Utah is leading the way with very sensible laws. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/27/opinions/utah-social-media-laws-protect-kids-alaimo/index.html Thoughts? DD
Social media is a plague on society. We should get rid of it. Boomers killed FB a long time ago anyway. Clutchfans can stay though.
Your post is an example of what is “wrong” with social media. You lump “boomers” together in a “monolithic” group. Guess what. It isn’t a monolithic group. You say this so-called monolithic group “killed” Facebook, as if everyone uses that aspect of social media (which isn’t true) and what happens to it, in your opinion, has some outsized impact, an impact based on your opinion. You are an example of what is wrong with social media. You are what you hate. How ironic.
There are already ways for parents to control their kid's phone access with apps like familylink. Most routers also allow the ability to deny access to devices in your house at various times during the day. I don't want the government interfering in my ability to parent.
Yeah, we need these laws and we need to hold the dealers (social media companies) accountable. So your underaged kids should be good to go to buy alcohol and tobacco? Many parents lack the technological savvy to implement the measures you mention. Make no mistake, social media algorithms are an utter blight on our society. They're to a point where they are more addictive than hard drugs. I live by a HS. I see the kids walking home and all they're doing is looking at their phones.
Oh no, some salty Boomer mad I said Boomers killed FB. People making fun of Boomers isn't what's wrong with social media Grandpa. Social media presenting a distorted reality to it users causing widespread depression, anxiety and feelings of loneliness and isolation is the problem with social media.
I also think Boomers killed the economy, Mom and Pop, muscle cars, the American Dream, and JFK. Thanks Boomers!
Boomers were born into the most fortuitous time and place in human history, took all the benefits, including affordable education and housing, and pulled the ladder up behind them. They've also got us 30 trillion in debt amongst countless other problems. Anathema!
I don't disagree with your general sentiment in that things suck worse now. I also don't disagree with your sentiment about social media. Part of me thinks that Boomers were a victim of their era though. They rose to prominence in arguably one of the toughest climates to deal with. First it was war, then it was technology, then it was war and weaponizing the technology. It was only a matter of time before corporate America and all of its greed leveraged all of that in order to screw the peons out of everything.
USA doesn't want to BAN evil TikTok, it wants to OWN it, so it can advertise on it as it sees fit. Utah wants 1 of 2 things. 1 - prohibit social media use under age 18 or let them use it, but only if they can also vote (so they can advertise politics to them). GOOD LUCK
Interesting article: Utah Passes Social Media Law Stating That Teens May Only Be Groomed In Person by Religious Leaders.
I like it. I think Kids Accounts may need to be linked to an adult account. So the adult can get various alerts I think this is a good step The question is degrees. . . . is it 1. Telling your kids not to lock the bedroom door. 2. Removing the locks from the bedroom door 3. Removing the bedroom door Rocket River
I trust Tik tok more than I trust Instagram. IG shows me inappropriate content that I'm not following.
I agree with Xero . . . most parents are not that tech savvy and also have other sh*t to do Taking some of this off their plate will pay out nice dividends over time Rocket River
Senate has the vote. House is iffy. Chuck Schumer plans to bring two major kids online safety bills to the Senate floor - The Verge Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) plans to announce in a speech that he will bring the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) to the Senate floor this week for a procedural vote. This tees up the biggest step yet on the federal level to move forward with a law in the area of children’s online safety legislation. KOSA would impose a duty of care on online platforms to take reasonable steps to mitigate certain harms to minors, require the option for parental controls for the accounts of minors, and prevent features like autoplay. COPPA 2.0 would build on an existing children’s privacy law to raise the age for privacy protections from 13 to 17 and ban targeted advertising for that group. Even if they pass the Senate, the bills could still face additional challenges ahead. They’d need to be passed by the House, which recently canceled a committee hearing that would have included a discussion of KOSA due to Republican leadership concerns on a separate privacy bill. While states throughout the country have passed varying types of online safety bills for children, many have been successfully blocked on First Amendment grounds, and still others have yet to contend with the implications of a recent Supreme Court decision affirming that social media companies’ content moderation and curation choices are expressive, protected speech.
Reading The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, all about the research regarding brain development, the need for play (like, embodied play and in-person interaction with peers), and the impact of cell phones and social media. Really interesting book, and glad again I'm not a parent (with apologies to JD Vance... I know he would frown at my childless marriage, but maybe I get a pass b/c San Francisco.)
I’m in the “kids should stay away from social media as long as possible” camp. I logged off of X a few weeks ago, and have resisted the urge to sign back in. Too much negative, ugly political stuff being pushed on me by the algorithm. Don’t use Facebook or TikTok or Instagram either. Still use YouTube, but I watch less political stuff these days and more videos of cats and apes being awesome.
Also recommend that book! I hope that my kids' school district also moves towards a strict smart device ban soon, but I live in Cy Fair and the school board is a ****ing joke. They're too busy ripping pages out of textbooks.