The legislation would also prohibit cellphone use during the school day.
genuine question but can i ask why restricting minors from social media is such a bad thing? im obviously not as educated so im viewing this surface level, but wouldnt this theoretically lead to better overall outcomes? i feel like social media has done a decent amount more harm than good, no?
the reason why it's bad because it will make everyone have to verify their age to use social media which can create bad privacy risks such as having their ids exposed on the internet, putting people at risk for identity theft.
no, the reason it's bad is that social media is a huge part of how people communicate with friends and family, express their ideas and beliefs, form and sustain community, develop individual and group identities, and participate in democratic society, and children have the right to do all of those things because they are human beings.
these laws are not bad (just) because of their side effects, they are bad because their stated goals are immoral.
This kind of rhetoric frustrates me to no end. Laws banning "minors" from social media are bad because young people should be more free, not face state hypersurveillance or ever more extreme parental regulation of their lives. The idea that these laws are bad because of how the affect adults betrays a view of young people as less than human, as less than deserving of freedoms, and of their oppression as morally justified.
"Protecting" kids by subjecting them to state violence and surveillance denies them their humanity.
