So, we are giving up privacy in all our electronic communications because a bunch of companies can’t stop running algorithms to drive up engagement? From the article above, it seems Snapchat messaging would work just fine if kids had to touch phones to exchange contacts. Versus putting everybody in 24x7 AI surveillance, the lesser bad here is to forbid those algorithms, even if that bankrupts the platforms.
I'm not sure it's that straightforward. What the article shows is that even a legal, commercial, and publicly known platform serves this content. What it doesn't show is all the other contexts kids may encounter it.
large companies would break democracy if it interfered with income
they used to send 9 year olds into the mines
But think of those poor megacorps! How will they ever turn a profit without their precious algorithms? Invading every user‘s privacy is only morally right! What else could they, or governments, possibly do? Make line not go up? I shudder to think!
The uncomfortable truth is HN needs to see this. And the usual responses of “it’s the job of the parents to police this, not society and not laws” should have one comment thread dedicated so they can all echo to each other the same statement over and over while the rest of the thread actually talks about the article and the societal issues at hand.
Yes I think when the social media bans (e.g. Australia, UK) are mentioned _this_ is the context that the conversation is missing.
Its not. A big problem with the way it was handled is that non logged in users aren't affected. So Youtube for instance, cant tailor its suggestions for the users age, and they get suggested really screwed up shit instead.
Age verification sucks. But most of these platforms need to be atomised, not restricted.
The reality is these platforms are optimized to use any content to increase page views and ad revenue. I am typically not an advocate of regulation, however at the very least restrict these platforms to 18 and older
When a minor gets online it is only a matter of when not if before they get questions about their underwear.
You should read the article
Surely that falls under the 25% sexually suggestive messages in the article
You might want to re-read the hn guidelines.
It's like the people writing this shit have never been a teenager. I feel like an old man yelling at clouds, but damn, the internet was so much less sanitized when I was 13 and we were happy for it.
it really is wild.
i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again.
the companies will have no one but themselves to blame when they’re regulated in and out.
if the companies don’t care at all about people and society to take actual material concrete steps to help, then we don’t need to care about them.
if they don’t care about me and mine, then i don’t care about them.
if a company cares about profits at any cost and has no regard for people, regulate them right out of business. i’m ok with that, they don’t care about me, have no obligation towards them.
I think it is undeniable that that would fuck you up. Imagine, that's what you see, normalized...
Typically I’m incredibly cynical about “won’t somebody please think of the children” type stuff - but I’ve got to admit, this does seem like a lot more than I expected. And while a certain kind of kid, say, myself, would probably be just fine rolling his eyes and blocking/reporting and not have it be a bit thing… I really was an especially certain kind of kid, and not everybody works that way.
I wonder what I would do as a parent - if my kid relied on it to stay in touch with his friends. Sit him down and talk to him about it? Go through stuff together with him, like actually flip through the videos and chat about them? I don’t know it’s hard to imagine, I’d like to believe I could just teach them the proper attitude / framing to take when approaching this kind of content, served by this kind of app, but what would I do if I felt like I was failing at that?
What if my kid actively resisted my efforts? Talk to his friend’s parents maybe and see about setting up an alternative? Kids always find a way to get around boundaries though.