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Comment by rixed | Hacker News Reader

I don't know... Are we looking back on allowing children access to TV or video games the way we look back at smoking ads targeted at children yet?

We do not vilify smoking because we realized it kills but because smoking has been regulated out of society (because of its cost) and part of this regulation was to change the public perception of it. I don't see in the west a similar regulation targeting social media any more than I've seen one targeting stupid TV programs that were probably also damaging children mental health. Unfortunately.

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In some spaces - yes. We are looking back in a similar manner.

Limited TV screen time is strongly encouraged in basically all the literature for new parents (under 2 hours).

Gaming is seeing a strong push against some of the most egregious abuses targeted at children (micro-transactions and loot box gambling).

>Are we looking back on allowing children access to TV or video games the way we look back at smoking ads targeted at children yet?

TV and games "back in my days" had no personalized tracking and targeting. They could only try to target the wider audience, not you specifically by mining all your private info and use dark patterns to manipulate you. Modern social media apps know everything about you and will not hesitate to weaponize it against you for ads if it makes them money.

Also, "back then", parents could look at the TV shows or your video games and see the kind of stuff you were exposed to and limit it or complain to the authorities to ban it. Now, you have no idea what ads or manipulative dark patterns your kids/teens are getting on their phone.

Big, big, difference between then and now.

> Now, you have no idea what ads or manipulative dark patterns your kids/teens are getting on their phone.

I’m not sure about teens. But I’m present when my kid plays games and he despises ads and micro transactions as much as I do. He’s also not allowed to buy anything so he’s more selective about what games to play (a few ones that we have subscriptions for)

Sure but for everyone like you there's 100 parents who leave their kids unsupervised with tablets and phones.

> Are we looking back on allowing children access to TV or video games the way we look back at smoking ads targeted at children yet?

I know a lot of people who do.

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