EXCLUSIVE: EU could announce social media ban for kids in September
Von der Leyen is expected to use her annual State of the Union speech to unveil plans for EU-wide age restrictions on social media
Literally 1984. Those who will refuse to sell their private info to big capitalist will be limited, thus they will be information restricted.
Should be banning endless manipulative opaque algorithmic presentations for everyone.
Require age verification only if you want to get algorithmic recommendations. That way you can still engage in the social internet anonymously as an adult.
The recommendation algorithms give American big tech way too much political sway in Europe and ideally they should be banned entirely, but age verification at least gives the appearance that this is “for the children” and not something with (justifiable) political motivations.
Now to ban it for all the other age groups, too. /s but only kinda
Kinda with you in spirit. How I think about it is… it is harmful for both adults and children. Esp in big-tech co form. FB, IG, TT, X, and w/e. There’s a lot of research about it. But the cure can be worse than the disease. What the EU wants to do is not the right answer to address the immense harms of social media to our world.
Both the US and Canada have similar bills on boil. Both are also terrible ideas.
I would never have believed it possible that almost all politicians of ostensibly democratic countries almost simultaneously agree to prevent young people from having fun, being happy and finding meaning and fulfillment in their lives. How do these people think of themselves as the good guys?
to prevent young people from having fun, being happy and finding meaning and fulfillment in their lives.
Hasn’t virtually every single study ever performed on the subject found a strong, direct link between unhappiness and social media use?
To a large degree, yes, but blanket bans on social media use for minors will fail for multiple reasons.
- This has already been the case in Australia, and the latest numbers indicate that a vast majority of youth still access social media via black/grey market account purchasing, VPNs, and other methods.
- The ban doesn’t include some popular platforms like Telegram, which arguably provide a more risky experience, due to it being a popular platform for criminal activities.
- Taking away a huge swath of social platforms from kids without providing any constructive or healthy alternatives will mainly encourage destructive behaviors.
On the bright side, young people are learning about circumventing government censorship.
Very true, but that may make things worse down the line. Once they realize that kids are circumventing their restrictions, they won’t think, “Hmm, maybe a blanket ban of social media for minors wasn’t a great idea.” They’re just going to double down and say that there needs to be more hardcore restrictions on all internet/computer activity. More sensorship, more data harvesting, mandatory governement spyware in all devices.
Essentially the Great Firewall in China. Many governments have already expressed interest in modeling national internet access after China.
Hasn’t virtually every single study ever performed on the subject found a strong, direct link between unhappiness and social media use?
From what I’ve seen, the answer is it’s complicated. On avg, you’re right, and it prob does cause unhappiness and mental health probs. But there are unique situations where it can be helpful. Ex, people who do not fit norms of thier peers, and find healthy connections with others more like themselves. So it has no single, simple universal answer.
The algos, esp on big tech social media like FB, IG, TT, X, etc, are very much designed to make you unhappy and outraged. Even the data scientists who designed the algos have testified to that fact before the US congress. B/c anger and outrage is the most powerful way to make you engage more. TT’s internal research shows the more you use TT, the more probs you have with cognitive skills like memory formation, empathy, and anxiety.
Ofc, the harms of social media doesn’t mean these bills are the right way to handle that. I believe we have a prob. But this is not the right solution.
If that is so, which I do not know, the only logical explanation is that people who are already unhappy, for unrelated reasons, are more likely to need to find at least some happiness in their lives by participating in online communities.
because these are not democratic countries, these countries are the same that gave birth to fascism and pushed for years for the surveillance state you so fondly complain about in china, the same countries that kill people based on metadata, this is the logical conclusion. as always, ewwwrope is filled to the brim with the flowery phrases of rhetoric and not actual praxis on any meaningful thing that could imply the wellbeing of their citizens.
For sure. Reddit doesn’t start “testing” it just for sport.
Where have I seen such worldwide concerted action among all governments and corporations. Ah yes, when China “leaked” a virus.
Did they save lives?
or
Did they put us in house arrest?
And they put people in house arrest, because… ? I just saw tanks being transported on public-roads today. So the reason couldn’t be to covertly move weapons: that goes on in public, in broad daylight and that transit sits alongside vans delivering ice-creams to convenience stores. So, the big cabal wanted to put people under house arrest… to do what?
Pick up a book. Pandemics aren’t new and neither is the orchestrated response to them by governing bodies. History can be a good reference.
They saved lifes.
Glad to have cleared that up for you 👍
