p3x.deThe world wants to ban children from social media, but there will be grave consequences for us all | Taylor Lorenz
Blazewww.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/02/b…
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Cherrysocial media laws are a treatment of a symptom, not the cause.
meta/tiktok/google capitalize by maximizing engagement, most lucratively outrage (risking ideological polarization) and addiction (many health harms associated). five years ago, this was very different, before the sudden takeover of short form media. now, surveys are indicating that average screen times of children are nearing 8 hours a day.
the need to address this dire situation is the greatest is has ever been historically.
yet, banning it outright (aside from the heinous privacy violations) does not entail any accountability whatsoever for these large corporations in creating highly addictive and harmful social media platforms that have consumed our youth
further, without changes to the structural incentive of maximizing profit, these companies will continue to maximize engagement, and thus addiction to what is a harmful way to spend 8 hours of a day.
i am hopeful that the lawsuit happening in northern CA against meta will result in some decision ruling these engagement maximizing tactics illegal.
i also hope that voters will choose candidates in the future that will pass legislation preventing these products from existing, leaving platforms that are actually productive to society, decentralized, and (most importantly) non-profit.
etherphonHow hard is it to keep track of your children, ffs if you can’t deal with it don’t have kids, stop fucking everyone else in the world over because of it.
__反いじめ戦隊Yeah, kids won’t get groomed, killed, and capitalized.
Social manipulation slop ≠ the internet. Anyone that tells you otherwise wants kids oppressed.
Biometrics shouldn’t exist. Now tell iPhone & Android users to cease faceapp & fingerprinting themselves.
If you think an extra layer of universal surveillance will somehow prevent children from being harmed, I have bad news for you. It won’t. Plenty of them will get online anyway, and go to even sketchier sites than ever.
Reread my second sentence.
We are both in the privacy community: I don’t want ANYONE knowing how kids utilize the internet, or should anyones’. These mandatory biometric laws need to be destroyed completely.
Maybe I misunderstand your point, then, especially if it was sarcastic… I didn’t downvote you so maybe I’m not the only one.
I also don’t get the biometrics thing. They aren’t a great way of locking down your device, they’re just better than nothing as a very basic theft deterrent when used locally.
I am attacking that bullshit headline theguardian allowed, and the thesis of the article. As private-conscious members of this community we need to physically remove these biometric laws by force, and destroy social media whose entire business models depend on violating privacy: We need to be against both, in order to maintain internet privacy.
Read the laws and see how broad they are written
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Let’s stop the global elite from fucking them first. How about that?
What a weird false dichotomy. A planet with well over 7 Billion people can do at least two things at once.
edit: Not that I support age checks on social media, in any way. That is a bad idea for myriad reasons. For-profit corporate social media is probably the worst technological development since nukes… mutually assured distraction.
You are correct in general, but one cannot do two things at once when the first thing is (at least, arguably) a necessary prerequisite to the second thing.
False dickotomy I’m sure you mean.
That’s your takeaway?
Maybe we should figure out what is so awful about social media that we think children shouldn’t be subjected to it, and ask if it’s any less bad for adults. Idk
“The world” (lawmakers, politicians, big tech, military, intelligence agencies) doesn’t give 2 shits about children, they want control of the internet.
How about instead of banning kids from social media we ban the degenerates actively grooming into joining unnatural subcultures from social media.
You know … like Turning Point USA, PragerU, and the various “alpha male” / incel influencers.
“unatural subcultures” is going to become the next “terrorist"/"groomer” isnt it?
Like if the chuds where i live heard that they would 100% assume you ment lgbtq, blm, antifa, and maybe furries if theyre young enough
holy wow the guardian is dredging the sewer for journos these days