French President Macron backs effort to ban kids under 15 from social media

French President Macron backs effort to ban kids under 15 from social media(fortune.com)

12 points by 1vuio0pswjnm7 1 hour ago | 4 comments

sandspar 23 minutes ago |

Honest question, what are kids supposed to do all day? We're taking away social media but it's not like we're rebuilding anything. I don't see Macron signing proclamations to bring back mall food courts.

Today's kids are discouraged from walking around unsupervised, discouraged from partying together, discouraged from fighting and pranks.

So we take away their phones and kids what, sit around at home? Homes where the parents are phone users ie homes without libraries, without adequate crafts.

Phone-free lifestyles require a society-wide infrastructure, and we don't have that.

anon7000 15 minutes ago | |

Play video games, read a book, be bored and come up with their own games. These are all fine. Social media is absolutely not more valuable than that.

sandspar 6 minutes ago | | |

Teenagers don't need solitary enrichment. They need places to hang around with other teenagers. That's what they used social media for. Now we've taken away social media, but we, the adults, haven't rebuilt places where teenagers can hang out together.

Invite your buddies over - your parents are nervously hovering. Hang out at the park - adults find you strange and might call the cops. Schools close at 3, malls gone, libraries full of homeless people.

What's going to happen is the rich kids will be fine, shuttled around from activity to activity. And the poor kids, the kids who used their phones as escapes from dull, grey homes - they'll suffer.

ChrisArchitect 14 minutes ago |

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49005447

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49004817

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49002487