this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said a proposal to ban children under the age of 16 from social media will be part of the government’s work program, increasing its chances of becoming law.

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[–] arankays@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe we should instead punish the platforms who create addictive feeds and punish the users who spread Nazi content? Just an idea.

Of course, these politicians are in bed with the corporations so that'll never happen

[–] turtlesareneat@discuss.online 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why instead, we can do two things

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 day ago

Because issuing a prohibition is basically always a punishment of the people to distract from who is actually causing the problem.

From a political standpoint it very much is either/or, this is done to exhaust any momentum towards systemic change.

"Ban the children to protect them" is an extremely shortsighted way to approach any policy or social ill. Kids will find a way to access social media, and this ban means they'll need to do it in secret. So now anybody preying on them through those means has their implicit cooperation in covering up the abuse. That includes the media platforms themselves.

Also, why would you need to ban children from social media if the addictive strategies were under control?

A ban like this is only going to cause harm.

[–] Thalion@lemmy.ca 31 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Can we also ban anyone over the age of 16?

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

From social media, or like some Logan's Run kind of thing?

RIP lemmy.nz, you will be missed

[–] gradual@lemmings.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Seriously. This cannot happen soon enough.

Most adults aren't able to handle the barrage of 'influences' coming from social media. Children are completely helpless.

Every child who is unlucky enough to have parents that let them on social media before these laws come into effect is going to be hamstrung for a very long time.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

Abso-fucking-lutely.

[–] network_switch@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

I’d have to read more to see if I had any faith in its potential, article paywalled for me.

In my experience with friends, family, and coworkers when people show me crazy loony shit, it’s a YouTube video or a podcast. YouTube was always the #1 crackpot incubator but I think podcasts have passed up Facebook at #2. I don’t know what goes on in the lands of twitch.tv and if that gets categorized as social media and does it even matter since you don’t need an account to view

For a while I thought of Reddit as regularly trading position with 4chan as an anglosphere mass shooter’s favorite social media

Not long ago I finally saw clips of early 2000s Alex Jones 9/11 conspiracy vids. They were like the crazy stuff you’d see a coworker going off their rocker would start showing people on YouTube. I think I’d expect crackpot peddlers to adapt faster than government regulators for how they reach mass audiences

[–] al_Kaholic@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 1 day ago

Hmm if only there was a way to stop kids from having phones. Oh I got it new Zealand should ban kids! Problem solved. It worked for those unresponsible and untrustworthy adults and guns.

[–] Thistlewick@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I would like to know the plan here. They mention following in Australia’s footsteps, but as far as I can see, Australia is still trying to figure out how to implement this ban as well

The best they seem to have come up with for determining age without requiring an onlineID is letting AI look at your hands (NPR link.

Also, what is a social media? Because if you lock it down to specific sites and ban ‘Facebook’ and ‘X’, Musk or Zuck will just launch MashFace or Z, and get around the ban for a little bit longer. If you make it too broad, then kids could technically be excluded from text messaging.

All of this also assumes that a simple vpn won’t bypass all of this, the same way you can still watch pornhun in Texas that Ms to this weeks sponsor: SurfAtlus VPN.

[–] Maestro@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago

Honestly, I think the best way is just the old fasioned way of asking for your age. You don't want to tie social media to real IDs, and you don't want AI bullshit either. Yes, it is easily faked but that's not the point. The point is that you can simply ban the accounts when you find them for lying about their age.