> My thoughts immediately go to all the queer kids in rural areas who stand to be cut off from the only support networks they have

I shared those concerns at first - as that was similar to my situation (though less lgbt+ but more just on-the-spectrum stuff), but if the article is correct then I find myself strongly in support (so-far...): my impression is that this is targeting the kinds of vacuous mass-market "engagement"-driven social-media services that us HN denizens aren't exactly fans of: Facebook, Instagram, the like. The article says that sites like YouTube and IM services are exempt.

> Messaging apps, "online gaming services" and "services with the primary purpose of supporting the health and education of end-users" will not fall under the ban, as well as sites like YouTube that do not require users to log in to access the platform.

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For an anecdote: when I was middle-school-aged and unsupervised on the net, the "mainstream" platforms of the day (AOL Groups, I guess?) were just as unappealing then as Facebook is today (fortunately I wasn't on AOL anyway) - instead I found my home in places you get to via IRC - or extremely niche phpNuke-then-phpBB sites: these places aren't run by companies, just basement-dwelling sysadmins so they'd be exempt I imagine, so it doesn't look like any harm will come to those kinds of places.

For those youngsters-that-dont-fit-in starting their journey of self-discovery, I think getting banned from Facebook is a good start. Who wants their parents (and let's be honest: it's only our parents on Facebook now anyway) to get notified about your joining a cybergoth meetup group.

...now if only we could ban everyone else off Facebook too.

> I shared those concerns at first - as that was similar to my situation (though less lgbt+ but more just on-the-spectrum stuff)

The catch is, unfortunately, that our social media data trails make it all to feasible to detect which of us is on the spectrum using machine learning.

And which if our kids have what is vulgarly called "daddy issues."

And which of us are beginning to succumb to schizophrenia.

We've only begun to see the creepy dystopian consequences of centrally archived social media.