> [UK] Government to drive action to improve children’s relationship with mobile phones and social media
It looks like the immediate legislative proposal to ban children from much of the Internet will fail, but expect a *lot* more about this in coming weeks.
Time to set up a local copy of Wikipedia (Kiwix), before UK children are banned from accessing it, and everyone has to show their papers to enable that?
You’re being too optimistic.
It seems like Lords is going to pass Nash’s horrible social media ban literally tomorrow.
And now there are 60 Labour MPs that sent a letter to Starmer asking him to accept Nash’s amendment in Commons, seemingly without even rewording the amendment.
Starmer himself wants to slow down and make a decision on a social media ban a few months from now. But it really is unclear that he’ll actually be allowed to do that.
We live in interesting times, don't we!
@neil Did you mean to say “kiwix”?
@neil I always thought your blog about a local copy of Wikipedia was cool but didn't see the point. I think I do now ☹️
@neil All indications suggests the UK gov does not really want a full on Aus under 16 ban and are looking at other stuff, this consultation is about kicking that can down the road.
Also courts have already put the UK gov and Ofcom on thin ice about going after Wikipedia so...
If the UK does end up with a ban on children using social media, I will be most interested to see how "social media" is defined.
Will it just be named, large services?
Will it include the fediverse?
Forums? Anything with user-user interaction?
Messaging services?
Perhaps there will be thresholds, which exempt most fedi servers, individual XMPP servers etc.
Who knows at this point.
@neil kids even in school use shared documents as social media to work around blocks. You'd basically have to stop kids being able to do school work.
@neil I would not expect anything sensible or proportionate at this point.
@neil @Tattooed_Mummy It will be interesting to see how they define it in a way that doesn’t include Google Workspace for Education (for example).
@neil what are the chances that there will be a thoughtful and insightful debate that creates legislation that constrains the tech companies that actively exploit and manipulate children?
@neil No more USENET unless you can upload a scan of your passport! 😜
@neil Can’t wait for the exciting future where children are kept safe from interacting with their friends online and get all their advice and support from ChatGPT instead
@neil With the UK's ability to "swing and miss" when it comes to crafting tech-related legislation (think: Google tax), I would be surprised if a social media ban somehow leaves Facebook and X operating while somehow banning the BBC Bitesize revision website.
@neil You ever hear that story about a bunch of kids using Google Slides in school as a form of social media to get around the school blocks? Kids always find a way 🤣
@neil The most likely thing is that the US will flip out at them on behalf of Meta et al and make them drop it.
Which is bad, obviously, but in this one case might end up stopping a stupid law.
@neil not in the UK, but in my previous job (consumer-facing technology for a retail chain, 75% groceries), I used to wonder if our “shopping lists” app should be counted as a communication service. You can share a grocery list, add items from the store, then write your own notes on the items to look at when you’re in the store.
My wife sometimes writes silly jokes for me in the item notes. It’s definitely peer-to-peer communication, but I doubt people would think to actually implement rules like this in a service like that.
Now I’m imagining a future where UK’s teens adopt a Finnish grocery app as their default method of chatting because everything else has been age-gated.
> I used to wonder if our “shopping lists” app should be counted as a communication service
IMHO, a multiparty / collaborative shopping list service, if both a telecoms service under the UK's investigatory powers framework, and if it is accessible over the Internet, a user-to-user service under the UK's online safety framework.
@neil typically Westminster "something must be done" witless legislation. Tackling the omnipotence of giant advertising-driven right-wing techno-corps feeding poison to our children? Not on the agenda: they're basically just st doing the same as most traditional British media... 😭☹️🤬
@neil given new sites can be setup in minutes, how on earth would any law be enforced?
@neil or will it be the playground? if it is the playground, then why not the Metaverse #metaverse
@neil I feel yahoo groups (or similar) will have a resurgence
@neil I think almost all of this is unenforceable in reality. It will just be a pain. It will Make geeky kids use dangerous workarounds, and non techy adults lose a lot of contact with friends
@neil
A nice test bed to closely watch. Will be a good template for any EU lawmaking to follow.
