Florida is on the verge of passing one of the nation’s most restrictive bans on minors’ use of social media after the state Senate passed a bill Thursday that would keep children under the age of 16 off popular platforms regardless of parental approval.
The measure now goes back to the state House, where the speaker has made the issue his top priority during the legislative session that ends March 8. Still, critics have pointed to similar efforts in other states that have been blocked by courts.
The bill targets any social media site that tracks user activity, allows children to upload material and interact with others, and uses addictive features designed to cause excessive or compulsive use. Supporters point to rising suicide rates among children, cyberbullying and predators using social media to prey on kids.
“Florida gets closer to becoming a top market for VPNs”
Honestly VPNs are getting pretty shitty lately. Some sites have done complete bans on them.
I just don’t use those sites. They have nothing I actually need. I’ll find out somewhere else or just forget it.
Some banks are blocking them. Some government websites are too.
Exceedingly rare Florida W
They’ve gone so far to the right that they accidentally did a leftism.
300% right makes a left, or some such math
As backwards as Florida is on most issues, this is actually just common sense at this point. We have the data that shows that exposure to social media, in all its “look at how awesome my life is!” shittiness, is detrimental to a child’s social and psychological development. There’s almost an entire generation of kids that have zero attention span, porn addictions, and depression from engaging in a completely untested and cutting edge form of communication that is way too open to bad actors and predators to exploit.
edit: I’m not making any comments about Florida’s desire to control the flow of information, because at this point it’s just conjecture.
That’s more the internet in general. Us millennials were also pretty fucked up by internet porn and the availability of short form media.
I remember my parents talking about how we have no attention span because of things like YouTube and our cartoons. Same shit different generation.
Also just like we did they’ll find a way to use it anyway.
Supporters point to rising suicide rates among children, cyberbullying and predators using social media to prey on kids.
That isn’t the reason for this.
Yeah if they actually cared about that they wouldn’t be demanding lgbtq people and helping make their suicide rates higher.
Get off my Facebook lawn kids reeeee
Old internet was absolute anarchy and it was better for it. There was a lot of fucked up shit out there but there werent algorithms manipulating you, sites tracking you, and purposely trying to sow discord for engagement. It was a more like a marketplace with a seedy section that you could visit if you were brave/stupid but you could happily just chill on your niche RC airplane forum if you wanted. The modern internet is more like a pushy used car salesman following you around telling you where to look and a cop following you around too.
Rather than banning social media for kids, we should be banning sites from implementing algorithms on them and tracking them. Frabkly, I’d like to see that for everyone, but its an easier political sell to protect kids from the predatory practices.
I remember the old internet as a refuge from the real world where I could be a sensitive nerd and I wouldn’t get bullied for it. Cutting off access to outside ideas and communities for youth is a mistake. It also breaks any semblance of anonimity on the internet; how do you do age verification without having to upload an ID?
Old internet was absolute anarchy and it was better for it.
The old internet still exists. DIY websites and usenet groups and people with shitty opinion blogs continue to populate the space. https://slashdot.org/ still exists. Fucking 4chan.org still exists. I think you can even find goats.ex if its not entirely blacklisted by everyone by now.
But finding them is increasingly difficult simply because so much of the modern OS and native search environment are stuffed with hyper-advertised heavy hitters and spam.
Rather than banning social media for kids, we should be banning sites from implementing algorithms on them and tracking them.
The EU has had some mixed success with this approach, but largely because so much of the tech sector (and its attendant lobbying power) is concentrated in the US rather than Brussels. As soon as folks start getting paid off, the regulatory environment evaporates.
I remember the old internet as a refuge from the real world where I could be a sensitive nerd and I wouldn’t get bullied for it.
The smaller social hubs on Discord and Mastadon (and Hexbear and Lemmy) still absolutely let you do that. Hell, you can find it on the niche communities and groups of Reddit and Facebook, if that’s still your jam. Bluesky is also very small and niche right now, so you can have a good time over there for at least the moment.
But a lot of that is building a relationship with a handful of other consistent users. The sheer volume of people and content on the bigger sites (combined with the endless bot swarms and marketing goons) makes everyone a faceless voice in the fog.
That leads us to John Gabrield’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory
That leads us to John Gabrield’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory
I don’t have comments on the rest of your post, but I absolutely hate how that cartoon has been used by people to justify that they are otherwise “good” people who are simply assholes on the internet.
The rebuttal is this: This person, in real life, chose to go on the internet and be a “total fuckwad”. It’s not that adding anonymity changed something about them, they were the fuckwads to begin with, but with a much lower chance of having to be held accountable, they are free to express it.
I absolutely hate how that cartoon has been used by people to justify that they are otherwise “good” people who are simply assholes on the internet.
Ha! Imagine using that as a defense.
This person, in real life, chose to go on the internet and be a “total fuckwad”.
There’s an argument that the internet just draws this out of you, because of your insatiable desire for attention. And the comic is a warning to check yourself before you wreck yourself.
But I cannot imagine the dipshit with cajones large enough to claim being an asshole online proves you’re not an asshole in real life. Incredible.
I have been able to find niche old-internet communities here on Lemmy ex: the instance I’m posting this from. If this bill goes through, will these instances also be similarly regulated? I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t see why they would be somehow exempt.
Just thought I’d point out that a queer kid with religious parents has an opportunity to find other queer kids and allies via social media.
Should social media do more to ensure child safety? Sure. Is that the reason for Florida doing this? Florida caring about child welfare? What do you think?
I think it is age discrimination and about collecting more data. If they really cared children, they could ban collecting everyone’s data.
Good. Kids need to go out and interact with their fellow humans, not look at a screen for 28 hours a day
What if I think you shouldn’t be on social media, that you need to go out and interact with your fellow humans?
The problem with passing legislation against specific groups is that they are used as a bellwether for those same laws to be applied to other disenfranchised groups.
The legislators in Florida don’t care about the negative effects of screen time for younger people, they want to see how much they can control a tool used for political organization and communication.
Starting with kids is just the easiest route because they don’t have the same rights as adults.
The social media is turning the kids into leftists. Can’t have that.
They just don’t want teens communicating so they don’t tell their friends when they get SAed
Wtf? What kind of conclusionsis that?
Same as the ones who said once abortions are illegal, rape would go away like COVID
And just how do they intend to enforce this?
Facebook is already requiring photo ID verification in order to unlock your account when it thinks you’re a bot. They could just do this for all users and then it’s at least a pain in the ass
My immediate reaction was… hmm, fuck it, protect the kids, I can get onboard… And then I remembered the lonely parts of my childhood being better because of irc, BBSs, icq, aol warez groups, etc. “but it’s a different world now”… Is it though? Now we have browser history and more forensics. Old Internet was really fucked up. For God’s sake, we could get Faces of Death in the video store before we were 12, and kids had playboy on the bus. The bullying thing is worse for sure. Online was a place for the kids who got bullied to get away. Now it’s a bullhorn. Actually conflicted on this.
The old Internet was somewhat anonymous. The pervasive tracking and enragement algorithms made it so that nearly every platform is someone’s real identity. I’d argue that’s what’s a mistake for children…having them on Internet platforms attaching their real name and identity to online bullshit.
100%! That’s been my solution to date. In order: Keep kid offline Keep logged out If required, anon af username etc, never repeated across apps or games
The government shouldn’t regulate what information someone is allowed to consume. If a parent doesn’t want their kid on social media, that is their choice. The answer is simple to me, stop taking away people’s freedom of choice.
Okay. I get that argument. But it’s not a response to my comment. I’m talking about making sense of nuance and you’re responding broadly about all people. Okay… so… anyway… about my actual conundrum…
Fwiw you can make that argument about csam and snuf. Whether illegal to post, you would opt out of a world where that stuff is blocked?
This will require a driver license for every social media account. Adios anonymous political discourse.
Probably just a side effect no doubt.
I think they underestimate how capable kids are of making their own damn platforms. With blackjack and hookers.
This is Gen Alpha we are talking about. They have displayed less IT/programming/computer literacy awareness than even Gen Z. There will have to be a new computer Renaissance era to pop up, otherwise they are going to have to ask their Gen Y/X family to do it.
I remember when the genX generation said that about me.
Sure may have been right about 90% of folks, but the 10% that were wrong… I absolutely did figure out a lot of script kiddie shit that got me in trouble and now as a “lazy millennial” doing cool shit.
They have displayed less IT/programming/computer literacy awareness than even Gen Z.
Have they? I see plenty of them out and about doing all the same shit Millennials and GenXers were doing 30 years ago - building computers from parts to save money, fucking around with electronics and sticking leds on everything, experimenting with python and downloading shit off torrents, and occasionally bricking a phone because they did something to the firmware.
I also see folks insisting 10 year olds should have the same experience as a college grad, which is a bit weird. But I’m hard pressed to find these bad-at-computers Gen Zs/As.
Wait… a bill from Florida that isn’t malicious? Someone pinch me.
/s ?
Oh shit, I misread. Thought it banned social media from implementing addicting algorithms. Whoopsie
It is malicious…
