Can a law make social media less 'addictive'?
New York passed laws to protect children on social media: SAFE for Kids Act requires parental consent for addictive feeds and limits notifications; Child Data Protection Act restricts data collection. Debate ensues over enforceability and unintended consequences.
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New York recently passed two laws aimed at protecting children from the potential harms of social media. The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act requires parental consent for children under 18 to use apps with "addictive feeds" and limits notifications during certain hours. The New York Child Data Protection Act restricts the data collected by app providers. While some experts welcome these laws, others question their enforceability and potential unintended consequences. Concerns have been raised about the lack of clear scientific evidence linking social media to mental health issues and the potential for these laws to hinder addressing more pressing online dangers like child sexual abuse material and misinformation. Social media platforms have mixed responses to the legislation, with some industry bodies criticizing it as heavy-handed and unconstitutional. The debate continues on whether these laws will effectively address the complex issues surrounding children's use of social media or if a more comprehensive federal approach is needed.
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7 commentsI've been considering and trying to practice being kinder to myself, my phone, and my relationship with it. I still want to use less of it, but it's now a part of us, and will take time to almost amputate. I want to just stop feeding it, and let it die off slowly, peacefully instead of amputating it with a hacksaw.
Any kind of self-control based on shame seems doomed to be a vicious cycle.
I also think companies should be required to provide tools to strictly control what gets recommended to you. Social media companies think people "like" stuff if they engage with it, but that's only half the story. Those who are struggling with porn addiction or gambling addiction etc need a way to opt-out from any softcore thirst trap content or slots videos, etc.
Possibly so, to a certain extent, but in the end it's our personal responsibility to stay as much away as possible from the above things.
A: Many people are not aware that's a thing: "I did not click like on a racist video, but it keeps showing them to me", when in reality, the algorithm detected that you slowed down when shown that type of content so decided to feed more of it to you.
B: I targets your worse instinct (oh a half naked girl, maybe she has something interesting to say?), and if you're not aware of point A, it's a loosing battle. If you are aware of point A, it's constantly tiring to have to adjust you speed scroll etc.
I would personally make a GDPR type law that would require: "Any feed of user data must be presented in a non-opaque way, such as chronological, ranked by upvotes etc. Any personalized feed based on expectations of user preference should be entirely transparent, by allowing the user to access, modify their profile, as well as locking them (preventing future behaviour from changing the type of content you see).
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