Florida House passes a bill to ban social media accounts for children under 16

There should not be a ban. Kids can use social media in their free time if their parents allow it. No government enforcement needed

Social media requires reading skills.

This is on par with banning books, radio and TV from kids, so that they see and heard only what the government wants them to see and hear. Would you support that? DeSantis fans would.

 

Why do we need a law? There are plenty of apps that could prohibit or limit time spent on smart devices. Big brother government needs to stop parenting for children and take a step back.

This would not have happened back in the good ole days where parental responsibilities were an actual thing.

 

Conservatives would not have approved of this, but the new breed of populist pseudo-con Republicans will support anything depending on who proposes it.

And yes, "parental controls" are already part of smart phone technology.

 

Keeping this one!

#trolls

 

Hmm....the same politicians who raved against social media for moderating too much, under the banner "freedom of speech is absolute" are now expressing all kind of fake outrage and demanding more moderation from the platforms.......

Whatever makes you happy. Thanks for stopping by to say nothing.

 

I provided useful information to this thread, and you did what you usually do.

 

Keep the post. It was very useful to know that you are doing that. Thank you for your contribution.

 

I'll concede that probably is partially true, but nevertheless Florida does have a "Southern" sort of authoritarian streak, in certain areas. (Mostly not as bad as other areas of the Deep South though)

Probably not the best example, but you can look at how they deal with sex offenders, and I'm talking about crimes that are often a lot less severe than rape. Many formerly convicted persons end up homeless as a result of the restrictive laws.

 

Sure. It's true to some extent, and Northern Florida is 'South', and part of the Bible Belt, while some other areas, like Key West and Miami are the polar opposite. In the past Miami was left for the locals to run, as was Key West and other areas, but lately Tallahassee (DeSantis) is extending its reach and is calling the shots at local level, and even removing and replacing locally elected officials like attorneys and school board members who were voted in by locals. Such actions are authoritarian no matter how they spin it.

 

The slippery slope steepens. Next they will want to monitor everyone's internet traffic to identify "undesireables". Lol, Republicans used to be about limiting government tyranny. How things have changed. Now both parties are pretty much identical, and equally corrupt and worthless. The bipartisan nature of the bill shows this.

 

Actually, they had all the social media reps in Congress yesterday and the Senators poured out all the fake outrage on them demanding more censorship, and only few years ago the same guys argued social media is "public square" and that freedom of speech is absolute. Some platforms bragged about having no moderation whatsoever, only to soon realize some moderation was needed.

So, Facebook, Twitter etc have always banned porn, personal attacks etc, but now the demand is for the providers to implement not only more censorship, but also somehow figure out the age of the customer and ban kids out completely. How will that work? If you are banned in Florida, and take a vacation to Paris, are you still banned in Paris, or are you free to explore the evils of Social Media? Would sites like PF have to implement such measures?

 

Many websites already ask your age, and underage people simply lie. Impossible to enforce this.

 

It is an interesting overall subject and not so crystal clear. How about underage people transitioning with surgery. Should that be allowed? How about driving cars? Voting? Denying life saving blood transfusions due to religious brainwashing? Spanking to the point by of bleeding?

We have many laws put in place to protect children from their parents and also many to protect them from themselves.

 

Oh my. Imagine trying to enforce that one.

 

Driving cars is common sense, since a child behind the wheel can put other people in danger.

How about watching TV, listening to radio, or reading books which are not government approved? Social media bans are comparable to that.

 

It would be interesting to see if that stops the social contagions like the "cool thing" of claiming they are magic unicorns.

 

Social media goes a bit beyond TV, radio, books, etc. Social media can have the kid participating. It opens the door to child abductions, grooming, etc.

 

Letting kids play outside opens the door to child abductions. Letting them watch TV exposes them all kinds of horrors in form of violence and sex etc.

Make no mistake, - video games are next on the government "banned entertainment list" and its coming under the banner of "IT'S FOR THE CHIHLDREN". Its an old liberal war cry, which is now adopted by the populists. Its nothing but an authoritarian government in disguise trying to expand their control over people.

You want the government to take over parenting, and I do not, so we can agree to disagree.

 

It's been overblown, but sure, some danger is inherent in children playing outside or viewing traditional non-interactive media.

Social Media introducers a few unique aspects to this: People writing there can be anonymous, it is interactive, and can reach millions of people instantaneously, etc.

Kids 30 years ago didn't have to worry about stupid things they wrote or said to one friend, getting reposted and going viral, haunting them the rest of their lives. Nor did they have to worry about a bully outing them for being gay or having a secret crush or whatever or for having other secrets they don't want outed, to not just a handful of people, but to potentially everyone they will ever meet.

There are some concerns here, and I would recommend reading up on the research on this by Haidt and his associate researchers. Social media can have a lot of negative impact, especially on young girls.

Social media also encourages greater tribalism and nasty behavior due to the anonymous nature of it.

I don't know if it would make any sense to try to ban children from it. My primary concern would be with attempts to do that necessarily causing restrictions on adults, because how else would you enforce it other than banning it altogether?

That's not new, nor is it particularly liberal. Many conservatives have been wanting to ban such for a long time. That's kind of what the Christian Right is all about.

I didn't write that or anything like that. Your having that in your mind about me demonstrates another of the dangers of social media. I don't think you would have leaped to that in an in person conversation.

 

Only for pictograms.

 

Sounds like a law without any possibility of enforcement. Waste of time.

 

"Florida House passes a bill to ban social media accounts for children under 16"

Republican want to ban all social media for those under 16, will that mean they have to verify everyone's age and identity?

we were just talking in another thread that this was coming, that was quick.... have to admit, I thought would be dems that did it first

 

the real issue will be anonymity will be gone, as once you have to verify people 16 or over, then you have to know who they are - just like stores scan your DL into their computer systems when you buy adult items, social media will be an adult item

 

I think it really depends on the methods and technology used and I don't enough about it to know how it would be implemented.