Norway set to become latest country to ban social media for under 16s

benj111

Is there any evidence for all this? This sums up my understanding of the current situation ( https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/understand-the-im... ) That isn't anywhere near definitive. Further it seems to me, this will just allow the tech companies to assume there are no kids, and remove the protections currently available. Yes there is an issue of quantity, but it seems that we should be focussing on social norms for what is acceptable parenting in the 21st century. I'm 42, probably the lower age range for having a teenage kid, I have a couple of kids myself, and I'm not 100% sure on what the correct approach to take is, as I suspect the situation is for most other parents as the situation is so different to what we experienced at that age.

dyauspitr

We need this in the US yesterday.

deadbabe

Knowing how kids are, they will just snicker and skirt their way around these bans anyway thinking they are some super bad ass. This is mostly symbolic.

brazukadev

It is funny to see all countries afraid of doing what should be done: fine and block the social media companies that don't fix their brainrot algorithms. Adults are not better at handling them than kids.

shevy-java

I claim this is not about "protecting children", but to mandate age sniffing on the OS level eventually. I also find this all questionable. A 18 years old is not penalised? So why is that a difference? I should say that I don't use "social" media (unless commenting on a forum is called "social" now), but I find the attempt to explain this ... very poor. I could not try to reason about this. I could not claim it is meant to "protect" anyone at all. Is this pushed by over-eager parents, who don't understand what to do on a technical level? I really hate censorship in general. So, even while I think unsocial media such as Facebook should be gone, I hate any such restrictions. Then again I also don't trust any legislator who pushes for this - I am certain this is to force age-sniffing onto everyone. And then extend this slowly. Step by step. Salami by Salami. Until anonymity is gone.

seniorThrowaway

The liability shifting and real identity linking to all online usage that big tech wants is proceeding nicely for them I see.

dude250711

Should be banned for under 40s and over 70s really... Also ban giving toddlers iPads with YouTube.

firefax

The issue is not the age you come online, it's what happens when you do. Delaying from 13 (COPPA) to 16 won't change a thing. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Home Alone -- I thought if I had one of those talkboys, I could get some changes made. But in an age where every teen has a recording device in their pocket, I continue to see the kinds of stories that made my blood boil... because when it came time to get the authorities involved they dragged their feet the entire time, if they would even file a report at all, and that inaction is paired with a "zero tolerance" policy on any kind of self defense that sends kids out into the world reluctant to give folks the rightful punch they deserve if they act out (and are entitled to give in most stand your ground states.) Extending adolescence doesn't solve the root problems here, and conversely, more adults should reread a copy of "1984" and be a little more fearful they're held to the rules and norms they instill on the youth.

ottah

No, they mean, the latest to implement mandatory id for all residents to access the internet. This is not a health issue, it's not demand from lazy parents, this is the elites desire to abolish anonymity on the internet.

spacedoutman

They tried this in australia, now more kids than ever are on social media.

jmyeet

The one part I was curious about was who would be responsible for this? The app or the OS? The article says the app makers, which I think is correct. In the US, Meta in particular is pushing for OS-level age verification [1]. What a surprise. The company without an OS wants OS makers to do it and, more importantly, to be liable for it. Many purists believe such a move is bad for freedom of expression. I'm sympathetic to this argument to a degree but I think we've shown that it's been a failure. More to the point, whether or not you agree with age verification, it's coming regardless so the only issue really is what form it takes. This will go beyond social media too. I'm thinking specifically of gambling. I'm including crypto gambling as well as sports betting and prediction markets. In the real world we require you to go to a casino to gamble and you will have your age checked at the door. We've just been removing the barriers to gambling addiction and extending it to minors. My prediction is that this will change. For anyone who thinks teens will just get around this with VPNs and other workarounds, of course some will. Not everyone will. And blocking such measures will get better over time. Also, network effects will come into play. What will it do if half your friends aren't on social media? What about 75%? 90%? Also, this is going to cut into advertising to minors. That I think is a win. Companies won't be able to target minors in affected markets. Meta (etc) will be legally responsible for making sure they can't. That's good. Just like tobacco bans to minors aren'100% effective, neither does this. [1]: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/reddit-user-uncovers-beh...

walrus01

There's a solid point to be made about the problem with brainrot algorithms and slop content pushed by default to every (instagram, tiktok, facebook, whatever) user even without banning anything. People in tech who've curated their social media feeds to unfollow/block/dislike brainrot content should seriously sit down with the phone of an average 15 year old (or 75 year old) and spend an hour scrolling. I am equally as worried about slop content being pushed to the social media feeds of gullible people of the older gen-x and boomer generations as I am of young people. The general problem of human attention span being monetized as a commodity for social manipulation, political manipulation and just generally selling things (the advertising industry in general) is getting worse, not better.

bitwize

> government: bans social media for under 16. > hackernews: "Good. It's about time government took action. The only cure for these abusive capitalist companies is government regulation." > government: passes law requiring age verification at the OS level > hackernews: "Oh no! How could this happen? We have to fight this you guys. For sure if it weren't for big tech lobbyists we wouldn't have to worry about draconian laws like this."

miroljub

Europe slowly becomes a totalitarian fascist federation. The social media and children protection bullshit serves only to introduce a mandatory identification for accessing the internet. And we all laughed at the "conspiracy theorists" who were constantly warning us.

Quizzical4230

I really liked this post by System76: https://blog.system76.com/post/system76-on-age-verification

holoduke

Fu Norway. This is an example of lobbyists succesfully make regulations based on a fake reason to serve their own totally different interest. Dumpsters in Norway have no idea how they are being played. Noone cares about children. They only care about introducing id verification for everyone everywhere. Again. Fu Norway.

nephihaha

Oh look another one. Funny how they seem to do this at the same time.

10xDev

Good, social media is cancer on society and will only get worse with LLMs, Deepfakes etc. All the astroturfing in favour of social media couldn't possibly change my mind on how harmful social media has been on society.

nacozarina

Normalized credential-harvesting will make it possible for govt to enforce digital exile. The govt will be able to deny computer access for anyone it doesn’t like, for as long as they don’t like them. There will then be many ‘underground’ internets, which will all be banned, where the underclass lives. It is also where real innovation will live. It’s a brand new day and our dystopia has new frontiers available for the brave.

PunchyHamster

Speedrunning the way for the loneliness generation. Everything remote yet you can't even meet people