• Urist@lemmy.ml
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    9 hours ago

    For all those that think this is the government overstepping with an unenforceable law, you are not grasping the intent correctly. Declaring that we have democratically decided to have an age limit for social media means that we have laid the groundwork for collective action. This means that suddenly schools, parents, teenagers themselves, etc. all have a reason and a mandate for keeping young people off platforms that we believe to be detrimental to their development and well-being. True democratic culture lies not in bourgeoisie domination (as many Americans like to believe), but rather in mutual trust and cooperation in order to solve common and big problems.

    • erlend_sh@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Exactly!

      It’s not about Totalizing Enforcement. What it changes is the cultural norm. Not right away but over time.

      An age limit on alcohol never stopped anyone of any age to acquire alcohol, but it sets the societal bar for what’s acceptable. You don’t wanna be the parents that gave your kids alcoholic beverages at 13.

      It’s always a little jarring how everyone very readily believes that the Scandinavian countries are the happiest in the world, but won’t believe that the incremental policy changes we implement here have any effect 🤷‍♂️

      • Urist@lemmy.ml
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        5 hours ago

        As a case study, we did this in 1988 with a smoking law that was incrementally improved with great success. It was controversial at the time, but is now generally regarded as such an obvious policy: no smoking in or around public transport, in bars and restaurants etc…

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Well.

      Anything good I encounter in cultures that interest me is similar to the matching part of the Scandinavian cultures, or so it would seem.

      And in this particular case it is so.

      But in general I don’t like this optimism of “you don’t understand, it’s different in our land of elves as opposed to your sorry piece of clay with goblins in it”.

      Centralized social media, controlled by companies, I’d want to be just banned. These are all harm and no good. But in general - see about optimism.