@neil I'm really not sure what the authors hope to achieve with this.

I think it will also lock out a lot of people from these services, because I already get shut out of sites that mistake me for a bot. How many age verification services will unintentionally fail to work with assistive technologies? Will they be forced to protect the data they process? What if someone finds a way to impersonate others (of course they will)?

This protects no one and will bring significant harm to many.

@neil make IRC great again!

@neil the last section of the article is hilarious

@neil My first thought when I saw that was 'who did they poll, how many people was it, and what question was asked'.

I wasn't prepared to buy the paper to find out.. although I'd not be surprised if it turned out to be 100 members of mumsnetg.

@neil Daily Mail? If so, it was just them taking a break from stories about either the royal family or the dambusters raid.

@neil I'm not sure how the UK one compares to the recent rollout in Australia but it was a colossal failure.

- VPN usage skyrocketed
- Less-known social networks not covered in the ban went to the top of the app store
- Teens largely carried on as if nothing had happened

I'm not really adverse to kicking anyone off algorithmic social media but it's the lifeblood to that generation and they're going to scoot around like every previous generation has.

@neil I mean, they've already blocked teenagers from getting help and knowledge from the Internet that may support them at their most vulnerable time around subjects such as depression and their sexuality.

Why not go further and remove any method of social connection from them.

Unfortunately my MP has jumped on the "think of the children" bandwagon, without actually thinking of what the children need.

@neil that would be interesting, as I refuse to participate in age verification. 🤔

@neil I feel that you get a very different question deepening on how you phrase it.

As you say - "ask every adult to go through age verification for every messaging service" is far less likely to be supported than "protect kids from bad internet thing".

And as always, I would rather see more education, and perhaps social media somehow encouraged to be better somehow, than bans which leave 16 years olds totally unprepared for reality.

@neil as someone broadly in favour of this but also who spent his teenage life on Queer Youth Network I’d appreciate discussing this with you (or someone who follows you who is interested and knowledgeable in public policy) to probe the space a bit and encounter new arguments for and against

@neil this survey presupposes that those under sixteen are not "people", i think.

@neil as a parent to teens (who also fall into other minority groups) I am getting increasingly tired of this government trying to control how I raise them.

I'm doing my best, with what I have, for the specific individuals in my care. The government haven't a clue what that actually looks like or why, but they keep trying to interfere and constrain. And they keep telling me it's for my children's welfare when I can see the blatant direct damage.

@neil maybe instead of "social media ban under xx yo"
We should go for a shorted version aka: "media ban."
Wouldn't it work better just to ban everything?

Internet

Phones

Newspapers

TV

/S

I am unconvinced that, as a matter of policy, banning under 16s from social media is sensible / appropriate anyway, even if these flaws were addressed.