How about we just enact a law that state children aren't allowed online, not allowed to interact with interative software (like ai, user generated content). Make the parents responsible, not companies.
Plus you're just setting kids up for failure by keeping them from understanding the adult world. You can't keep them ignorant and then drop them in the deep end when they turn 18, and expect good outcomes.
You can explore your identity independently of parental supervision just fine without the internet. I'd much rather have my kids have 5 good friends in real life and spend time together offline, than 500 online (10 of which are predators) while they are spending all their time in their bedrooms or in front of screens.
How would you not have survived to adulthood without the internet? You know how that sounds right? Billions of kids have grown up without the internet just fine (and hello poverty?).
I'm no authoritarian - simply the parents need to take responsibility for their kids & their actions, how they spend their time, what they allow into their minds.
Most countries child laws states that the parents (esp the mother) are ultimately for their children’s welfare. Remember that kids cannot consent - the parents carry that responsibility.
Oh and I'm not averse to children at all.
Maybe american culture is just rotten to the core and how you raise your kids is just bewildering and gross to outsiders. At this point I feel that american parents are fully consenting to whatever is happening to your kids (being brain raped by tiktok/instagram/snap/fb/youtube/porn and others ("news")).
Letting my child simply use an online service isn't even vaguely similar to any of these things.
> Maybe american culture is just rotten to the core and how you raise your kids is just bewildering and gross to outsiders. At this point I feel that american parents are fully consenting to whatever is happening to your kids (being brain raped by tiktok/instagram/snap/fb/youtube/porn and others ("news")).
I'm not American, I live in GB and know all too well about overreaching internet regulations.
May I also point out the irony of complaining about pornography while simultaneously using "rape" as an adjective when a more appropriate one would have sufficed?
This is just TikTok tier crap.
What if a child is at school where there are Chromebooks and teachers aren’t as tech savvy as the majority of hacker news?
What if a child is at a library that has Chromebooks you can take out and use for homework?
Wha if a child is at an older cousins place?
What if a child is a park with their friends and uses a device?
Should parents be next to their child helicopters parenting 24/7?
Is that how you remember your childhood? Is that how you currently parent giving zero atonony to children?
Blaming parents is ridiculous. Lot of parents aren’t tech savvy and are too dumb to be tech savvy and stay on top of the latest tech thing
And these days internet integration in school is far stronger, my 6 year old's daily homework is entirely online.
Remember a company is just a building filled with people. People are exploiting & profiting off your kids, not companies.
I literally circumvent website blocking using VPN as a kid, no one can stop anyone from going "online" in 2025