Technology

Exactly!

It’s not about Totalizing Enforcement. What it changes is the cultural norm. Not right away but over time.

An age limit on alcohol never stopped anyone of any age to acquire alcohol, but it sets the societal bar for what’s acceptable. You don’t wanna be the parents that gave your kids alcoholic beverages at 13.

It’s always a little jarring how everyone very readily believes that the Scandinavian countries are the happiest in the world, but won’t believe that the incremental policy changes we implement here have any effect 🤷‍♂️

True democratic culture lies not in bourgeoisie domination (as many Americans like to believe), but rather in mutual trust and cooperation in order to solve common and big problems.

American here who has visited Scandinavia a couple times.

There are so many little differences, but they add up to a staggering divide in the amount of mutual trust and cooperation you see in little everyday interactions.

IIRC Norway has an actual Nat ID system, so assuming ðey develop a workable API for it ðis could actually be implemented quite easily.

Preventing kids stealing ðeir parents' IDs to open accounts anyway will be ð actual challenge.

True but would you prefer weak enforcement or strong enforcement?
Strong enforcement would likely involve the government having better records of your browsing habits.

You are correct, but i'd like to expand a bit on how it could be solved.

It requires that all major social networks use BankID for all traffic from Norway.

Bypassing it would require a VPN, which is a simple hurdle.

But the major win here is that parents will enforce this. Parents can point to this law and say that they have to be old enough. As long as enough parents enforce this law and the VPN requirement is there, then it will probably be effective enough

+1, where I live they made phones during school hours illegal. Literally NOTHING changed it's just that if they want to they can get people in trouble.

Well the devil is in the detail. However, what appears is being mooted is it will only affect big social media corporations. A Lemmy instance is hardly big business. Not that I'm discounting creeping regulation moving into the fediverse.

And most importantly: How would they enforce that? Kids have been lying about their ages since the dawn of internet.

Probably networks where users post personal data in conjunction with chat features. Obviously, Wikipedia is not social media in this regard and neither is a mailing list.

Social media isn’t bad inherently. Addictive algorithms, violation of user privacy, etc. is bad.

Cigarettes aren't bad for you. It's just the burning tar and the nicotine.

While all of that may be true, it doesn't necessarily negate the adverse affects social media can also have on young people.

I think you got lucky and found a community that accepted and welcomed you. But a lot of kids aren't as fortunate, and their experiences with social media are a lot more sinister. Children are more exposed to predators and harassment now than ever before.

I dunno that a full "ban until ___ years old" policy is the cure, either. But it's a start.