Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school • Hacker News Board

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#291

Post by rwmj » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:22 AM UTC

tacomagick wrote: post #268

wffurr wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no universe where an LLM helps one learn to read. You need to be able to read first to use one, and worse yet, you need to be able to think critically about the outputs, not just decode and sound out the letters.

LLMs are able to talk for a very long while now. Have you ever used Gemini as an assistant? It can even put in related images about your query and while it can use an improvement it can spell more or less.

It's far from clear that this helps you to learn anything. More likely it's a way for most people to avoid having to think or learn.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#292

Post by testfrequency » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:23 AM UTC

tacomagick wrote: post #290

testfrequency wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how would you know who is who?

Some other way without making all internet usage identifiable, like maybe parents start parenting? The UK laws aren't even to protect children anyway. It is just a shell to identify everyone online.

Everyone says this..it’s not working! The more kids are online, the less traditional parenting is working. It worked when I was younger, I didn’t know any better. Nowadays, a kid can go on Reddit or Roblox and be told otherwise. We had Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica..

..now kids have /r/ihatemyfamily or #fuckeverything

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#293

Post by tacomagick » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:27 AM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #288

JimsonYang wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facing a broad decline in education test scores, the government in 2024 banned smartphones from schools and has given teachers back more powers to enforce discipline in the classroom. I remember seeing an nyt article where there was mixed results on cell phone bans. While they increased socialization among students, the school didnt see better test scores. We'll have to see if a ban on AI can improve test scores-I…

Here in Ontario they "banned" phones in class/school and the teens just ignore it and the teachers are unable/scared to enforce it. As parents we've tried over and over with both our kids to lay down the law -- including taking phones away, consequences etc -- but the attitude is intense with both them and their peers and enforcement becomes very difficult once they're out of "child account" parental control range. I…

How about if we target the social media apps for their predatory algorithms?

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#294

Post by cmrdporcupine » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:29 AM UTC

tacomagick wrote: post #293

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Ontario they "banned" phones in class/school and the teens just ignore it and the teachers are unable/scared to enforce it. As parents we've tried over and over with both our kids to lay down the law -- including taking phones away, consequences etc -- but the attitude is intense with both them and their peers and enforcement becomes very difficult once they're out of "child account" parental control range. I…

How about if we target the social media apps for their predatory algorithms?

That's precisely what needs to happen.

That said, my youngest just reads gaming wikis and hangs out on Discords for roguelike video games and this somehow consumes 900% of their attention span.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#295

Post by tacomagick » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:30 AM UTC

testfrequency wrote: post #292

tacomagick wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some other way without making all internet usage identifiable, like maybe parents start parenting? The UK laws aren't even to protect children anyway. It is just a shell to identify everyone online.

Everyone says this..it’s not working! The more kids are online, the less traditional parenting is working. It worked when I was younger, I didn’t know any better. Nowadays, a kid can go on Reddit or Roblox and be told otherwise. We had Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica.. ..now kids have /r/ihatemyfamily or #fuckeverything

So your solution is to deanonymize the whole internet? Also can't teenagers ever vent? I would much rather them use websites such as Reddit or Facebook to socialize instead of Instagram or Tiktok to just scroll endlessly. We should target the social media apps for their predatory algorithms I believe.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#296

Post by tacomagick » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:32 AM UTC

rwmj wrote: post #291

tacomagick wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LLMs are able to talk for a very long while now. Have you ever used Gemini as an assistant? It can even put in related images about your query and while it can use an improvement it can spell more or less.

It's far from clear that this helps you to learn anything. More likely it's a way for most people to avoid having to think or learn.

I think it heavily depends on person, generalizing it as a tool that avoids thinking and learning is also wrong because I have personally used it to tacke some subjects myself and it helped me learn quite well.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#297

Post by tacomagick » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:34 AM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #294

tacomagick wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about if we target the social media apps for their predatory algorithms?

That's precisely what needs to happen. That said, my youngest just reads gaming wikis and hangs out on Discords for roguelike video games and this somehow consumes 900% of their attention span.

I'd say that's one of the best ways to spend time. It's okay to have a hobby even if it's just rougelike games. Much better than doomscrolling on Tiktok in every way.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#298

Post by hparadiz » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:36 AM UTC

tacomagick wrote: post #296

rwmj wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's far from clear that this helps you to learn anything. More likely it's a way for most people to avoid having to think or learn.

I think it heavily depends on person, generalizing it as a tool that avoids thinking and learning is also wrong because I have personally used it to tacke some subjects myself and it helped me learn quite well.

I'm honestly jealous of the kids. When I was 13 I was looking at books in the school library from the late 70s and early 80s about astronomy. They had beautiful shots from Voyager 1 and 2 and lots of illustrations but ultimately there was very little math in there and not too much hard science besides some basic statistics. I would have loved to have a conversation with those books.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#299

Post by hparadiz » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:40 AM UTC

tacomagick wrote: post #287

runarberg wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has always gotten better, just like how self-driving cars have gotten better, and how the case for bitcoin is always getting stronger. Many people have stopped believing this lie. Yes AI has gotten better by some metric which AI companies are pushing. It has not gotten good enough to be a qualified teacher, and it never will.

I have never claimed it to be good enough to replace a qualified educator, however for self learning it is a good tool with no hustle. You also consider how qualified some educators are...

It's far superior in many cases. Teachers get tired, lose patience, etc.

Re: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

#300

Post by testfrequency » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 1:40 AM UTC

tacomagick wrote: post #295

testfrequency wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone says this..it’s not working! The more kids are online, the less traditional parenting is working. It worked when I was younger, I didn’t know any better. Nowadays, a kid can go on Reddit or Roblox and be told otherwise. We had Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica.. ..now kids have /r/ihatemyfamily or #fuckeverything

So your solution is to deanonymize the whole internet? Also can't teenagers ever vent? I would much rather them use websites such as Reddit or Facebook to socialize instead of Instagram or Tiktok to just scroll endlessly. We should target the social media apps for their predatory algorithms I believe.

Look, I don’t disagree. Kids need a safe space to moan. It would be hypocritical of me otherwise, as I spent much of my time in my formative years on ventrilo and various other niche pockets of the internet.

That said, the only cess pool that existed at the time was 4chan - which I avoided, despite actually knowing the founder.

The internet has obviously evolved a lot since, and I feel adults unfairly believe that all persons deserve the fully open internet. We’ve clearly reached beyond the point where most companies care about children, as it’s all profit at the end of the day for engagement. If you keep up with Apple, it’s no surprise they concisely spent a large portion of their precious WWDC showcase on child safety. There’s obvious pressure on them, but I also believe firmly Apple is fully aware the online world cannot behave the same way it has with children having access more easily than ever. It’s not like families share a single desktop computer anymore in the living room where all can see…

My (probably) bad comparison is still vapes and porn. Why should kids be allowed to purchase and view this online, but if they went into a retail store they would be denied? Why the double standard? Why immediately presume it’s about tracking adults? What proof do we have that identity verification is leading to adults being scrutinised and tracked? It all just feels like a tin foil hat fan fiction that has no proven purpose other than conspiracy and proof that every person should never be restricted, regardless of age.