I'm in two minds about this. I think that by and large We Have A Problem. And i don't mean a problem with children on the internet. We have a problem with people on the internet. There are so many examples of grown adults who have clearly become addled.

I live in the UK, I work in London. I can go on X and look at what Elon Musk is posting about the UK and as a reasonable person I can quite reasonably say he's gone mental. The algorithm has broken that mans brain. And it's not just him, a whole slew of establishment women lost their absolute minds about the trans issue (and Graham Linehan). Mumsnet became a centre for radicalization. You know and some one who grew up on the internet at quite a sweet spot I'm very comfortable looking at that stuff and going "Oh yeah, you guys are being groomed by these algorithms and you're defenceless to it".

There's a whole load of "How do we protect the children from this", but I don't think there's actually been much a reckoning with how grown adults are getting sucked into this vortex. The algorithms on the internet clearly have some trap doors that just absolutely funnel people into crazy places.

All of which is to say: We have a serious problem that's effecting everyone not just kids, and I think we've got almost no answers for how to tackle it.

The result is this- poorly thought through sweeping laws that aren't solving the problem, and have massive negative side effects. I think Jonathon Haidt has a lot to answer for in funnelling this complex issue affecting everyone into this reactionary "won't someone think of the children!" campaign for banning technology for kids.

The problem is that putting restrictions on adults comes with a thousand times more outrage than putting restrictions on kids, and look how much outrage there already is about putting restrictions on kids at the discretion of their parents. If we can't even give parents the option to keep kids away from bad stuff, then mandatorily keeping adults away from bad stuff is a complete non-starter. They'd probably burn down Parliament.

> And i don't mean a problem with children on the internet. We have a problem with people on the internet.

Yes. And having a fixed cut off from 'you can't see omg boobs! on the internet' to 'you can see snuff porn on the internet' won't help.