Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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We lost, big tech won (lemmy.ml)

submitted 12 hours ago by AmonTheMetalHead@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

EXCLUSIVE: EU could announce social media ban for kids in September

Von der Leyen is expected to use her annual State of the Union speech to unveil plans for EU-wide age restrictions on social media

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[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

To a large degree, yes, but blanket bans on social media use for minors will fail for multiple reasons.

This has already been the case in Australia, and the latest numbers indicate that a vast majority of youth still access social media via black/grey market account purchasing, VPNs, and other methods.
The ban doesn't include some popular platforms like Telegram, which arguably provide a more risky experience, due to it being a popular platform for criminal activities.
Taking away a huge swath of social platforms from kids without providing any constructive or healthy alternatives will mainly encourage destructive behaviors.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

On the bright side, young people are learning about circumventing government censorship.

[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Very true, but that may make things worse down the line. Once they realize that kids are circumventing their restrictions, they won't think, "Hmm, maybe a blanket ban of social media for minors wasn't a great idea." They're just going to double down and say that there needs to be more hardcore restrictions on all internet/computer activity. More sensorship, more data harvesting, mandatory governement spyware in all devices.

Essentially the Great Firewall in China. Many governments have already expressed interest in modeling national internet access after China.