You are posting this on something which can only be described as "social media".
There is enormous value in letting humans communicate freely through the internet and any harm which comes from the misuse needs to be very carefully weighed against the benefits.
By the way, fossile fuels are partly responsible for the greatest uplift in human quality of life. Pesticides are essential in creating a sustainable food output.
> The parties want an "enforceable European minimum age of 15 for social media, with privacy-friendly age verification for young people, as long as social media are not sufficiently safe
I will never trust that a solution will actually be privacy friendly. Even if someone could imagine a technical path to it, I just don’t trust governments to care about privacy. Eventually it’ll mean that we can’t speak online with anonymity.
Social media should be banned like pesticides, fossil fuels and other things harmful to the society.
You are posting this on something which can only be described as "social media".
There is enormous value in letting humans communicate freely through the internet and any harm which comes from the misuse needs to be very carefully weighed against the benefits.
By the way, fossile fuels are partly responsible for the greatest uplift in human quality of life. Pesticides are essential in creating a sustainable food output.
None of those things are banned completely nor are only harmful in society.
Both of them are regulated but it is understood that they are critical to society without which a lot of stuff won’t happen
What won't happen in society without social media?
Social media has existed for centuries, in the old days it was village rumors.
Our conversation
For the Dutch (gift link): https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/01/30/media-bezuinigingen-hil...
thank you!
> The parties want an "enforceable European minimum age of 15 for social media, with privacy-friendly age verification for young people, as long as social media are not sufficiently safe
I will never trust that a solution will actually be privacy friendly. Even if someone could imagine a technical path to it, I just don’t trust governments to care about privacy. Eventually it’ll mean that we can’t speak online with anonymity.
"The current EU minimum age stands at 13."
No. Ban smartphones. Better for more of society.
Please don't take away my pocket super computer that helps me navigate because too many people can't keep their fingers off Twitter and TikTok.
Yeah. I feel the same way with many other things. This is why we cannot have nice things. sighs
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