from Hacker News

Rishi Sunak considers curbing social media use for under-16s

by hdivider on 12/14/23, 10:41 PM with 22 comments

  • by dfawcus on 12/15/23, 12:06 AM

    This seems like a scheme for ensuring that no anonymous / pseudo-anonymous interactions can occur.

    i.e. how would an adult establish that they are over 18, and hence are not to be restricted. The only way would seem to be to provide some form of ID which can be linked back to something indicating one is over 18.

    So either something like driving license, passport, credit card details, etc; but inherently naming someone.

    We can get those at 15 years + 9 months; but generally not allowed to start driving until 17.

  • by genmud on 12/15/23, 12:01 AM

    Yea... I don't know what the right solution is, but it feels like people are getting their brains significantly influenced, or rotted by the endless dopamine hits that social media bring them.

    I have a small kid and most of my tech friends who are parents share the opinion that tech/computers can be extremely dangerous if not actively moderated for children.

    The 2 people I know who do not let their kids use smartphones/tablets under any circumstances work in adtech and social media.

  • by viraptor on 12/15/23, 1:02 AM

    Given everything else happening, the satisfaction with UK gov at the moment and party issues... I find it really hard to see it as anything apart from a quick attempt at popularity points with the right groups.

  • by hyggetrold on 12/14/23, 11:29 PM

    It almost seems like social media should be an adults-only thing. At this point I simply don't trust the current corporate powers to be looking out for the human side of things. And it strikes me that regulating social media to be only after you're 18 might be like regulating smoking - if you haven't started by the time you're an adult, it's unlikely you ever will.

  • by deafpolygon on 12/15/23, 5:30 AM

    > “From our point of view, we’re looking at ways to empower parents rather than crack down on anything in particular,” they said. “We’ve identified that there is a gap in research so we’ll be looking at what more research into it needs to be done, but nothing is yet signed off by ministers.”

    Translation: From our perspective, there's nothing in it for us (government). We're looking into ways to surveil our citizen, erode their privacy and security by thinking of the children. In no way are we actually going to do something useful for once.

  • by xenospn on 12/14/23, 11:43 PM

    I expect both Apple and Google to heavily lobby against any kind of restrictions.

  • by andrewstuart on 12/15/23, 7:30 AM

    In other news… Rishi Sunak considers stopping the ocean with a bucket of sand.

  • by ilrwbwrkhv on 12/15/23, 1:57 AM

    If UK can pull this off, I would forgive them all their trespasses. This would be one of the greatest wins for humanity ever and would save our species.