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France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

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Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#81

Post by PetitPrince »

mary-ext wrote: post #14

I've noticed that there's a decent amount of people who had benefitted having access to computer and internet really early on that seemed to be pro on banning teen access to social media, is there a reason why? the social media of today don't seem all that much different from the internet forums of back in the day if algorithmic amplification is the reason then I'm not sure why social media as a whole has to be banne…

> the social media of today don't seem all that much different from the internet forums of back in the day

The message boards I participated when I was a young teenager were mostly focused on a specific topic (a specific videogame or series of videogame, or a specific genre), with some off-topics board on the side. They were contained communities; village-like if you will. If you don't like one you could hop on another website that had another set of members, customs, and rules.

(yes, you can sort-of see that small village feel with some Discord group or subreddit; but back then the media were controlled by an admin, not a centralized for-profit group)

Contrast this with today's infinite feed were everyone could potentially reach anyone, all curated by The Algorithm(tm) with a vague notion of "friend" or "subscriber".

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#82

Post by quotemstr »

mrexroad wrote: post #44
mary-ext wrote: post #14

I've noticed that there's a decent amount of people who had benefitted having access to computer and internet really early on that seemed to be pro on banning teen access to social media, is there a reason why? the social media of today don't seem all that much different from the internet forums of back in the day if algorithmic amplification is the reason then I'm not sure why social media as a whole has to be banne…

> the social media of today don't seem all that much different from the internet forums of back in the day I’m not trying to be a jerk, but did you actually participate in “Internet forums back in the day?” I couldn’t think of anything more different than contemporary social media. Internet forums in late 90’s and early 00’s were something special. Hell, I had more “internet friends” from online forums attend my wedd…

4chan is old enough to drink. Something Awful is from the 20th century. Don't pretend that transgressive internet content is some novel challenge that today's youth must face for the first time.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#83

Post by Nursie »

terespuwash wrote: post #39

What a weird idea to isolate teens from a platform instead of regulating it. It’s like if children were forbidden to drink a soda at a bar because they also sell alcohol. Enforcing platform’s safety and educating users (young and old) would be much better to help everyone be healthy in a connected world.

> It’s like if children were forbidden to drink a soda at a bar because they also sell alcohol.

Errr... there are quite a few places where children aren't allowed to enter a bar, or can only go to them with parents if the establishment also serves food.

> Enforcing platform’s safety and educating users (young and old) would be much better to help everyone

It's not 100% clear to me this is true, it may be that the way social media operates is just bad for developing brains. Maybe all brains....

It would be nice to have good evidence one way or another though.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#84

Post by squigz »

djtango wrote: post #29

Just the other day the FT put out an article that the current generation of graduates are so serially online that they freeze or go silent when faced with basic small talk questions. I have encountered this for myself. A few months ago New York banned phones at lunch and was discussed on HN [1] We live in times where parents and schools no longer have the authority to enforce behaviour and social media is peer pressu…

> We live in times where parents and schools no longer have the authority to enforce behaviour

...What? They certainly can, if they're banning certain behavior?

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#85

Post by [deleted] »

mary-ext wrote: post #14

I've noticed that there's a decent amount of people who had benefitted having access to computer and internet really early on that seemed to be pro on banning teen access to social media, is there a reason why? the social media of today don't seem all that much different from the internet forums of back in the day if algorithmic amplification is the reason then I'm not sure why social media as a whole has to be banne…

[deleted]

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#86

Post by asterix_pano »

softg wrote: post #77
energy123 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're doing this because it's bad for teen mental health, and polls keep showing 70% support and 15% opposition.

Why just teens though? Getting manipulated by algorithms crafted to maximize screentime and ad revenue is bad for anyone. These platforms rely on ads to survive. Which means it should be easy to regulate them. You can prevent them from selling ads at which point they will be forced to comply. If they don't, someone else will get the ad revenue. Europe is already hostile towards american tech giants anyways. The possi…

Because the effects are much worse on developing brains.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#87

Post by Nursie »

quotemstr wrote: post #59
Mordisquitos wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who benefited from having access to a computer and the internet early on had no access to social media. Also, nobody is banning under 15s from having access to a computer and the internet.

This site is social media. Should under 15s be prevented discussing developers in the tech industry? No? On what grounds? HN uses opaque feed ranking algorithms. It's run by a for-profit US tech company. It uses dark patterns (e.g. shadowbans and unwired "flag" links) that prompt users to engage under false pretenses. It even has advertisements. The horror! Yet nobody serious says HN is harmful to the fledging minor…

> This site is social media.

Is it?

If so then I would say the term "social media" has more or less lost all meaning.

To me HN is more like an old-school forum - it has a focus and it has a mod team to keep the rails on the discussion and keep the topics vaguely on topic.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#88

Post by quotemstr »

Nursie wrote: post #87
quotemstr wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This site is social media. Should under 15s be prevented discussing developers in the tech industry? No? On what grounds? HN uses opaque feed ranking algorithms. It's run by a for-profit US tech company. It uses dark patterns (e.g. shadowbans and unwired "flag" links) that prompt users to engage under false pretenses. It even has advertisements. The horror! Yet nobody serious says HN is harmful to the fledging minor…

> This site is social media. Is it? If so then I would say the term "social media" has more or less lost all meaning. To me HN is more like an old-school forum - it has a focus and it has a mod team to keep the rails on the discussion and keep the topics vaguely on topic.

My point is that it's hard to define social media in a way that excludes HN but includes the services that the activist sort thinks are disrespecting the gods of the city and corrupting the youth. Laws must be rooted in conduct, not identy.

Re: France passes bill to ban social media use by under-15s

#90

Post by fyrn_ »

mary-ext wrote: post #14

I've noticed that there's a decent amount of people who had benefitted having access to computer and internet really early on that seemed to be pro on banning teen access to social media, is there a reason why? the social media of today don't seem all that much different from the internet forums of back in the day if algorithmic amplification is the reason then I'm not sure why social media as a whole has to be banne…

... No offense, but have you ever actually _used_ Tiktok? This take is incredibly out of touch.

Tiktok is to early forums like meth is to black tea.

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