That seems to be Australia's approach, but so far it isn't working. Kids easily evade the age checks with scrunched-up faces, video game characters, fake IDs, whatever it takes.

Must every generation learn the hard way that keeping kids from chatting and exploring is impossible? I thought we learned this in the 1990s. Must we burn the entire Internet to ashes, leaving no trace of what was once humanity's crowning achievement, before we give up on this fool's errand?

@camertron

I wish it was only Boomers saying that. From what I hear, Gen Z is of that opinion now. I can't even.

@camertron

Yeah. I remember when people were blaming Doom for the Columbine shooting. It was and remains absolutely baffling.

I played Doom. The player character is a heroic Marine battling an invasion of demons from hell. At no point does the game involve shooting defenseless children or anything similarly immoral.

And yet, somehow, it was the subject of public outrage.

No doubt stoked by interests with media connections, back in the bad old days before Internet fact checking…

@camertron

The world has been unkind and polarized since our distant ancestors were fashioning clubs from fallen branches and using them on rival tribes. None of this is new. It has come and gone in cycles, and this is one of them.

Yes, that culture of “efficiency” should be tossed out in favor of a culture of calm cooperation. Fortunately, quite a lot of people agree with you, and that is exactly what seems to be slowly happening.

Maybe this time it'll be permanent.

@camertron

Why is it that whenever one kid is abusive toward another, so many people's first and only impulse is to punish the victim?

Because that's what's happening here. First a kid gets bullied at school, and then the government takes away Internet chat. The victim suffers the psychological torture of what is basically solitary confinement while the bullies walk free.

This is not right. This is what the baddies do.

@camertron

I'm not hearing people scream to ban kids from Facebook and TikTok. I'm hearing people scream to ban kids from absolutely everything—search engines, video games, forums, Mastodon, Wikipedia, even their own computers.

That's not how you protect children from harm. That's how you *cause* terrible harm, to children and adults alike.

@camertron

One doesn't have to look far to see many instances of bullying on Facebook and TikTok the platforms did nothing to try to stop that led directly to teen suicides.

Facebook is not good for children, nor is TikTok. These platforms have been shown repeatedly to work to make their platforms addictive. This is actively harmful to children. They also do very little to try to keep children safe on their platforms.

I am 100% for a Facebook and TikTok ban.

To call these equivalent to IRC is ridiculous, unfair, and frankly dishonest.

The best way to address this is to call their bluff with a general strike.

"Oh youre gonna replace us with AI? Ok, go ahead and do it."

Can't confirm. These machines made my life possible at all. When I got bullied in school, Internet chat became my only available form of social contact. Without it, I'd have had no one but my parents to talk to.

That was when I was 12.

Which is why it absolutely breaks my heart to hear people say kids should be kicked out of social media. What an awful idea! They're going to ruin a lot of innocent children's lives and mental health that way.