Social Media Limits Are Coming For Teens Across Europe
- Reference: 0184443400
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/07/13/1638208/social-media-limits-are-coming-for-teens-across-europe
- Source link:
> Social media platforms could also be forced to prove their services are not harmful before young people are allowed to use them. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc's executive arm could propose new legislation within months, after reviewing recommendations from a panel of experts released today.
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> The panel recommended using a phased approach, including "no screens at all" for children under 3, supervised internet use for those under 13, and some limits for older teens. It also said social media platforms should have to prove their services are safe to younger users, an approach von der Leyen said she supports. Von der Leyen said the Commission will consider the report and return with proposals "after the summer." Any legislation would still need approval from the European Parliament and the EU's 27 member countries before becoming law across the bloc.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/tech/964565/eu-children-social-media-online-safety-rules
[2] https://x.com/vonderleyen/status/2076578235568083069?s=20
Kick 'em outside (Score:3)
Mandate teenagers go outside and interact with their peers. While I'm sure that this idea might at first horrify some of you, there's nothing that says they can't go play D&D together or any number of nerdy things that everyone here did before the internet existed. Social media should have an age restriction at least as great as alcohol and tobacco, if not higher.
Re: (Score:1)
Seconded.
Re: Kick 'em outside (Score:2)
I think we are focussing too much on kids. Do the same for all ages. 1 hour outside? 1 hour social media.
Electronic cyber drugs (Score:2)
It's hard to argue with this after reading the latest Penny Arcade comic, which aptly described screen time as "An infinite casino unfolding in the mind of a toddler."
[1]https://www.penny-arcade.com/c... [penny-arcade.com]
[1] https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2026/07/13/rex-ready-player-one-part-four
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, people still ready penny arcade in the year of our lord 2026?
What’s next, a link to stile project?
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, that's a big change from their views back in 2014:
[1]https://www.penny-arcade.com/c... [penny-arcade.com]
[1] https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2014/06/30/quantification
Supervision? (Score:2)
> supervised internet use for those under 13
And whom will be doing this supervision?
Re: (Score:3)
The Commission hasn't yet made proposals so we don't know what will be in the law. However, the report they were handed today says:
3 TO 12 YEARS OLD
Supervised use of age-appropriate social media+ and devices
Children should not be allowed unsupervised use of internet-enabled devices. Schools should provide the facilities for supervised and limited use of devices for educational purposes supporting digital and media literacy, emotional resilience, and critical reflection on risks. Parents and caregivers shoul
Start building sites that aren't social media (Score:2)
But let people share their thoughts without being social. Kind of like Slashdot.
Kind of like Slashdot. (Score:2)
Slashdot is the only Social Media site i use, and you can see from my ID# that I am not a teenager.
Good (Score:3)
Social media companies have a solid strategy to hook people in early. After all, if social media is a part of your growing up, it becomes an inseparable part of your identity. That's why they fight so hard for access to children - they're trying to build returning customers for life, and these sort of schemes are outright abuse.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not just hooking them in early, its hooking them in and keeping their eyeballs on the screen with psychological manipulation (infinite scroll, and visual cues) to sell ads.
Re: Good (Score:2)
I am the father of a fifteen year old daughter. To my surprise she mostly uses Whatsapp with her friends. Maybe, with all the negativity surrounding social media, times are changing?
ID Checks (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't about protecting kids, it's about identifying adults.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly this.
Re: (Score:2)
What a load of BS.
"It is about when social media can access our children."
Re: (Score:2)
Standard predigested response for any attempt to protect children from greed. "It's not about the kids. It's all about me - me and my freedom".
Re: (Score:2)
Or... something being claimed to "protect kids" doesn't mean it is immune from having issues that can cause problems / need to be addressed, not pushed through because it is claimed to be needed to protect kids.
Your response reads, IMO, as "a predigested response from those unable to handle, or comprehend, the idea of having criticism for something."
Re: (Score:2)
> This isn't about protecting kids, it's about identifying adults.
Even if identifying adults is true, there's no reason it can't be both at once especially given the evidence of harm, ... which makes your post objectively false.
Re: (Score:2)
Social media harms adults as much as it does kid. What defines social media anyway? A forum? An AOL chat room? Neocities? What is off limits now? Could a kid even make a Geocities or Tripod page today with these limits?
These types of laws go down the path where every website or app you produce will require registration to the government permanently tying what you put up to your identity. It has absolutely nothing to do with protecting children. That's the lie they sell. Facebook was literally started the
This would have been less of an issue... (Score:3)
...if youth clubs, libraries etc hadn't been closed down everywhere. Where are kids supposed to go in the evenings?
Re: This would have been less of an issue... (Score:2)
EU here... Still open... Our town even has a bar for teenagers. (Alcohol at 16 here). Cheers!
Worse than Joe Camel? (Score:2)
Big Tobacco business model needed to hook teenagers on their products which they did with WW2 GIs. The negative health effects over time are physical and easy to illustrate - think autopsies of lungs of smokers vs non-smokers. But it still took 50 years, from WW2 to the 1964 Surgeon General report to the 1990's to get smoking banned in most public places. Big Tech/ Social Media business model needs people addicted to their products too - laptops and lots of screens in grade schools, social media platform
Middle ground was lost (Score:2)
It is all or nothing. We can't seem to do middle ground, or reasonable. There is plenty of good to be had online and used in the correct manner, but that would require parents to be RESPONSIBLE rather than abdicate to TV or whatever else is handy.
Re: Middle ground was lost (Score:2)
Parents need to be responsible. But that is not how society works. A majority of parents are ok. A not so small minority are not, due to a lot of reasons, bad luck, not smart enough, ...
Similar with alcohol. Parents should just learn their kids to drink responsibly. It would actually work. But not for everyone...
Oh no. What shall we do. (Score:1)
It's almost as if they changed the platform so much from being actual social media, as in seeing what my friends are sharing about life, to burying all the real posts with crappy algorithm videos and ads. I've had a lingerie ad front page on my feeds for days now even after reporting it and saying not interested.
Hear he screams of the pedos (Score:2)
who will loose access to tens of millions of children.
Even if they can only get at 1% of them that is hundreds of thousands of kids exposed to the Epstein class
Perhaps this will force tech to come up with a solution that will reduce the risks to BOTH SIDES of this issue, kids and those that want privacy.
Doing nothing achieves nothing.
Terrible idea (Score:5, Funny)
How are we supposed to sell ad space in children's loot box games if the government takes away all of our users?