Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s • Hacker News Board

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

#371

Post by AnonymousPlanet » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:05 PM UTC

fc417fc802 wrote: post #342

slg wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you think is behind this? That is the question no one is answering here and why people are calling it a conspiracy theory. And the car manufacturers all decided to install spyware because it made them money. That's just capitalism.

> Who do you think is behind this? I don't recall off the top of my head but in past HN threads the global lobbyists for this were named with evidence. It's intriguing to me how there's seemingly a lot of objections in this thread to the idea that this movement was driven by lobbyists. I realize it's skirting the guidelines but the tone here comes across as some sort of astroturfing particularly when I consider the g…

> It's intriguing to me how there's seemingly a lot of objections in this thread to the idea that this movement was driven by lobbyists. I realize it's skirting the guidelines but the tone here comes across as some sort of astroturfing particularly when I consider the general tone of past threads on the same topic within the past few months.

I'm getting the same impression.

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

#372

Post by maest » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:05 PM UTC

fc417fc802 wrote: post #363

whack wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Who exactly has a vested interest in starting a worldwide conspiracy to [ think of the children ] in order to push [ nefarious measure ]? Difficult question that.

You should actually try saying something instead of vaguely insinuating something.

Like, I legitimately am trying to understand what you're saying but it's frustratingly vague. I feel like you're wasting my time with your attempt to seem like you know more than everyone else.

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

#373

Post by fc417fc802 » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:07 PM UTC

andrewla wrote: post #317

pzo wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why 'silly' conspiracy? Many cases of documented conspiracy in the past anyway. Being on this social media (YC) people aware it's all about implementation and we should at least demanding better solutions. If you want to regulate/limit access of kids to social media just make that you have to be 16 years old to buy simcard - in many places in EU you already have to show ID to seller. Allow parent to buy simcard to th…

For the first part -- silly because there's literally no evidence presented of a conspiracy. No connection between the individual agents and actors. No motivation given for the underlying commonalities. And most importantly, for this "scale" of conspiracy, there's no suggestion that other avenues towards the same nefarious ends are in progress. It's just a bunch of countries and organizations proposing similar laws b…

> silly because there's literally no evidence

The evidence is the part where it very obviously isn't organic. The behavior is clearly too coordinated when compared to past global changes in regulation.

> People and lawmakers are just not thinking through the privacy implications ...

It seems much more likely to me that they are thinking them through and that they have ulterior motives.

BTW "violent agreement" refers to when two parties are arguing because they mistakenly believe that they disagree. A sort of friendly fire if you will. The term you were looking for was something like enthusiastic or similar.

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

#374

Post by Dig1t » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

xg15 wrote: post #274

kdheiwns wrote: post #229

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

The world is much more globalized now. Countries are watching each other, political movements can be global. That wasn't the case when drinking laws were enacted. Also, the object - social networks - is global. Yes, all kinds of societies have had alcohol, but alcoholic beverages don't suddenly become 20% more potent or harmful everywhere at once. With centralized platforms, that can happen.

>political movements can be global.

You are saying exactly what OP is saying but just rephrasing it another way.

The more a movement crosses borders, the less likely it is to be based on the needs of any particular country and the more likely it is to be based on the needs of the transnational billionaire class.

Drinking age is not the only example, driving age is another good example and also the old TV rating system. What was considered taboo in America was often at the same time considered to be fine in places like Europe, or vice versa. But we never had a coordinated international push for censorship when it came to TV/movies like we are seeing with social media.

I can remember how much people used to deride mass surveillance and censorship in places like Russia and China and now here we are very quickly catching up to them in every way.

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

#375

Post by casey2 » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

10xDev wrote: 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.

Cancer? really? Is this [1] astroturfing? Seems like most of the astroturfing is coming directly from Newscorp. I wonder why so many seemingly intelligent people have an irrational hatred of social media. Or why their talking points follow the Faux News playbook to a tee.

This kind of behavior is incredibly reactionary and rooted (if not directly in the financial interests of entrenched legacy media) in the belief that your local culture somehow superior to online culture.

The difference is you imagine kids going outside and playing chasey while Murdoch imagines getting them on scratchers and tv and running stories about increased kidnapping. If your position wasn't astroturfed it would come with bans on legacy media consumption too.

[1] https://adelaide.edu.au/about/news/2026/social-media--sweet-...

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

#376

Post by postexitus » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:12 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #28

postexitus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like you can't get around a random adult buying for kids. It's just a imperfect deterrent. Although I agree- hardware level control would be so much better. Apple's on-device age checks can be a good compromise.

> Just like you can't get around a random adult buying for kids. It's just an imperfect deterrent. This argument feels really weak. Convincing an adult to buy alcohol for kids is dramatically more difficult on average than setting up a VPN. If you’re on this tech website you should know that it’s not hard to get VPN access even with cash by buying cards at retail. You can also use one of the various free (ad supporte…

Is it though? Do you actually live in the UK? Do you want to know how often it happens in London?

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

#377

Post by postexitus » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:12 PM UTC

benj111 wrote: post #43

postexitus wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not sell cigarettes and alcohol to kids, but also educate them that it's harmful?

The harm hasn't been adequately demonstrated though. Whereas we know cigarettes are harmful to everyone. Alcohol in the UK can be consumed in the house from 5 years old. Which is the point. That societal norms at work. Everyone knows it's not ok to let your young kids get drunk, but we trust society to let parents decide what is appropriate and when.

Following the same analogy, they can use parent’s phones to access social media under supervision.

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

#378

Post by 1970-01-01 » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:16 PM UTC

afh1 wrote: post #199

nonethewiser wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speak for yourself. I want it banned for kids.

Do you think this is about kids? It's about online identity and government surveillance and control. Even if you think it is about kids, then take responsibility into your own hands, be a parent and prevent your kids from using it. Or you just want to tell other parents to raise their kids the way you want? Then tell them that, don't hide behind fascist police and justice system to force online ID for adults.

You shouldn't be all or nothing here. To ignore the effect on teens is to be blatantly ignorant of social science itself. To ignore the implications of surveillance is to be ignorant of government surveillance. There is no value at either extreme.

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

#379

Post by procinct » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:16 PM UTC

andrewla wrote: post #293

sunaookami wrote: post #129

This sudden coordinated worldwide effort to ban social media for kids (hint: it's not because of the kids) needs to stop, it's dangerous and people need to stop being so naive and stop supporting this.

> hint: it's not because of the kids Why the silly conspiracy theory? Can't something just be stupid and bad but well-intentioned? You really think lawmakers are involved in some secret cabal that wants to track everyone's activities online? If anything, jurisdictions have shown that they are very interested in preventing the tracking of people's activity online, they just don't know how to do it!

There are plenty of examples of law makers passing policy to make online and digital surveillance easier.

See TOLA in Australia, the UK trying to backdoor iCloud, Lawful Access to Encrypted Data act.

Surveillance is often sold with safety as the primary narrative.

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

#380

Post by skithrowyouknow » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 9:17 PM UTC

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #327

latexr wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 co…

As a parent, you have direct control over who your kid’s friends are. We used to say, “If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?”. Now we say, “Well, the kids are going to jump off a cliff anyway, I can’t stop them, so the government should make a law about it!” I don’t think that’s the way to handle things. Parents who are bad at parenting will raise kids that fraternize with kids who jump off of cliffs. Ma…

You do not have control of who your childrens' friends are unless you spend all hours with them. And most people are happy nobody can legally sell smokes, booze, and drugs to 12 year olds.