I think a perfectly clear line could be drawn that would separate out phpBB from TikTok very easily. I genuinely don't understand this comment, we shouldn't do it because it's hard or the results might be imperfect?

Kids want to communicate. Whether it's TikTok, Discord, phpBB, chatting in Roblox or Minecraft, they will if they can.

If we want to "ban social media" we'll need a consistent set of guidelines about what counts as social media and what doesn't, and what exactly the harms are so they can be avoided.

I don't believe that's as easy as you think.

I think your comment would be much stronger if you laid out precisely what you think that line would be.

Laws do not have to be perfect to be good, but they do have to be workable. It's not clear that there's a working definition of "social media" that includes both TikTok and Reddit but doesn't include random forums.

So if a random person on the internet doesn't have a perfect solution then it shouldn't be considered?

Their opinion that it would be straightforward shouldn’t be considered.

This is not a charitable reading. Nobody is asking for a perfect solution; it is reasonable to demonstrate some prior consideration for the ways in which most solutions are dangerously imperfect.

Any clear line would be gamed pretty quickly I imagine.

To me the issue is it’s a waste of government and waste of time. Parental controls already exist on all devices. The answer to every problem can’t be “more government, more laws”.

> I genuinely don't understand this comment, we shouldn't do it because it's hard or the results might be imperfect?

Yes. Imperfect solutions, when driven by the government, don’t change for decades, causing terrible consequences.

“SSH is a munition” comes to mind.

Trying to force independently owned and operated forums to enforce laws that might not even be applicable in the country that the owners / admins live and work in is going to be about as effective as trying to force foreign VPS/server/hosting providers to delete copyrighted content from their server using laws that don't apply in their jurisdiction.