Banning social media

[Bernard]

Australia bans social media for children under 16.

Although I think it's a very good thing that children (and dare I say, adults) get off social media, I worry about the heavy handedness of bans. But maybe that's what it will take? Personally, I wish the world would just dump all their cell phones, to tell the truth. (I had to enter 10 zeros in a cell phone field when making a covid vaccine appointment a few weeks ago because the number was mandatory!) It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Who knows, maybe in a year from now young Australians will be grateful. Or not.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/09/australia-under-16-social-media-ban-begins-apps-listed

[wtg]

I've been following this, too. Krugman had a piece on Substack today about it.

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/america-has-become-a-digital-narco?publication_id=277517&post_id=181077342&isFreemail=true&r=53zo0e&triedRedirect=true

[Axtremus]

Will there be a day when governments fight the likes of Facebook/Instagram/TokTok/X/Twitter like they fought the likes of Philip Morris or R. J. Reynolds?