There is so much to he said about the hypocrisy of France's proposed #SocialMediaBan for children, but let's start with this quote from President #Macron:
"The emotions of our #children and #teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, either by American #platforms or Chinese #algorithms."
As if those were the only two God-given options. He'd rather ban an entire idea than help us build something better.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/27/france-social-media-ban-under-15s
@ilumium The evidence is very clear: social media is addictive, and indeed, was designed from the beginning to be addictive:
https://stanfordreview.org/how-stanford-profits-tech-addiction-social-media/
It is also clear that there is immense harm, especially to young people. Other addictive activities like gambling, alcohol, drugs, etc. are also regulated, including age restrictions.
We need a better response than "no bans". We need to rally behind effective regulation. Otherwise totalitarian-minded politician will get onerous bans into law
@thomasdorr @ilumium Social media is a very profitable product. There have been massive resources devoted to helping people with addiction. Even in Austria, with a capable social state, relatively well resourced schools, addiction programs, etc, digital media addictions remain a problem. There is nowhere in the world that does not regulate addictive things, especially for children.
I'm also incredibly sad that these forces have turned software into addictive drugs. https://guardianproject.info/2021/02/18/usability-the-wonderful-powerful-idea-that-betrayed-us/
@eighthave
How about educating the people you're protecting instead?
Bans tend to be circumvented.
Regulations tend to work on products, but social discourse is ephemeral and not limited to products...
@ilumium