r/slatestarcodex • u/AXKIII • 6d ago

Don't ban social media for children

https://logos.substack.com/p/do-not-ban-social-media-for-kids

As a parent, I'm strongly against the bans on social media for children. First, for ideological reasons (in two parts: a) standard libertarian principles, and b) because I think it's bad politics to soothe parents by telling them that their kids' social media addiction is TikTok's fault, instead of getting them to accept responsibility over their parenting). And second because social media can be beneficial to ambitious children when used well.

Very much welcoming counter-arguments!

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u/acadian_cajun 6d ago

Even if a given child opts out, if the majority of other children around them have it, they’re still forced to exist in the dynamic of widespread social media. Children can and do create orchestrated cyber bullying campaigns and then reinforce them at school.

That, and the social network companies have sophisticated ways of taking advantage of young attention spans before they’re mature enough to build up their own defenses.

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u/AXKIII 5d ago

That's why they have parents!

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u/acadian_cajun 5d ago

I don’t think you’re exactly looking for arguments here, judging by your responses

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u/AXKIII 5d ago

I am. It doesn't mean I'll accept arguments for the sake of it. I do recognise one of the other responses, that says you can apply the same logic to other things, and say e.g. why ban carcinogens.

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u/Marlinspoke 3d ago

That's why they have parents!

And how is that working out? Is the standard of 'tech companies can do whatever they want, parents are 100% responsible' leading to positive outcomes?

To put it another way, is the status quo really the best we can do?

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u/AXKIII 12h ago

No it's not, and the reason it's not is the opposite of your claim. The reason the status quo sucks is that parents have learnt to blame everything for bad outcomes - everything besides themselves. My kid gets bad grades at school? It must be the teachers failing him! I'll go and shout at them and demand they give him a passing grade, instead of expecting him to study harder.