Florida is banning social media for children under 14 on January 1st, what do you think about it?
Florida is banning social media for children under 14 on January 1st, what do you think about it?
Social media, as it currently exists, is a net negative. We'd all be better off without it.
Even Lemmy, for adults I mean? It's an infinite book of content, or perhaps more like hanging out at a pub after/instead of work, in that it can be misused but does offer positives of connection, knowledge, enjoyment, correction, and more?
Lemmy is slightly better because as far as I can tell it’s not algorithmically run and it’s decentralized. The data does not appear to be for sale although I’m sure AI is using it for training without compensation.
Lemmy is still ripe for manipulation. At this point in time nobody knows if the other person they’re talking with is real or a bot, AI has made the ability to manufacture consent a lot easier and real seeming when it’s not organic.
I personally believe we fucked up somewhere along the line in our tech development
It's unenforceable, so it's just a distraction. I assume any "funding" for this will just be pocketed by the governor & cops.
Seems like any enforcement of the law would be a constitutional breach. Crazy the free speech party is passing these totalitarian laws
I think that I, as a person born on Jan 1st, 1900, can circumvent age gates, then so will these kids.
This is a major waste of tax dollars.
There is research around this that suggests more than half of all children have profiles with an 18+ age.
I recall the most common is to bump their age by 10 years, keeping the month and day the same. Also, many of these are setup with the guidance of a parent.
Also, many of these are setup with the guidance of a parent.
👀 ok it’s one thing for kids to be clever and circumvent age restrictions on websites, it’s another thing for their parents to help them. That’s just bad parenting. Reminds me of a friend of mine who’s mom would buy him alcohol starting around 15 - guess what, at 25 he’s a raging fucking alcoholic who threw his life away. And he was a natural talent and athlete who could of potentially gone pro in his sport.
It's Florida, so the rationale behind it is probably to stop kids from getting information that might make them good people or that might help then understand themselves.
I hate interacting with children on the internet so this would be a good idea in theory if it wasn't unenforcable without massive privacy violations.
Parents job not the govt. I fucking hate shit like this.
Also on Jan 1st, Florida is requiring adult websites to ID users before allowing access. So kiss pornhub and other sites goodbye if you don't have a VPN (because those sites have told Florida to fuck off).
Community tab with content sections
YouTube is social media. So is email. It's an online platform where people communicate with each other. Socialisation isn't all food pics and memes. It's the foundation of society. That's why it's the same root word. The law says children can't use the internet to participate in society.
The bill does provide some exceptions. According to the bill, the term does not apply to an online service, website or app where the exclusive function is e-mail or direct messaging that could consist of photographs or videos shared only between the sender and recipients.
Email lacks upvotes basically, and an algorithmic feed picking content, so children can still text, chat, email, etc. Although these days even SMS texts allow someone to "react" to messages, though no algorithmic feed and limited distribution list so probably not considered "addictive".
Anyway it's surely just security theater on the part of Florida, while at the same time social media is legit addictive - both are true at the same time.
ah, yes, the "land of the free"
Free to go to Walmart and buy guns with your bananas
Most social media is bad for you. I don't think this kind of ban is the right tool. But the idea that everyone would just delete Facebook and Instagram is a dream that will never happen.
The government could break up the megacorps though.
That’s going to backfire on Florida in the future. Social Media is leading factor in the youth turning conservative.
They’re still gonna use it anyways.
