this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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Kids accessing social media shouldn't be treated as a crime.
The future of such restriction is:
Exhibit A: People's Republic of China and the "Great Firewall"
Nope, lets not go there.
???
How is restricting access behind an age requirement the same as the "Great Firewall". Right now, as we speak, you cannot use social media until you are 13. They are just increasing that requirement to 16.
There are many many many other things that are already lock behind an age restriction and I don't see you freaking out. Here are a few examples of things locked behind an age restriction:
alcohol
gambling
cigarettes
pornography
Media has age restrictions. Books have age restrictions, movies have age restrictions, games have age restrictions. Media has had age restrictions for a very long time and it's high time the same standards are applied to social media.
Whats gonna happens when politicians realize kids are just gonna click "I'm at least [Age]"?
They'll implement ID verification.
Then kids will use VPN to bypass it.
So VPNs get banned
Either you have a toothless law, or you live in a country with Great Firewall of China.
Yup... right what I suspected! The Slippery Slope Fallacy!
Many pornography work like that and can, as such, be easily bypassed. But does that mean we should drop the age restriction for access to pornography? Of course not!
Here is another example:
Murder. Murder shouldn't be legal and it is not. However, despite this restriction, some find ways to get away with murder. Does that mean that laws against murder are useless since we cannot stop murder 100% of the time? I highly doubt it.
It is impossible for any law enforcement to prevent 100% of all crimes, but that is not justification for those law to not exist.
False dilemma fallacy.
Again, I'll refer to pornography. Many pornography work on the trust system. By your logic, that means we should drop all laws restricting access to it. However, that is absurd.
The point isn't to stop 100% of all usage. It is simply there to reduce the usage. You are forgetting that we are talking about human beings. Beings which have a natural tendency to conform to social norms as to not be cast out of their tribe (since humans cannot survive in the wild without each other, such would be a death sentence).
This law would set the societal precedent that people need to be of a certain age to access these social media apps (as shown by scientific data, which revealed that social media usage can have many negative effects on a developing mind). This societal precedent will, hopefully, make it taboo for people bellow 16 to access social media, which will, in turn, reduce, but not outright 100% stop, underage social media usage.
The point is to prevent the detrimental effects to the mental health of teens and preteens. That doesn't work unless you plug the holes. That's the problem. Fallacy in argument or no fallacy.
The point we're trying to make isn't that we don't want the restriction. We just understand that it's not going to work specifically because it requires the same thing the under 13 privacy laws already include. Companies to comply (which they will, probably with detriments to legal users), and that parents be involved in what their children are doing online and restrict that accordingly to comply with the law (which we already know they aren't).
I as a full grown adult am not willing to provide my details (picture of a government issued ID or similar) to most online entities. I certainly won't ever be giving it to social media or a porn site of any kind. But that's what's going to end up being required to enact this law and make it enforceable. Is the law going to fine parents whose children aren't in compliance? Is it going to fine businesses for not enacting enough restrictions? Is it going to outlaw VPN's for use on social media?
Where is the burden of proof and who's privacy gets invaded in order to enforce the law?
I was not (in my original comment or any subsequent ones in the thread) intending people to take this as "we shouldn't do this because XYZ". And I am aware that you weren't responding to me. I was saying that it's going to be problematic to enforce and isn't likely to have the results intended.
It's not about the handful of people per hundred who commit a murder. Because murder being illegal isn't a deterrent and we have scientific studies to back that up. It's about how 75-85% of teens will find a way to circumvent the law because they don't understand the dangers and parents aren't doing their part. So the rest of us will have to jump through hoops to use any social media.
If 75% or more of people the law effects aren't following the law, the law doesn't do what is intended and is going to have to be reworked.