UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
#2Looks like a trick, because it is not even better to give 12s or even 14s a smartphone.
Re: UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
#3Looks like a trick, because it is not even better to give 12s or even 14s a smartphone.
It certainly feels like social media interactions should be restricted to older children. 13yo seems to be a common cutoff for administering one's own online accounts with various exceptions for many countries [1]. Perhaps social media should be restricted to those entering their penultimate year of Secondary / High school and be accompanied with some form of tuition / certification? (Along the lines of social media hygiene, online safety, local Internet law, reporting etc)
Re: UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
#4Looks like a trick, because it is not even better to give 12s or even 14s a smartphone.
It certainly feels like social media interactions should be restricted to older children. 13yo seems to be a common cutoff for administering one's own online accounts with various exceptions for many countries [1]. Perhaps social media should be restricted to those entering their penultimate year of Secondary / High school and be accompanied with some form of tuition / certification? (Along the lines of social media…
Thanks for the link, major west European countries are in the [14,16] range.
UK has 13 as a threshold by default. This is a Google policy, but BT implying that smartphones for 12 year-olds is ok sounds self serving.
Re: UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
#5Looks like a trick, because it is not even better to give 12s or even 14s a smartphone.
It certainly feels like social media interactions should be restricted to older children. 13yo seems to be a common cutoff for administering one's own online accounts with various exceptions for many countries [1]. Perhaps social media should be restricted to those entering their penultimate year of Secondary / High school and be accompanied with some form of tuition / certification? (Along the lines of social media…
Putting aside the privacy issues of requiring identification... what does 'social media' mean exactly? Safe to assume Facebook and Instagram are included. Probably YouTube? What about Hacker News? Discord? Online games?
There's always a lot of discussion about how bad and scary "social media" is, but I've never really gotten a clear definition of what that actually is.
Re: UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
It certainly feels like social media interactions should be restricted to older children. 13yo seems to be a common cutoff for administering one's own online accounts with various exceptions for many countries [1]. Perhaps social media should be restricted to those entering their penultimate year of Secondary / High school and be accompanied with some form of tuition / certification? (Along the lines of social media…
Putting aside the privacy issues of requiring identification... what does 'social media' mean exactly? Safe to assume Facebook and Instagram are included. Probably YouTube? What about Hacker News? Discord? Online games? There's always a lot of discussion about how bad and scary "social media" is, but I've never really gotten a clear definition of what that actually is.
The following definitions are from Google (Oxford dictionary):
Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. [1]
& Wikipedia:
... interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks. [2]
Then, that would include HN, Discord and various online games imho. There's more about profiles / services in the Wikipedia page. That said, such definitions feel like they would also include emails / Discourse etc. Mailing lists feel like they could be considered part of "social media". Sending emails to family or close friends doesn't. So perhaps one needs to separate the platform from its various applications?
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=social+media+definition [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
Re: UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
#7Ads dealers, who own social networks, are adept manipulators: they find your weaknesses and torture you psychologically until they break your will and make you a mindless ads user. Then those sorry doomscrollers aimlessly wander along the streets, and unable to resist the urge, use whatever ads they find on those streets. Most of the ads dealers are no better, and the ads they sell are mostly poison.
Re: UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
It certainly feels like social media interactions should be restricted to older children. 13yo seems to be a common cutoff for administering one's own online accounts with various exceptions for many countries [1]. Perhaps social media should be restricted to those entering their penultimate year of Secondary / High school and be accompanied with some form of tuition / certification? (Along the lines of social media…
Putting aside the privacy issues of requiring identification... what does 'social media' mean exactly? Safe to assume Facebook and Instagram are included. Probably YouTube? What about Hacker News? Discord? Online games? There's always a lot of discussion about how bad and scary "social media" is, but I've never really gotten a clear definition of what that actually is.
This is always brought up, and the simplest way to have a big impact is restricting these features:
- Infinite scroll
- Autoplay
- Sort by popularity
- Recommender systems
Note that e.g. Facebook had none of these features when it was getting popular, so any suggestions that social networks are impossible without them is revisionism. Suggesting friends based on your stolen phone contact list isn't really a recommender system as by definition they're contacts that you already know.
Remove those, and most of the harm of social media is gone. If you want to go further, you can do away with user-facing popularity metrics (likes/upvotes/friend counts).
Re: UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Putting aside the privacy issues of requiring identification... what does 'social media' mean exactly? Safe to assume Facebook and Instagram are included. Probably YouTube? What about Hacker News? Discord? Online games? There's always a lot of discussion about how bad and scary "social media" is, but I've never really gotten a clear definition of what that actually is.
This is always brought up, and the simplest way to have a big impact is restricting these features: - Infinite scroll - Autoplay - Sort by popularity - Recommender systems Note that e.g. Facebook had none of these features when it was getting popular, so any suggestions that social networks are impossible without them is revisionism. Suggesting friends based on your stolen phone contact list isn't really a recommende…
Removing comments is also essential
Re: UK's largest mobile network tells parents: don't give under-11s smartphones
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Putting aside the privacy issues of requiring identification... what does 'social media' mean exactly? Safe to assume Facebook and Instagram are included. Probably YouTube? What about Hacker News? Discord? Online games? There's always a lot of discussion about how bad and scary "social media" is, but I've never really gotten a clear definition of what that actually is.
This is always brought up, and the simplest way to have a big impact is restricting these features: - Infinite scroll - Autoplay - Sort by popularity - Recommender systems Note that e.g. Facebook had none of these features when it was getting popular, so any suggestions that social networks are impossible without them is revisionism. Suggesting friends based on your stolen phone contact list isn't really a recommende…
My first thought: Bye bye, Unsplash. We don't need such toxic sites anyway!