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Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

reuters.com

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Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#921

Post by IMTDb »

heresie-dabord wrote: post #723
Gigachad wrote: post #659

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I’m seeing in Australia is most parents know it’s bad, and want their kids off social media. But it’s a Herculean task when the social media companies have such a grip on their kids and when all the other kids have it. It’s the same story with banning phones in schools. Everyone knows it’s the right thing to do but individual parents or teachers don’t have the power to do it alone.

> the social media companies have such a grip on their kids We are talking about US companies in particular. Everything that was being done to try to mitigate the vileness and toxicity has been forcefully rescinded in the name of US profiteering. There is only one viable option, and that it for countries that reject poisonous US social media to choose/identify/build a better platform that is safe for children, safe f…

I know few countries that reject poisonous US social media in favor of better platform that is safe for children, safe for news and information, and safe for society and for Democracy itself: the peoples democracy of North Korea, the democratic republic of Iran, the not authoritarian society of Russia, etc

I see tremendous correlation between restriction of access to some websites and straight up dictatorship that pretend to protect it's population from the evils of foreign influences.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#922

Post by retube »

zmmmmm wrote: post #405

A lot of the criticism is based on the concept that it won't be technically watertight. But the key is that it doesn't have to be watertight to work. Social media is all about network effects. Once most kids are on there, everyone has to be on there. If you knock the percentage down far enough, you break the network effect to the point where those who don't want to don't feel pressured to. If that is all it does, it'…

Yeah I never understood the watertight arguments. Just about any law can be circumvented or violated, that doesn't invalid having the law.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#923

Post by random9749832 »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #72

Why ban social media when ad-supported media is the culprit? Remove the incentive (to get users to doom scroll, to polarize, to impulse buy…) and you change the behavior. I remember when social media was sane 15+ years ago. The problem is the business model, not socializing. It's crazy to ban it when being a teen is the beginning of socializing!

A lot of exploitation is not even about money. Some of these platforms don't even make profit. It is about politics.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#926

Post by ulrashida »

pfdietz wrote: post #925

This would be a nonstarter in the US. SCOTUS has ruled "minors are entitled to a significant measure of First Amendment protection." (Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205 (1975)) This sort of blanket ban would collide with that.

I'm not sure if you've been following, but the current SCOTUS hasn't seemed to as concerned about upholding precedents as previous courts have.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#927

Post by triceratops »

gorgoiler wrote: post #717

It’s worth calling this by its other name: the taking away of anonymity and pseudonymity. To date, proving you are old enough is almost always (over-)implemented by having to reveal your legal identity and the exact date you were born. If the whole world goes down the route of AV / age-bans then I hope we at least get some kind of escrow service where you visit an official office, prove your age to a disinterested pu…

Another proposal to achieve anonymity, similar to yours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46223051

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#928

Post by mrweasel »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #645

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I think many in tech are afraid that this will lead to a positive outcome.

Really, I think most people in tech generally believe that getting teens of social media will be a positive thing. The question is how to go about it.

It's understandable, to some extend, that people will protest government interference, but it's also an industry that have repeatedly show itself to be incapable of regulation itself. I don't really see the big surprise, most government are relatively hands of, until you prove that you're incapable of regulating yourself. Most regulation happens after the damage is done.

I do think that 16 is a bit low, I'd like to have seen it be 18, or a complete ban on algorithmically generated feeds (I believe the latter would be the better option).

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#929

Post by ulrashida »

sothatsit wrote: post #758
gorgoiler wrote: post #717

It’s worth calling this by its other name: the taking away of anonymity and pseudonymity. To date, proving you are old enough is almost always (over-)implemented by having to reveal your legal identity and the exact date you were born. If the whole world goes down the route of AV / age-bans then I hope we at least get some kind of escrow service where you visit an official office, prove your age to a disinterested pu…

We already have digital IDs in Australia, and it seems like a natural fit for this. The digital ID doesn't need to share much information with social media companies, it just needs to confirm your age. And then we don't need new 3rd-parties holding our personal information. Also yes, voting is mandatory in Australia. You get a small fine if you don't vote.

It's a very good system. $20 is the right number to get you off the couch, but not so much as to cripple you. There are exceptions if you have a valid reason for not voting. The maximum fine is ~$180 so you can't simply ignore the Elections Commission and hope it goes away.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#930

Post by dizlexic »

youngNed wrote: post #89
hollow-moe wrote: post #85

Nice! Soon enough they'll be forbidden to be outside during the day too, to avoid taking any risk crossing these "adults" thing probably.

And cigarettes! What next booze!? Libertarianism really does hit a wall when it comes to kids, in so many ways, doesn't it?

Not really, we just say the parents are more attuned to their child then the national government. I love the dystopian argument that without age laws parents would be out buying cigarettes and booze.
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