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A comment on The UK’s tortured attempt to remake the internet. Parent comment

Re:The UK’s tortured attempt to remake the internet by contravariant on Thursday May 04, 2023 @08:09PM (#35823806)
That's a lot easier said than done though. I mean it is quite easy to imagine how letting a 12 year old join a forum with anonymous adults can go wrong.

Then again that is basically the same fear that is preventing children from playing outside unsupervised. And not letting children play unsupervised may end up doing more harm, whether it is playing outside or exploring the internet.

That said I'm not sure if not doing something is an option here, partially because I'm getting the impression it's not simply the (luckily) rare 'bad people' that are a problem on the internet, there's whole industries that profit from children without concern for their wellbeing.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The UK’s tortured attempt to remake the internet by 1827163 on Friday May 05, 2023 @06:39AM (#35827488)
How much harm to children is caused by the advertising industry, across the whole of society. They are not the typical 'predator' but they sure do prey on children, grooming them to buy their products, and displacing other pastimes that the children themselves would have done, if it wasn't for the marketers' influence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pester_power

Sadly there's no chance of a moral panic ever happening over this, because the media which stoke the panics, are funded by advertising from the #1 predator of children, the marketing industry. So they are never going to bite the hand that feeds them.

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