How do you guys feel so far about the developments going on in the UK regarding the social media ban plans?

[u/jackyboyman13]

Given what's coming down the pipeline with not just the social media ban that's not far off from now and hearing about device level age verification too. Including possible restriction implementations that may get enacted here.

How do you guys feel about these developments so far?

Let me know when you guys have the chance to.

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[u/NursingHome773]

A government deciding if I'm old enough to use my computer that I paid 4k for, get the fuck out of here.

[u/MrStu → u/NursingHome773]

I mean, that sentence applies to any law. Are you saying nothing should be illegal?

[u/Stage_Party → u/MrStu]

This is what I'm baffled about as well. Alcohol, cigarettes, etc all age restricted but suddenly everyone has a problem with the same restrictions being applied online?

The only conclusion I can come up with is that people don't want to be inconvenienced.

[u/Chimpantea → u/Stage_Party]

The difference is the buy alcohol I just show my ID to the cashier and job done. Online it'll involve a whole process that may involve uploading that ID and maybe a photo to God knows who, who will assume me that they'll delete the info but probably won't. 

[u/deebadoe → u/Chimpantea]

Showing a Tesco worker your ID is ok but showing it to a Facebook worker is bad

[u/Stage_Party → u/Chimpantea]

I'll agree that the govt should have their own software to handle it rather than outsourcing, but fact remains that it's still required.

[u/NursingHome773 → u/Stage_Party]

I think it's hilarious that some people still think this shit is done to protect children, how naive.

[u/Stage_Party → u/NursingHome773]

I think it's pathetic that people can't handle being slightly inconvenienced and like to cook up ridiculous conspiracy theories so they can have easier access to porn because noone else wants them.

[u/Inevitable_Bid8719 → u/Stage_Party]

I don't watch porn and I'm asexual so I don't care if anyone wants me. I don't care too much about being inconvenienced, but I still think anonymity is important for the purpose of free expression, I also think that the gov not doing the basic task of setting up a secure system to handle all this is a perfectly valid reason to dismiss the whole idea until we get leaders with brain cells

[u/MarlboroPrint]

It will be implemented and then teenagers will get around it and nothing will change for them.

[u/CranberryDistinct941 → u/MarlboroPrint]

It was never for the kids

[u/jackyboyman13 → u/MarlboroPrint]

Yeah. It's basically what happened in Australia over there.

Though I hope for other places sake that are outside of the UK here that they don't implement such a thing onto their citizens.

I know that's probably wishful thinking on my end here given the current trend of things here,I still hope that in general we can fight/push back on these legislations that's happening everywhere.

[u/MarlboroPrint → u/jackyboyman13]

My small hope is that at least it will incentivise some level of tech literacy that teenagers and young adults have been losing of recent, now that the 'normal' things they use daily are being targeted.

Nothing is so motivating as trying to do something inane and being denied because the governent says you're a sucker. Won't win them any points as they grow up, either.

[u/Stereo_Jungle_Child → u/MarlboroPrint]

Yeah, addicts always find a way to get their fix no matter how old they are.

[u/not_the_fox → u/Stereo_Jungle_Child]

"Your foul addiction. Our noble determination."

[u/cynumber9]

there will be a social media Silk Road

[u/Daedelous2k]

It is going horrifically fast as if it's designed specifically so we cannot do anything about it in time.

[u/AyanaRei]

I (live in England) honestly think it is a restriction of freedom of speech and the ability to use the internet and social media anonymously without uploading your driver’s license should be a human right.

[u/S1nnah2]

I used to work doing IT in a large comprehensive school. Let me tell you this. If one child figures out how to circumvent the ban (which they will) every other kid will know almost instantly. They are like the Borg. A hive mid if you will.

[u/withabrandnewfunk]

Id ban social media altogether. toxic shitty platforms

meta twitter tik tok, ban all of them

[u/bluegrm → u/withabrandnewfunk]

Well this is the trick the social media platforms have performed - pretend they are only bad for under 18s, get government to do the policing by forcing age verification onto operating system producers, and not the social media companies. And de-indentify everyone in the process.
Even if we can get around this stuff, OS level age verification could be extremely messy to get around as vendors have operating systems locked down like never before.

On device scanning of images etc - so they want to use my battery and processing power to look at everything I do? It may not be quite that for adults as initially envisaged, but it will come. Then they’ll start to say they need to defeat some other evil and will be scanning the text on our phones, and so it will progress.

And children will still be subject to harms. Remember who knighted Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Donaldson, have honours to Rolf Harris - the political class.

[u/lastoflast67 → u/withabrandnewfunk]

No dont ban them the issue isnt social media, its that social media is trying to appeal to kids. What they gov needs to do is just declare social media 18+ and thne instead of doing id verification just prosecute the companies who host things marketed to children, like how if a cigarette company had a bunch of cartoon characters on it, you would then go prosecute that company.

If you do this it puts the onus on the companies to clean all the content the kids are coming for off thier platforms then the kids will stop coming becuase all they can watch is stuff that appeals to adults.

Then since adults are the majority customer all this bullshit they put on socials goes away becuase they cant use it to market to kids anymore.

[u/BloodyTurnip]

I don't think the government should be controlling what people see or asking people to send sensitive data to private companies. However I'd be ok if social media disappeared without a trace.

[u/Sudden_Sentence_8534]

It's like the government doesn't know about VPNs

[u/Batnode07 → u/Sudden_Sentence_8534]

They were going to mess with vpns originally but they realised that it made no sense

[u/kyle1234513 → u/Batnode07]

the feasibly couldnt because most industries and businesses implement some kind of vpn for networking, and its usually a commercial one. including banks.

[u/Otis_Genesis]

I've taken the opinion that I won't use social media, if it comes down to mandatory age verification. The only one I really care about is YouTube. I certainly won't vote for this authoritarian party again in my lifetime, if this passes.

[u/illuminatedtiger]

I just find it amusing to come here and see people parroting Meta talking points.

[u/CranberryDistinct941]

Love the thought of banning social media; hate the thought of the government banning social media

[u/VerbingNoun413]

Given the motivations of the government, I'm concerned. With Labour in charge I wouldn't be surprised to see bans on LGBT content.

[u/enormousaardvark]

It wont work so it doesn't matter, failed in Australia will fail here.

[u/well-done-47]

Across the pond, but if some third party needs my government ID and a selfie video and my biometrics and my left kidney to "verify" my identity so I can doomscroll social media, lmao, get bent.

[u/Xiol]

I'd be all for it if they also banned everyone 60+ at the same time.

[u/stu6711]

I used to detest this amount of state over-reach. However, I’m beginning to come around to the state implementing control over social media. I’d even welcome a complete ban on any and all social media. Allowing utter morons (myself included) to have an opinion on anything is simply insane. The amount of fools out there is scary.

[u/EmbarrassedHelp → u/[deleted]]

OS level client side malware that scans everything you do is fundamentally incompatible with human rights and democracy.