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Seriously? I don't think you can put that genie back in the bottle...

BBC: Under-16s to be banned from TikTok, YouTube and other social media by next spring, Starmer says

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c77yx1jpg1nt

#ukpol

@ai6yr

I continue to wonder where the push for these blanket bans on social media, cell phones, etc. are coming from.

Since they manifestly do not help anyone.

@michael_w_busch @ai6yr the desire for mass surveilence. Such a ban cannot be implemented without mass age verification.

@JustinMac84 @ai6yr

The version here in Minnesota would involve "age estimation" done explicitly by surveilling everyone online.

I am just wondering if this is Facebook / Google / etc. pushing for bans that enable them to do more of the surveillance capitalism they already do to avoid actual effective regulation.

Or if there is some other motivation.

@michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr AIUI Meta is lobbying *hard* for age verification to be mandated at every level and farmed out to the OS provider. Otherwise they'd be required to moderate their user contributed content, which annoys the shouty neo-nazis who generate the most advertising click-throughs. (They're not yet ready to switch to 100% AI-generated slop content, which would save on the moderation.)

@cstross @michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr

I stumbled on a plausible argument that News corp is a big reason for pushing to ban teens from social media to get them back on traditional media.

https://www.techpolicy.press/youve-been-murdoched-australias-teen-ban-offers-a-warning-for-europe/

Having Australia and the UK be the first to go hard for teen bans is certainly consistent with it being due to news corp lobbying

You've Been Murdoched: Australia’s Teen Ban Offers a Warning for Europe

Before Brussels follows Canberra's example, it is worth asking how Australia got there — and who was actually driving the machine, and why.

Tech Policy Press
@alienghic @cstross @michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr Living in Australia, it was blatantly obvious that the ban was being pushed hardest by Murdoch-owned outlets, Murdoch-influenced outlets, and Murchoch-owned politicians - er, sorry, "politicians to whom very rich people sometimes make donations..."

@Bern

I'm glad to hear personal experience supports this explanation, I'm always a bit worried trusting things on the net these days.