 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.
[dead]
Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
#266I 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?
It would place the compliance burden on social media companies not on parents
Effect it? If you (a social media co.) disobey you cannot collect ad revenue. Advertising on the platform could be banned.
Moving the burden off individual parents who often have a lot on their plates.
Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
#267Consuming is not the same as producing. They should only ban consuming. (impossible I know, but that hints to the real problem) Kids need to create.
my kid and me when I was a kid and my Mom and Dad when they were kids have been creators. you don’t need a fucking phone or “social” media to be a creator, what nonsense!
Ok buddy, calm down... we're talking inside of the frame of reference of social media here. No need to go stone age with pine cones and sticks on me.
Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
*Only for Google Android and Apple iOS users. Everyone else who don't want to be a customer of these two, including GrapheneOS and LineageOS users, will have to upload scans of identity papers to each service, like the UK clusterfuck. Source: I wrote Digitaliseringsstyrelsen in Denmark where this solution will be implemented next year as a pilot, and they confirm that the truly anonymous solution will not be offered…
This sounds like a temporary issue.
> This sounds like a temporary issue.
There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.
Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
#269Earlier 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. Everybody wants to get on the wave about how children these days are so much worse because of the new thing. And literally as long as we have recorded human writing we have adults…
> 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…
Some students even wish for a ban to reduce the pressure to keep up with social media.
That reminded me of Warren Buffet asking for his kind and to be taxed more.
Re: Denmark's government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Again, every generation thinks that. > This time might be different. But it's probably not. And this is an appeal to tradition. This article[1] from 2024 discusses this the studies on this topic. It seems to me the results are mixed, but conclusions range between social media being neutral to harmful. There is a lot in that article, so it's worth a read. [1] https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/728739
When appealing to the authority of academic studies, it's very important to be aware of the replication crisis for studies in the field of Psychology specifically, which is one of the worst offenders. Reproducibility has been found to be as low as 36% [1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducibility_Project
That was not an appeal to the authority of academic papers so much as the OP trying to give context for the information that has informed their position.
Your responses have been an appeal to tradition (“every generation thinks that”), and a dismissal of the information because of the reproducibility crisis.
Ie you are arguing that we (humans) struggle with discerning Truth, and therefore we are wrong, and everything is fine.
But taking the negative position is just as epistemologically flawed. Hence the OPs attempt to discuss the best data we can find.