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Comment by karlgkk

9 days ago

> Obviously, it's not for protecting children

Frankly, this is false. There's a lot of well intentioned people writing these laws and pushing for them.

> Obviously, it's a technocratic trojan horse for increasing surveillance capabilities on digital systems.

However, it is also this.

And that's not a tradeoff I think we should make as a society.

8 comments

karlgkk

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PeterStuer  8 days ago

"well intentioned people"

I believe the standard nomenclature is "useful idiots".

  • karlgkk  7 days ago

    > I believe the standard nomenclature is "useful idiots".

    I don't. This snark really lets you downplay them and willingly ignore people who are concerned about a real problem. And then you'll act surprised when they get traction and you've been laughing the whole time.

    I think there is a solution, and it's to prevent companies from offering social features to children. Full stop. No age verification, just make it a "ban on sight" thing.

givinguflac  8 days ago

> There's a lot of well intentioned people writing these laws and pushing for them.

No, there absolutely are not. There are Meta et al and their international lobbyists, pushing copy-paste bills. Anyone pearl clutching for the kids is an idiot, or is paid off.

  • freedomben  8 days ago

    If it makes you feel better to turn people who disagree with you into cartoon villains, then more power to you. But you'll lose the debate because you will only engage in strawman arguments. There are real arguments in favor of this that should not be dismissed, but should be embraced and we should explain why those arguments are weaker than ours.

    I feel extremely strongly that this is a Trojan horse that will expand surveillance and control by governments and giant corporations, and ultimately be used to lock us out of our own devices. I think many people supporting this are well-meaning but extremely naive. Meta is not naive of course, they expect to come out on the top of this as a giant corporation. But there are millions upon millions of people who do support this that are not going to come out on top. Those are also the people we need to convince. We're not going to change meta's mind, but we might be able to change others minds.