I do agree with this decision of the Italian authorities. Not because I'm Italian, but because I think our authorities are right. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-death-of-girl-allegedly-playing-choking-game Frankly speaking this is something which should be done about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram ... how can they certify that users are above the legal age?
I think we're beginning a worldwide discussion on free speech, censorship, and the general public welfare. My suggestion is education.
It's interesting to note that something like this wouldn't have happened 10, 15 years ago. It's hard to imagine but these tech giants are being more scrutinized now.
Agreed. The article states the girl was 10 years old and her parents knew that she was using Tik Tok. While tragic, at some point, parents shouldn't expect others to supervise their child(ren).
And if we go back pre-cable TV, the FCC diligently protected us from cussing and female breasts. (The advent of cable showed us how advanced the Brits were in this area, through the brilliance of Benny Hill.)
But that's different because that's on public airways. This isn't. This is private. So the idea that the government is going to get more involved now is what's really interesting. Like how are they going to regulate that when it's private companies who we outsourced our public airways to?
I agree, but I was contrasting a level of censorship that was generally accepted by the American public, and what's being debated today. Yes, the private ownership of platforms muddies the legal waters, but my cell-phone uses the "airwaves" as well.
Well ... a little girl decided to take part to an "innocent" game where you hang yourself to resist for a period of time. It's a game, a kind of challenge. And she was filming what was going on to publish it on Tik Tok. Now ... if I decide to hung myself ... at almost 49 may be I even deserve it! But a 10 years old little girl shouldn't be involved in similar games. And a social network shouldn't diffuse similar "suggestions" to so young persons. Probably we are seeing a limit, a horizon. Freedom without borders is slavery, not freedom.
Parental education ... probably parents should activate the parental control on all the devices reachable by children. But children are smart. I remember when I was a child and I found a way to dodge the rules imposed by my parents. Nope. The service provider [in this case a social network] should make it impossible for children to take part to similar absurd games [I repeat, if an adult wants to film himself / herself while he/she is hanging himself/herself ... it's a matter of legally free choice, but it's different about a child].
A note: to control access to internet sites is impossible. Internet sites have to filter access. Let's not be naive: if a site generates a pop up asking "are you above 18 years old?" [or 21 years old, according to the country], any teen will answer "Yes I am!", even if he or she is 10 years old. So a mundane pop up is not enough. Social networks should require a certified registration. That is to say the user should go to a public government officer to obtain an "electronic identity" and then join a social network. This would at least make it impossible to have fake accounts and profiles [I know this would erase a good 60% of Facebook profiles ... but who cares?].
Thats's a bit ridiculous. No parent knows everything their child does every minute of the day. Social media must be regulated.
My daughter can use Tiktok but can’t post anything that shows herself. Art is OK. Edited videos. Fine. But I don’t trust Tiktok for a second not selling all these videos and photos of preteen girls in China to dirty old men.
Wow, that brought back memories! I remember spending late-night hours watching PBS just to catch a glimpse of a booby. But the internet is literally another realm altogether. I don't see any effective way of curbing this without surrendering even more personal freedoms. We have too many people who are either immature or lack the ability to clearly discern the information they see. We need to begin to teach kids in grade school how to use the internet and what to ignore. This should be a regular part of the curriculum at every grade level and customized for the age of the students. Of course, this should not be limited just to students, but adults as well, as can be clearly seen from the posts around here, many people just have no clue what is real and what is not.
It’s overwhelmingly a parenting issue, not a tiktok issue. No amount of regulation is going to stop kids from doing stupid stuff. Parenting will
