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House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

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Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#71

Post by Fr0styMatt88 »

eikenberry wrote: post #56
dlisboa wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of this would easily be solved by just banning social media. Nothing will convince me they are a net-positive to society.

I don't think social media needs to be banned, but maybe using complex algorithms to drive attention should be. Even Facebook was pretty good back when its feed was a simple, chronological display of all your friends posts and nothing else. It went down the tubes as they moved away from that.

Put together, it’s likely most people’s friends wouldn’t produce enough content to drive engagement, at least in ‘public’ social media like Facebook.

I remember this phenomenon back when Facebook was less algorithmic — some days there’d just be no new content at all. Especially I’m guessing if you limit adding friends to actually just the people you’d be happy to grab lunch with.

Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#72

Post by javascriptfan69 »

pibaker wrote: post #68
javascriptfan69 wrote: post #64

We will try everything except regulating the algorithmic content feeds themselves.

If algorithmic feed is so bad then why are you on hacker news, a website with an algorithmic feed that is notoriously non-transparent and often accused of being manipulated by bad actors?

"If smoking is so bad then why are you smoking?"

Because I'm addicted like everyone else.

Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#73

Post by pibaker »

javascriptfan69 wrote: post #72
pibaker wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If algorithmic feed is so bad then why are you on hacker news, a website with an algorithmic feed that is notoriously non-transparent and often accused of being manipulated by bad actors?

"If smoking is so bad then why are you smoking?" Because I'm addicted like everyone else.

Go to your account page, turn on noprocrast and set minaway to a very large number. You effectively ban your own account once you click confirm. Now set up home firewall / device blocking settings and block the HN domain. The first step towards overcoming addiction is admitting that you have one. I pray for your speedy recovery.

Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#74

Post by rustyhancock »

gnarlouse wrote: post #38
armada651 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this becomes law, then yes. But then people will turn to VPS providers instead and set up their own VPNs, which will then prompt a law to demand age verification before renting any server. I wonder how far they're willing to go down this rabbit hole.

Age verification to wake up in the morning, age verification to breathe air, age verification to use the restroom, age verification t...

You got a Loicense for that?

Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#75

Post by qingcharles »

ares623 wrote: post #45

Every time this comes up I always take the opportunity to suggest that it should've been a ban on _smart_phones. Not dumb phones, not laptops, not even tablets (i.e. those without sim). Easier to enforce, you don't have to rely on the very same companies that peddle the thing you're trying to ban in the first place. It can disrupt the network effects that could hopefully be enough to let people voluntarily cut it out…

It is really hard to find dumb phones to buy. Even the dumbest ones in stores right now, flip phones that look like they are 20 years old, still have some very janky Internet features baked in.

Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#76

Post by bigbadfeline »

landl0rd wrote: post #29
armada651 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this becomes law, then yes. But then people will turn to VPS providers instead and set up their own VPNs, which will then prompt a law to demand age verification before renting any server. I wonder how far they're willing to go down this rabbit hole.

You're implying pervasive KYC and tying everything to your real-life identity is some unfortunate side-effect rather than a deliberate end. I have contempt for people who pass policies such as these but I do not think them foolish; they are likely aware of what will happen.

The people who pass the policies may not know, but the people who formulate and drive the policies know for sure. The Window of Overton is fundamental to today's political environment, more than any other time in history.

Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#77

Post by 6DM »

causalscience wrote: post #42

I'm in the UK and I've been involved in advocating for this. I find it utterly frustrating to read the "think of the children" mockery here on HN. I argue that this is good. There's many reasons why children having unfettered access to the internet and different campaigners care about different aspects, so I'm going to talk about the one I care about: addiction, destroyed ability to focus, and dopamine desensitizatio…

In my opinion you're undercutting your own argument. You should be working to remove tablets from the schools instead of advocating for making us register our ID's all over the internet (which has proven to be insecure on an almost monthly basis now).

Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#78

Post by bigbadfeline »

dlisboa wrote: post #48
armada651 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this becomes law, then yes. But then people will turn to VPS providers instead and set up their own VPNs, which will then prompt a law to demand age verification before renting any server. I wonder how far they're willing to go down this rabbit hole.

All of this would easily be solved by just banning social media. Nothing will convince me they are a net-positive to society.

If you apply the logic of your comment's parent to your suggestion you'll discover that banning social media would soon lead to using any and all communication under mandatory supervision and only after an application and a written permission for every individual act of communication.

Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#79

Post by AuthAuth »

You either ban children from social media through age restrictions or you ban the harmful content from social media. We cant just the next generation get cooked. Both are hard to implement and unpopular and attack freedom but you must pick one because the harm is so clear.

Re: House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

#80

Post by iamnothere »

pibaker wrote: post #66

Every HN thread on social media or porn inevitably gets overrun with "but think of the children" comments calling for banning kids from social media, or the internet, or from having a phone at all. And then every time a country actually tries to ban children from the internet, they cry "but my privacy!!!" As if having to hand your id to the state to use the internet isn't exactly what you asked for. As if the regimes…

These are not the same people. I doubt that most of the people pushing for mandatory restrictions on child access care about privacy at all.
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