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

#471

Post by ChocolateGod » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 9:23 AM UTC

redeeman wrote: post #429

xg15 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

are you for real suggesting that this is just countries that just so happen to look at eachother than then all go "wow, gotta get that age verification going" ? its blindly obvious that this is an agenda that SOMEONE is pushing EVERYWHERE, one can then speculate who that might be, or for what purpose

It's pushed by child safety charities. It might be hard to imagine due to the echo chamber, but some people do actually support this.

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

#472

Post by intended » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 11:17 AM UTC

AnonymousPlanet wrote: post #266

nathan_compton wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, people in government famously don't know anyone else in government anywhere else and never communicate with one another or read the same research or look at what other countries are doing.

Is there a precedent where this happened organically and the same similarities were in place in that many legislations around the world inside of half a year?

This is only a few countries. There’s many more considering it.

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

#473

Post by intended » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 11:20 AM UTC

bfivyvysj wrote: post #385

pixl97 wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have been talking about social media bans for quite some time, this isn't something that just showed up out of the blue. It's a problem that's been worsening for years. Then you had the Covid years where kids ended up spending a lot of time on phones and tablets, hence social media, and everyone is seeing the myriad of problems coming out of it. Sometimes it's not a vast global conspiracy, sometimes things jus…

Nah, this doesn't pass the sniff test. Anyone saying otherwise wasn't paying attention.

It passes the sniff test, it’s just that you weren’t informed or were aware of the build up of issues over the past decade.

There’s known issues with bullying, grooming, to mental hygiene issues like screen addiction and poor focus.

Hell, these are the first generations which have lower educational attainment than its predecessors.

It’s been reported on over and over again. It’s a cost center so no one cares about it.

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

#474

Post by intended » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 11:22 AM UTC

fc417fc802 wrote: post #399

slg wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not see how this comment is actually counterproductive to the point you’re arguing? The long list of suspects, most of them being totally independent of each other is evidence of this not being orchestrated by some central group.

The fact that a bunch of seemingly disparate actors are behaving in a highly coordinated manner is evidence against central orchestration? What an absurd suggestion.

When it rains, disparate actors take out umbrellas.

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

#475

Post by intended » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 11:28 AM UTC

fc417fc802 wrote: post #441

tzs wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are assuming without evidence that they are coordinated, then using that to infer central orchestration, and then using that inferred central organization to support coordination. When there is something that aligns with the interests of several disparate groups it is common for them to all support that something with the need for some central organization.

> You are assuming without evidence that they are coordinated The evidence is the highly abnormal behavior. The alignment of interests is a red herring. > it is common for them to all support that something with the need for some central organization. Sure, as is frequently seen with the conferences and administrative bodies surrounding treaties and the like. Would you care to point out this central organizing body t…

> The evidence is the highly abnormal behavior. The alignment of interests is a red herring.

This is labelling the behavior as abnormal, and then basing your conclusions on it.

Are you unaware that there’s been decades of reporting on social media impact on children? It’s covered issues from bullying, anorexia, toxicity, attention issues, sleep issues, focus issues to name a few of the topics ? These are separate from CSAM, grooming, stalking, revenge porn and NCII.

It’s he’ll out there. It’s been hell for years.

Do people not know ?

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

#476

Post by intended » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 11:31 AM UTC

hackable_sand wrote: post #412

xg15 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because lots of people have inadequate parenting skills (last time I checked you didn't need a license for parenting) and tech companies are actively exploiting that.

So stop those tech companies from exploiting people We're about to own goal because... what... because suddenly everyone ran out of ideas? Because suddenly it's too much work? But it wasn't too much work to build the torment nexus?

Tech work underinvests in customer support and safety.

If they spent what they had to, they would crater their revenues, because support does not scale like code does.

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

#477

Post by Matl » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 11:41 AM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #465

Matl wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You may be a libertarian, I am not. I don't label myself, but if I were forced to slap a label on myself it would be something like an anarcho communist. It's not that I don't believe in regulations helping, is that I feel like this is plastering over a deeper issue, which is parents having children, but not having enough economic security to have the time and resources to devout to their parenting properly and so…

> I am not. I don't label myself, but if I were forced to slap a label on myself it would be something like an anarcho communist. Good to not label yourself, but that is functionally equivalent, the "anarcho" part was the point, not communist or capitalist. > It's not that I don't believe in regulations helping, is that I feel like this is plastering over a deeper issue, which is parents having children, but not havi…

> but that is functionally equivalent, the "anarcho" part was the point, not communist or capitalist.

I don't think they're functionally equivalent today. A libertarian today is most commonly understood as someone who, while not trusting state institutions, fundamentally trusts and embraces corporate power because of self-correcting market forces of competition keeping them in check, as they would say.

They also don't believe in 'handouts' (i.e. social safety net) and certainly not in a collective ownership of the means of production.

While I am skeptical of much of state power, I most certainly do believe in a generous social safety net, safety regulations as it relates to food, water, oxygen etc. just not things that approach totalitarianism, and I certainly do not believe 'competition' in the 'free market' will keep corporations behaving nicely.

Therefore I do not think libertarian would fit. May be the original left wing kind of libertarian. But that's not what is understood under that term today.

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

#478

Post by iamthemonster » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 12:28 PM UTC

pmg101 wrote: post #236

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

I'm a parent and on board with this, and many parents I know are too. It's organic. We just have a different view from you.

Absolutely. My kid just started high school shortly after our social media ban started, and they only interact with their friends outside of school via phone calls and text, without the interference of addiction-optimised algorithms. It's superb.

I always had it in my control go prevent my child using social media, but I couldn't control every other child in the school using it as the way to stay in touch. This is the kind of collective action that is beneficial for kids.

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

#479

Post by Gud » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 2:19 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.

It is clearly a campaign by the surveillance state profiteers.

Palantir and similar corporations are on tour and hand in hand with our bought off representatives are they killing the open internet.

Don’t get me wrong, I dislike Facebook and such as much as the rest of the HN crowd, but this not the answer.

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

#480

Post by bonesss » Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 4:22 PM UTC

intended wrote: post #462

Dig1t wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there organic movements in Germany, UK, USA, Norway etc of common citizens agitating for social media controls for kids? Are they actually composed of citizens? Are they funded by grassroots organizations? I can tell you that in the USA there are basically no real grassroots efforts to censor social media, at least none with a real footprint that most people have ever heard of. Despite that, there are a lot of po…

> Are there organic movements in Germany, UK, USA, Norway etc of common citizens agitating for social media controls for kids? Are they actually composed of citizens? Are they funded by grassroots organizations? Yes? Dear God, people have been begging for help for decades on these issues.

Right? What scientific study is showing awesome outcomes for screen addled kids, not to mention the behaviours it can encourage.

No teachers or doctors have been saying this is good, they’ve been warning it’s worse than we think consistently.

That does not have to mean draconian device validation per se.

My personal take is that we should have more than one ‘internet’ and keep the one full of porn and Chinese psyops up on the shelf with the titty mags and dick pills. Nintendo-ish style friend-code based messaging and online textbooks, until you’re old enough to buy an 18+ SIM card or internet connection. Same as how we handle booze, cigs, and porn: at point of sale with extra punishments for adults who provide. Not perfect, but doable.