Most in Germany want Australia-style social media ban: poll – DW – 11/30/2024
www.dw.com
A survey has shown that a majority in Germany would support banning social media use for those under 16. This week, Australian lawmakers approved legislation to that effect.

Summary

A YouGov poll revealed that 77% of Germans support banning social media for those under 16, similar to a new Australian law.

The survey found that 82% believe social media harms young people, citing harmful content and addiction.

In Australia, the law fines platforms up to AUD 49.5 million (€30.5M) for allowing under-16s to create accounts, with enforcement trials set before implementation next year. Critics

  • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    7 hours ago

    Banning social media is the easy cowardly thing to do. Are our representatives to afraid to regulate big tech?

    Force these shitters to make their products healthier for all age groups. Yes it’s hard. Grow the fuck up, put on your big boy underpants and do your fucking job.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 hours ago

      Force these shitters to make their products healthier for all age groups.

      There’s a lot of nuance here, but in general I agree. Hank (of vlogbrothers and SciShow fame), summed this problem up brilliantly. To paraphrase: social media is engagement based, not quality based. Upvote/like content on all you want, but misinformation, propaganda, rage bait, and doom-scrolling fodder will dominate any platform where the only valued metric is eyeball time.

      So, the top-down solution would be to somehow strictly define how for-profit ranked media feeds and news aggregators are allowed to operate. Unintended consequences of such a law aside, I think it’s possible to legally define a “well-behaved” social media site, but it won’t be easy.