Literally 1984. Those who will refuse to verify will be limited, thus they will be information restricted.
this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
68 points (93.6% liked)
Privacy
50208 readers
280 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
Can we not stay up to date with what is happening without owning a social media account? I think the only thing we are missing is social media trends that change frequently.
Not even close. This will fragment the internet and take power away from surveillance capitalists. A huge amount of people will simply disengage from the Epstein class brainwashing. I'm looking forward to it. The internet used to be way more interesting and fun when it was fragmented.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Should be banning endless manipulative opaque algorithmic presentations for everyone.
Require age verification only if you want to get algorithmic recommendations. That way you can still engage in the social internet anonymously as an adult.
The recommendation algorithms give American big tech way too much political sway in Europe and ideally they should be banned entirely, but age verification at least gives the appearance that this is "for the children" and not something with (justifiable) political motivations.
But its not age verification thats actually being implemented. It's identity verification mislabelled to take advantage of dumb legislation with yet more privacy over reach.
Yeah. Honestly. For platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, mandate chronological feeds of only people you have followed, paginated at like 30.
load more comments
(2 replies)
It's not an age restriction. It's a mandatory ID for everybody. They know we hate them, and are afraid. Perhaps they should make a law against killer drones instead.
I would never have believed it possible that almost all politicians of ostensibly democratic countries almost simultaneously agree to prevent young people from having fun, being happy and finding meaning and fulfillment in their lives. How do these people think of themselves as the good guys?
to prevent young people from having fun, being happy and finding meaning and fulfillment in their lives.
Hasn't virtually every single study ever performed on the subject found a strong, direct link between unhappiness and social media use?
Hasn’t virtually every single study ever performed on the subject found a strong, direct link between unhappiness and social media use?
From what I've seen, the answer is it's complicated. On avg, you're right, and it prob does cause unhappiness and mental health probs. But there are unique situations where it can be helpful. Ex, people who do not fit norms of thier peers, and find healthy connections with others more like themselves. So it has no single, simple universal answer.
The algos, esp on big tech social media like FB, IG, TT, X, etc, are very much designed to make you unhappy and outraged. Even the data scientists who designed the algos have testified to that fact before the US congress. B/c anger and outrage is the most powerful way to make you engage more. TT's internal research shows the more you use TT, the more probs you have with cognitive skills like memory formation, empathy, and anxiety.
Ofc, the harms of social media doesn't mean these bills are the right way to handle that. I believe we have a prob. But this is not the right solution.
To a large degree, yes, but blanket bans on social media use for minors will fail for multiple reasons.
- This has already been the case in Australia, and the latest numbers indicate that a vast majority of youth still access social media via black/grey market account purchasing, VPNs, and other methods.
- The ban doesn't include some popular platforms like Telegram, which arguably provide a more risky experience, due to it being a popular platform for criminal activities.
- Taking away a huge swath of social platforms from kids without providing any constructive or healthy alternatives will mainly encourage destructive behaviors.
On the bright side, young people are learning about circumventing government censorship.
Very true, but that may make things worse down the line. Once they realize that kids are circumventing their restrictions, they won't think, "Hmm, maybe a blanket ban of social media for minors wasn't a great idea." They're just going to double down and say that there needs to be more hardcore restrictions on all internet/computer activity. More sensorship, more data harvesting, mandatory governement spyware in all devices.
Essentially the Great Firewall in China. Many governments have already expressed interest in modeling national internet access after China.
Point 3:
Adults have been making the outside more and more hostile for kids. There's no more third spaces. So like you said, they're removing a third space with nothing to replace it with.
I wonder how much more the Australian ban will be when peer countries follow suite and erodes network effect.
load more comments
(1 replies)
because these are not democratic countries, these countries are the same that gave birth to fascism and pushed for years for the surveillance state you so fondly complain about in china, the same countries that kill people based on metadata, this is the logical conclusion. as always, ewwwrope is filled to the brim with the flowery phrases of rhetoric and not actual praxis on any meaningful thing that could imply the wellbeing of their citizens.
you're shocked that the countries that love to bomb children abroad also dont like children at home?
also the epstein stuff.
Most people support these social media age gates:
this poll is for canada, not the eu, but I couldn't find good polling for the EU.
Now to ban it for all the other age groups, too. /s but only kinda
Kinda with you in spirit. How I think about it is... it is harmful for both adults and children. Esp in big-tech co form. FB, IG, TT, X, and w/e. There's a lot of research about it. But the cure can be worse than the disease. What the EU wants to do is not the right answer to address the immense harms of social media to our world.
Both the US and Canada have similar bills on boil. Both are also terrible ideas.
While this is obviously bad, I don't think there's ever really a total win or loss when it comes to this stuff. It's a constant fight. They'll bring shit like this in and it'll seem hopeless, then someone will bypass it and it'll go back and forth. Same as ad blocking or DRM or countless other things.
It'd be nice to not have to deal with it in the first place, but we'll deal with it sooner or later I'm sure.
It's just more enshttification that wastes everyone's time.
It should be dependent on the sites offering adult material to have an account with a login. All other non-adult sites keep operating as before and kids can peruse freely. If a kid steals a password that's a kid thing, not a system thing. Nothing is foolproof and people get slapped in the face with shit they don't want to see all the time. Education and proper implementation is the key, not restriction and censorship.
Adoption is perhaps the impetus needed for common sense to prevail. If everyone keeps spending all their money at a partcular casino, they aren't going to change a thing. But if everyone stopped coming, you can be damn sure they start looking at what they can reform. Nothing improves if people don't start to care about the security of their PII. That's a huge rock.
load more comments
(1 replies)
For one, they want all our data, they want to know all we do online.
For other, they found out children who grew exposed to people's opinions online grows more critical that kids that grew on they caged propaganda. Not good for their business to have citizens that can actually think.
load more comments
(2 replies)
So how is that going to work exactly?
Facebook is easy, you force the company or block it.
But how about, say, Lemmy, or other self hosted places maybe where where people do use their real names? How is any of this supposed to work?
But how about, say, Lemmy, or other self hosted places
Well... how many Lemmy instances are hosted in the EU, Canada, USA, Australia, UK, ...? They can be threatened under the full power of the state, unless they req ID checks.
OK, you may say, just use one in Tuvalu! But someone below mentioned it. Govs will not think, gosh darn it! I guess we got foiled by those rascally nerds! Pack it up guys, we lost! No, they will double down. They will create national firewalls. VPN bans. Already the UK, and Utah in the USA are pushing for VPN bans. They will make examples of people, to deter the rest.
It's very hard to solve political probs with technical methods.
I hate EU. Nothing but bad news from them.
I don't know where u live but EU brings good things too. Go and ask the Brits who are mourning the departure they voted for 10 years ago. Of course there are a lot of things that could be improved but that is the responsibility of us citizens.
African folks love the kindness of Europeans.
African folks love the kindness of Europeans.
... is a statement which, even if correct, contributes absolutely nothing to the current debate. Feel free to open your own thread about it.
load more comments
(5 replies)
There is a difference between psyops that make you think EU only does bad things and reality. EU has been the most successful peace project in history. It has lifted millions of people out of poverty too. There will always be political tensions and work to be done. We can never rest on our laurels but if you honestly believe what you wrote, then congrats you've been brainwashed by the Epstein class.
As an American, I envy their news
I've been trying to capitalize on the commotion about all this in /r/privacy to bring more people to Lemmy. I've converted at least one redditor already!
What a disgusting rage bait title.
Please no matter the news do not invite others to give up. You might be totally depleted. You might have fought teeth and nails against problems but if you want to give up let others try.
This is deeply problematic and of course precisely helps those you do agree with.
Do not fall prey to learned helplessness.
If politicians and lobbyists can keep on proposing a law until it goes through, so can we, including the very politicians who do not represent our views.
The situation might be bleak and I can understand the frustration but this kind of title is not helping.
view more: next ›