It doesn’t matter why they are being proposed. They give those same mega corps additional power, regardless, by giving them more (and verifiable) information about the user of the platform.
In addition, they open the door to additional surveillance, by Governments, as if there is not enough surveillance, for commercial reasons.
The problem isn’t solved by forcing minors and parents to provide additional personal information.
In addition, the young people (various ages from 13 on up) we talk to about this, have a solution to the problems caused by using Social media. Their answer (not mine, although it is also mine), stop using it.
Of course it matters. This was the core of this discussion. Regarding giving those corps more information, they don’t need it. These corps already have all the info they need. This is an hassle for them, not an opportunity, and that’s why Meta want’s to bypass it. Besides that, many countries will force those corps to verify age through a 3rd party company or through government services, so this drains your argument out.
You clearly don’t know enough about the matter you’re talking about. Why forbid alcohol and tobacco and other stuff to minors then? They can just don’t use it. That’s not a valid argument. You don’t understand how social media together with other changes which occurred in children’s education in the last 20 years is affecting their development.
EDIT: the internet from the 80’s and 90’s was great, I enjoyed it too, but it’s been a while that it ended. The internet and devices and digital tools have changed and the world must change accordingly. Like or not, something must be done at the societal level. I personally dislike the idea of age verification being done at the OS level. It should be done at the service level, depending on the characterization of the service.
In the US, the 1873 Comston Act banned the postal service from sending the then popular lynching postcards as they could be seen by kids. The lynchings continued until 1981.
In Germany, leader of the Hitler Youth Baldur von Schirach, prohibited Hitler Youth members from reading “Der Stürmer”. He never tried to ban “Der Stürmer” nor did he prevent under-age recruitment into combat units.
The UK allows recruiting children over 16 in the armed forces; in 2016, approximately a quarter of new recruits to the British army were aged under 18.
The US Army describes outreach to schools as the ‘cornerstone’ of recruitment. The No Child Left Behind Act gives recruiters access to all school students’ contact details.
The US Army enlists approximately 16,000 17-year-olds annually. While under-age military personnel are prohibited from direct participation in hostilities they are eligible for ‘forward deployment’, which means that they may be posted to a combat zone to perform support tasks. In 2003 and 2004 approximately 60 underage personnel were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq in error. Wikipedia
That’s not the feed back I get from the Kids I talk to in my town. I also understand how these laws are affecting the kids.
One of the primary lessons these laws teach is. Lying pays.
I also understand how the kids are finding ways around these stupid laws. In fact I am often surprised by how sophisticated the kids are, in their use of the technology, to work around these laws.
I predict the OS age laws will also be rather ineffective, if they are not rescinded.
These laws including Australia’s age restrictions on who can access Social Media, are blunt instruments, that do not actually address the real issue… The Social Media corporations. They target the symptom, not the cause.
We at least agree on that. What that something is, we differ on.
Well those laws never stopped any kid who actually wanted to do those things. They certainly never stopped me when I was a teenager, not when the legal drinking age was 21, and we had the 6 o’clock swill, and not later before I was 18.
I have yet to see any illegal substance not being used because it was illegal, in fact there are huge Criminal empires that depend on those substances being illegal.
Gave some 10 year olds an old stuck Iphone. A couple of days later they were playing games on it. Someone jail-broke it. They may know little about “computers” but they certainly know how to network.
Two days after arriving at a new place I went out with my 12-year old and noticed them texting in the street on a no-Sim IpodTouch. Asking how they got online they confessed that they had used their first outing to collect half a dozen wifi logins from fast food places and cafes nearby.
Taught me that life without Sim is perfectly possible.
Well, it’s not because a million more things are wrong that you shouldn’t fix the other (pardon my english, probably a bad translation).
I disagree on this. However ineffective these laws can be, they do try to target theses corps directly (and I’m talking generally, not just in US), but I must agree with you on the rest.
Most of these laws are literally just mass surveillance being pushed in to allegedly to protect children. Even if everyone involved only wants to protect children, it won’t last long, it will be abused and future generations (and probably us) will suffer.
Instead of setting up mass surveillance, parental controls should be used/created. Instead of sending an age signal (privileged information) out, an age signal/content specifiers (unprivileged info) should be sent in and allow the parental controls to decide what is accessed.
Anything with actual age verification is just a way of introducing mass surveillance and eventually worse. Even if that’s not the intent, it will be the result.
Manjaro is not made or sold in California. Manjaro is not subject to the laws in that jurisdiction. Several distributions have already opted out of age verification unless or until the laws require that in the jurisdiction in which they reside. One has said that they will simply relocate under those conditions. One of the cell phone operating systems ha opted out, and will not sell pre-loaded devices in those jurisdictions. (Instead including instructions for downloading and loading the OS during first setup) so they are not in violation. The entire question may become a non-issue if the courts determined that these laws are either unconstitutional or cannot be enforced under the law.
