I fucking knew this bullshit would spread worse than a bushfire when my corrupt government rammed it through.
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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The science suggests that some features of social media function can harm some young people’s mental health. These include, but are not limited to, algorithmically driven distortions of reality exacerbating harmful content and disinformation, the distraction away from time that can otherwise be used in more healthy ways, and the creation of opportunities where youth can be abused or exploited. However, there are also several ways in which social media improve the lives of youth, including the creation of opportunities for community among more marginalized youth, and the opportunity for fun and joy for the vast majority of users.
- Social Media and Adolescent Health (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK603435/)
Every generation parents engage in a moral panic to ban something because it is destroying the youth. You lot are doing the same and contributing to a movement that will harm everyone and eventually lead to the destruction of platforms like Lemmy.
Think twice before joining the like of those who, in past generations, wanted to ban videogames, pagers, comic books and even novels for young people. Did the harm ever materialise? Or are we just as fucked up as every generation before us.
Is it social media or is it the looming exiction event before us and the politicians that gleefully line their pockets with the profits of genocide and ecocide?
Please, I beg you, THINK before feuling a moral panic.
Good in theory, but in practice... how is this going to be enforced? The only ways I can think of involve excessive invasion of privacy, again, under the banner of "Save The Children", again.
Ding ding ding
Plenty of EU countries have digital ID apps already and provide services like signing documents using that ID. Adding something like zero-knowledge proof with passkeys-like UI probably isn’t that much harder than putting people on the moon.
I’d love if every mass social media was required to provide „this is an actual verified human behind this account” flag on every account because we’re about to face an age where trust is the most valuable currency around.
The only official ID apps I've ever seen only run exclusively on android and ios. Meaning you can't partake in any digital governmental services without being a google or apple customer. Which seems at least flawed, if not down right illegal.
One has to weight what has a higher societal cost and if one has a choice at all if we want our societies to survive. Participation in big tech social media and watching porn is not a human right.
- I was commenting on the availability of ID apps, not on the participation in social media and other services
- Internet access and privacy are human rights. If those are taken from anyone, for example by mandating becoming a big tech customer to access ID apps, it becomes at least a social issue, if not a legal one.
- There’s nothing mandatory about those apps. Facebook and Pornhub are optional and more friction in using them won’t hurt. All I’m saying is that massive platforms that allow a massive reach need to verify that their users are who they claim to be. I don’t think it should apply to small forums like Lemmy. Making people spread into smaller communities would be an added benefit.
- There is no invasion of privacy if zero knowledge proof protocol is used to verify that user is a national and not underage because nobody needs to know any other data points. Phone and internet are not human rights.
I'm tentatively hopeful it will use the pre-existing government SSO, which would be the ideal solution, since no data would be transferred to the website or third parties.
France actually has a national digital ID scheme that provides single sign-on for government services, so let's see if they integrate with the existing technology or just leave sites to fill in the blanks with dodgy third-party age-verification like every other country that has tried this.
Hint: the government is made of nazis
I wish those laws backfire and just make people abandon social media instead