Comment by braiamp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by braiamp | Hacker News Reader

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Why does your "better solution" shift responsibility from the people who built the unsafe environment to the parents? A platform labeling itself 18+ doesn't make it safe, it just moves the blame. Adult content isn't where the supposed "harms" we are trying to protect children from are coming from. They're from how the platform is designed to keep people on it. That's fixable. Infinite scroll, algorithmic radicalization, engagement mechanics, etc. None of that requires an age label, it requires a different product. I want every platform to be safe no matter who uses them and a warning sticker on the door is not a substitute for that. We don't allow arsenic in bread just because people got used to eating it

> I want every platform to be safe

> We don't allow arsenic in bread

I'm curious what work the verbiage of "safety" is doing throughout these posts. It's particularly interesting to me because I'd also like to consign things like infinite scrolling and adversarial algorithmic recommendations to the dustbin of history. I'm simply not sure how we describe this as being a question of "safety" in any appreciable sense, much less compare looking at things to eating things. That's really not a useful analogy here.

I've had the pleasure of working in work safety, kids safety and food safety, so I'm familiar with concepts such as "safe to use", "safe to consume", "safe by design". That's why harm tolerance is in the "it's unnecessary and it's avoidable" territory, as we know how and why it's causing harm in these products

Unfortunately, for this to be an answer to my question, it would actually have to elaborate. Bare assertions aren't an explanation, and as it stands this message communicates nothing to me.

Parents can decide what their children view. It's literally their decision to allow them on platforms or decide what movies they can see or what friends they are allowed.

Those who say how can I tell my child they can't have what others in school have. Then yoi are letting other parents raise your child.

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