Canada

I support this. Of course the ideal circumstance is to regulate tech companies but when Canada tried to institute a digital services tax Trump immediately ended tariff negotiations so I don't think America is interested in having their tech companies regulated.

The harm to people, especially adolescents, is too great in my opinion so this is the next best option.

I'm also not on social media so this doesn't really affect me. I encourage everyone else do the same. If Lemmy ever asked for anything like that I'd stop using it.

We'll try literally anything but regulating big tech.

The problem here is not parenting, it's not even the idea of social media, but rather the algorithms that amplify the worst behavior and encourage it. These need to be banned for all ages. This is why we have these negative feedback loops causing grown men to draw political opinions on the side of their trucks.

I agree, BUT it needs to be the parents who enforce it by simply not giving them pocket computers.

New laws should always be the last resort, not the go-to "solution".

Bloody fools, giving up your id to silicon valley, surrendering to them, letting in the trojan horse of ai censorship behind the walls of liberal democracy, to protect the kids. Which it won't protect them to have silicon valley, and every other predator on the internet knowing everything about you. Sweet dreams.

What even constitutes as "social media"? If a website has a comments section, is that now blocked? What about Wikis that have a "talk" tab for discussion? Message forums? What about social apps like Discord and IRC? Does YouTube count as social media?

We don't need to ban social media, we need to start really pushing critical think and education.

This is what the OS level age verification is meant to do. It shifts the burden of age verification from the social media companies and websites to someone else.

Have none of you seen a single dystopian scifi film????

???????????

Idiots

Or you know, you can let parents take care of their own kids. Stop telling me how to parent my own kids in my own house!

Also obligatory reminder, consumer home routers have had parental controls for years. You can use these functions to whitelist specific websites for your children, while simultaneously block everything not on said whitelist.

On top of this, this is the most privacy respectful option as it means no third party is snooping on what sites your visiting, no one is collecting analytics, and no personal information is made available to said third parties to be hacked and compromised, ultimately protecting you from any identity theft.

On top of this this "same issue" was why TVs have had parental controls for ages. All a parent would need to do is choose to enable and block certain channels behind a passcode/pin for their children. And somehow this solution has worked without being privacy intrusive.