My opinion: no.
Children under certain age have no capacity to detect malice or disinformation when interacting with others, especially adults and algorithms bent on harm.
Hell, most adults probably aren’t.
But as long as a child has a guardian, it’s the guardian’s responsibility to teach, guide and protect.
Letting a child lose into the internet is harmful, just like letting one out into a city.
I don’t think age verification is a particularly good tool to enforce that, but I don’t know what is, on a societal level.
I agree with this. I don’t think any of the legislation put forward, in multiple countries, with the stated goals of “protecting the children” are actually meant to protect the children. If they were I would indeed support them because I have watched friends struggle with their children. But I’m not entirely sure legislating this problem away is even possible.
But parents I know can sit right next to their kids while they have screen time and some of the stuff that gets sent to their children’s devices is questionable. It’s a lot of emotional and mental labor constantly on parents to course correct some of that sometimes sneaky content. And this is a dual working home who are already stretched thin on time and energy. And banning the older children from devices altogether is pretty much impossible because of school and peers.
I saw a post the other day and it made a valid point. When we were kids there seemed to be a lot more sites with games and stuff geared toward children like Neopets and I remember Gaiaonline fondly. Were there some questionable things? Sure, it was the Wild West of the Internet and I had like zero and I mean zero supervision online, but there just seemed to be more stuff explicitly for kids. Games, interactive educational sites, chats and forums. Not just “versions” of things for kids.
Perhaps I am missing something? Someone please jump in if I am misguided on the apps and sites available today. I would gladly pass that info along to some pairs of parents I know.
My opinion: no. Children under certain age have no capacity to detect malice or disinformation when interacting with others, especially adults and algorithms bent on harm.
Hell, most adults probably aren’t. But as long as a child has a guardian, it’s the guardian’s responsibility to teach, guide and protect.
Letting a child lose into the internet is harmful, just like letting one out into a city.
I don’t think age verification is a particularly good tool to enforce that, but I don’t know what is, on a societal level.
I do agree with the stated goals tho.
I was being sarcastic. I’m surprised no one noticed.
Usually it’s “fuck this! Parents should do their job!” Around here and in gamer/tech nerd spaces.
I agree with this. I don’t think any of the legislation put forward, in multiple countries, with the stated goals of “protecting the children” are actually meant to protect the children. If they were I would indeed support them because I have watched friends struggle with their children. But I’m not entirely sure legislating this problem away is even possible.
But parents I know can sit right next to their kids while they have screen time and some of the stuff that gets sent to their children’s devices is questionable. It’s a lot of emotional and mental labor constantly on parents to course correct some of that sometimes sneaky content. And this is a dual working home who are already stretched thin on time and energy. And banning the older children from devices altogether is pretty much impossible because of school and peers.
I saw a post the other day and it made a valid point. When we were kids there seemed to be a lot more sites with games and stuff geared toward children like Neopets and I remember Gaiaonline fondly. Were there some questionable things? Sure, it was the Wild West of the Internet and I had like zero and I mean zero supervision online, but there just seemed to be more stuff explicitly for kids. Games, interactive educational sites, chats and forums. Not just “versions” of things for kids.
Perhaps I am missing something? Someone please jump in if I am misguided on the apps and sites available today. I would gladly pass that info along to some pairs of parents I know.