US court rules Ohio can restrict children's use of social media

prokopton•about 1 hour ago

We bring back Geocities and use the Net like it’s the mid 90s again. No social media required.

Bender•about 1 hour ago

As you wish. [1]

prokopton•about 1 hour ago

Now direct the teens here instead of TikTok.

Bender•about 1 hour ago

One could do that but then some of the teens will add interfaces to allow uploading short video feeds that scroll non-stop. The remainder would use Youtube shorts. I would link to one but it may not be appropriate for all audiences.

idiotsecant•about 2 hours ago

If this was actually about children the law would just enforce 18+ tagging on websites and parents could decide whether or not to use a browser that enforced those restrictions.

This isn't about children, and never was. Its about the government restricting anonymity and free expression in the only place it still exists.

not_a_bot_4sho•about 1 hour ago

> This isn't about children, and never was.

This is 100% about children.

At the moment, there is world wide pushback on children using social media. Ex countries pursuing this right now: Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, France, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, South Korea, and Thailand. I'm sure I missed a few too.

And in the US, no federal efforts (yay dysfunctional legislature!) but at the state level; Florida, California, Tennessee, Utah, New York, Nebraska, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Vermont, and Ohio are all pursuing different forms of age restriction.

The science is pretty clear at this point: social media is terrible for mental health, attention, and addictive behaviors.

Now how to effectively restrict it without trampling on privacy rights? That's a very difficult question requiring some compromise. (I don't have the answers...)

tencentshill•11 minutes ago

The answer is to define and regulate addictive design, and ideally outlaw algorithmic feeds. Companies holding personal data must consider it a liability, not an asset to monetize.

aand16•about 1 hour ago

Isn't the synchronised effort suspect to you?

Porn is arguably as damaging and addictive as social media. How do you explain the inaction regarding child access to porn in the last 25 years?

toast0•17 minutes ago

> Isn't the synchronised effort suspect to you?

People bring this up, but these efforts aren't very fast and they cause a lot of noise, and social media has been terrible for people and children for a while now so... If I'm a politician and I hear of someone proposing something about it elsewhere, I'm going to do it too. If it works out, there's a race to claim credit; if it fizzles out, no harm for being the one to bring a fizzly bill; if it ends up terrible, you still get name recognition, so it's not so bad.

> How do you explain the inaction regarding child access to porn in the last 25 years?

Legislative bodies have tried lots of things in the last 25 years, just nothing terribly effective.

mopsi•5 minutes ago

The brainrotting effects of social media are increasingly being recognized. The effects of porn are not as noticeable in schools and workplaces.

forshaper•about 1 hour ago

tbf, I think many people also want this. Is there anything more offensive than some internet niche subculture living differently, to those who came online during covid?

prokopton•about 1 hour ago

On social media?

2OEH8eoCRo0•about 3 hours ago

The law would require parental consent. Parents should parent better right?

US court rules Ohio can restrict children's use of social media

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