Hacker News Reader

Comment by mdhb | Hacker News Reader

Add it to the already overwhelming pile of evidence that self regulation does not work and that external oversight is needed in situations like this.

View on HN

What is required to address the problem is not “oversight” in the abstract, but some form of government ID and age verification in order to use online services. Mark me down as one parent who prefers the situation we have now to the more dystopian one that would create.

It sure seems like the average person doesn't care that children use Facebook and similar online services. Why should we give more power to state regulators when the public doesn't even want the regulation in the first place?

The public clearly does care, because there are laws that have been passed to specifically address data collection for underage users: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-attorney-ge....

Whether or not those laws do what they're intended to do is another question, but to say the public 'doesn't care', is a baseless assumption to make.

Plenty of laws are passed that the public doesn't care about. Sometimes the public is even opposed to them.

The public doesn't pass laws though, our elected representatives do. Without diving down the rabbit hole of how well our current system manages to select for representatives that actually align with voters' views, there isn't a direct link between laws and public sentiment.

Parents purposely allowing children to use these services is a much more clear indicator of sentiment, and as mentioned in the article users don't seem to mind allowing their children to use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.

Why should we even consider putting any kind of limitations around what private companies do with the personal data of people too young to consent in any meaningful way isn’t a compelling argument.

Idelaly we wouldn't have to put limits on companies from the state level at all, users should decide not to use a service if they don't approve of how their data is used.

Given that we're no way close to this and the power imbalance is already huge, we should be regulating how every person's data is used regardless of age.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com