Posted on 01/26/2024 5:31:12 AM PST by V_TWIN
Florida lawmakers advanced a bill on Wednesday that would prohibit social media platforms from allowing young teens to have an account while requiring everyone else to verify their age.
The measure prohibits anyone under 16 from creating a new social media account and requires platforms to delete existing accounts held by minors who are younger than 16. It also would require social media companies to delete any personal information from the accounts and for the platforms to use a “nongovernmental, independent, third-party not affiliated with the social media platform” to verify users’ age.
The bill passed the Florida house with a bipartisan 106-13 vote and now heads to the Republican-controlled senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
While I agree with the sentiment, this is a really stupid thing for them to try. More laws won’t fix the problems in this country.
I 100% support this but somehow I think the courts will twist and turn and decide children have more rights than voting adult citizens.
We don’t let minors consume pron, social media is even more destructive.
So you think laws against minors viewing pron are equally stupid? How progressive of you.
The courts have to face that children can’t sign contracts and that social media companies are precluded from exploiting children much more severely than adults.
I get it. But this just makes a bad look. And it will be entirely ignored and kids will find loopholes.
If you have a reliable way to track the age filter, then the identity of the person is also tracked by a “non-governmental third party”. Experian, Microsoft, Amazon are all “non-governmental 3rd parties” with lots of info that are happy to sell the information to the government. They are taking on quasi-governmental attributes themselves.
Explain how your post coincides with your FR homepage.
If you seriously want to tackle this with regulation, then regulate what can be “collected” from accounts and how much it can sell for. This is assuming that Zuckerberg doesn’t already own your government’s a$$. Also, you can prohibit any of it from going out of the country.
All of the evil crap will whither on the vine and go away.
I know, I know - this doesn’t sound like Reagan. But neither does what is being proposed, and at least it attacks the real problem and not just for kids.
To my mind, it’s a contract...and there’s an age limit as to who can make a valid contract.
Legislation is no substitute for parenting.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
You can’t legislate morality. etc. etc. etc...
Does becoming a politician turn humans into idiots, or is being an idiot prerequisite to a career in politics?
Exactly. On social media sites the product being sold is the person who holds the account. Your information is being sold to many many companies. A person under 18 cannot enter into that type of contract.
EC
And just how is this going to be enforced? I hope it dies. It is one thing to prohibit inappropriate outright pornographic material in schools but this is going overboard.
For many kids social media ends up being a life line. The concentration should be on those who misuse it for stuff like stalking, bullying, exploiting. Laws exist to address that.
Ah, how cute. You forgot to ask if I got my opinion from Fox news.
And do you really think that the current laws against minors viewing pron are stopping minors from consuming (or even creating) pron, then you are very naive.
The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough laws. The problem is that the liberalization of society has destroyed the morals.
Prerequisite. Egomania and sociopathy are good qualities as well.
Where does the law read it only prevents them from having accounts at adult only sites?
What a false equivalence.
Not sure I understand what exactly you are implying but to be clearer.
I do not believe minors (children) do not have the same rights as adults, not even close. That being said banning minors from destructive materials is reasonable as long as it does not infringe on parental rights and the associated activities that are not inherently destructive to children.
Now the issue is, of course, who determines what those behaviors our, unfortunately no one is perfect so many will disagree about where the line is.
All that being said social media, imho, has proven to be at least equally if not more destructive than pron.
As a personal note I know a family (friends) whose 14 yr old committed suicide because of activities over social media. Social media unfettered is inappropriate for children, period!
Morons.
Social media is a resource but can do much damage. It’s stupid to make a law that cannot be enforced. Kids have friends, older sibs that can get access for them. Heavy handed misguided laws are no substitute for concerned involved parents. The State is intrusive enough, too apt to remove rights from parents.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.