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UK: Under-16s to be banned from social media, Starmer announces (www.bbc.co.uk)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Under-16s will be banned from using social media, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced.

Starmer says social media is making children unhappy, making it easier for bullies to abuse children, and is "designed to be addictive". A ban would give children more time, security, and more freedom to grow up - as well as more opportunities, he adds.

"That is all any parent wants. They want to know that Britain will be better for their children, that they will get a fair chance," the PM says in a speech in Downing Street.

Starmer adds that the government is "not prepared to compromise" on the safety and happiness of children - and that includes in the regulation and enforcement of this ban. He says the government has listened to and learned from countries like Australia, where a similar ban has already been introduced.

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[–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

First of all, Don’t blatantly lie about the very thing you are linking to. It is not listed as social media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media#Decentralization_and_open_standards

"While the dominant social media platforms are not interoperable, open source protocols such as ActivityPub have been adopted by platforms such as Mastodon, GNU social, Diaspora, and Friendica. They operate as a loose federation of mostly volunteer-operated servers, called the Fediverse."

The problem isn't me wrongly referring to Lemmy and Reddit and other forums as social media. The problem is pretty much the entire world doing it. So until that gets fixed, it's probably best not to call for the destruction of social media.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    Just cause lots of people call something X, doesnt mean its X.

    Otherwise Trump would be a literal god. And web forums would actually be social media.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    My point is that if everyone is grabbing their pitchforks and planning to kill all the Lilliputians in town and they all wrongly think you're a Lilliputian, you want to address that first before joining the mob because they're coming for you too.

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