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josefritzishere a day ago

This is an area where we really could use case law to protect kids from the Zuckerberg's of the world. It's important for the future. We're not going to "self-regulate" our way out of this.

whynotmaybe a day ago | parent | next [-]

Is there a place where self-regulation ever works?

zach_miller a day ago | parent | next [-]

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

I think this is a fun historical example. Ships passing through Denmark needed to pay a tax of 1-2% of the value of their cargo. They self-assessed that value.

The twist that makes it interesting was that the King could choose to purchase any cargo immediately at the reported value. If a ship underreported, they might save on tax, but they risked taking a hefty loss.

I have no idea how effective this was, but it's compelling. I wonder whether great self-regulation might need clever design like that example.

Bratmon a day ago | parent | next [-]

That's literally the opposite of self-regulation.

nixon_why69 a day ago | parent [-]

Not quite the opposite, it still outsourced the administrative burden. They avoided the hassle of boarding every ship and inspecting the cargo with a random threat. One could even call it "properly incentivized self-regulation".

Bratmon a day ago | parent [-]

I'm genuinely curious how you imagine this system working without a government bureaucracy keeping track of the values of all cargos and regularly inspecting ships to verify the accuracy of their manifests.

What stops ships from reporting something like "Wheat - 25 guilders per ton" when they're actually carrying diamonds?

It doesn't even solve the "It's hard for the bureaucracy to know how much stuff is worth" problem- The government still needs to know enough to decide whether or not to call BS on "Caribbean Grey Ambergris- 300 guilders per pound"

This system does have the advantage that it allows the government to make small fines without the legal burden of establishing that the merchant was lying, but that's in no way the same as self-regulation.

nixon_why69 19 hours ago | parent [-]

The story is from the 15-1600s. I imagine it working like things generally worked in that time period which is with quite a lot less bureaucracy than today.

The cleverness of the idea is it leverages fear to prevent ships from declaring "wheat" for their ship full of diamonds. You can make some sporadic, random inspections, just enough to keep the fear up, instead of having to inspect every single ship.

alistairSH a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Amateur motorsports has a similar concept - often called a "claim rule" or similar - in an attempt to control costs.

Basically, for $x amount, a competitor can buy the winning car (or its engine, or similar). Where $x is the amount the group decides should be a reasonable amount to spend on building a car.

A racer is free to spend more, but if they win too much, somebody will write a check and buy the car.

In theory. In reality, plenty of people have the money to spend $x^2 and risk the loss.

newobj a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Interesting variation on the "I cut you choose" game mechanic!

whynotmaybe a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

We're in the "exceptio probat regulam" zone with this example.

plagiarist a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I love solutions like that. Like if you are splitting food, one person cuts and the other chooses.

soco a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Nitpicking, I have the feeling that's self-declaration, not self-regulation.

cyanydeez a day ago | parent | prev [-]

sounds like Bernie Sander's modern day "lets just buy 50% of AI companies"

Bratmon a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The best I've seen is ESRB ratings on video games.

_doctor_love a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The dive industry, when I got my PADI one of the instructors told me diving is mainly self-regulated.

a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]
[deleted]
josefritzishere a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Very few. But it's the core of our current economic system... which explains a lot of the problems.

okuntilnow a day ago | parent | prev [-]

But when governments do regulate (UK, AUS etc all) - people cry foul.

consumer451 a day ago | parent | next [-]

The entire age verification push in AUS was started by an advertising consulting company to distract from proposed online gambling regulation.

Protecting children is a noble goal that I personally agree with, but it's also often used to sane-wash further erosion of privacy.

As has been discussed here and elsewhere, age verification turns out to be the complete loss of Internet anonymity due to its implementation techniques. There are proposed alternative implementations, very conveniently for some, this is not part of the discussion.

This is exactly the time when nerds like us should speak up.

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-secu...

okuntilnow a day ago | parent [-]

I've heard this so many times. That age gating in AUS was started by lobbying from an advertising firm is a gross simplification / distortion of the facts but a good example of how easily misinformation spreads on the internet. People love a conspiracy.

No doubt that it will be good news to gambling advertisers, but the push for age verification was already underway in 2020, well before government recommended an end to gambling advertising (2023).

It's a neat explanation, so an easy sell, but doesn't match the chronology.

consumer451 a day ago | parent [-]

Well, here is the canonical source of the story:

https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/12/pro-teen-social-media-b...

I do know that many places in the world were worried about what TikTok and Insta were doing to their kids' minds, prior to that push. However, do you find fault in the Crikey story?

It appears that the AUS domino was the first to fall in the chain after FINCH's major push.

okuntilnow a day ago | parent [-]

I'm sure that it's right! I've no doubt gambling advertising firms will have been happy to see it over the line to get them off the hook. Hard to argue for a ban on gambling ads if kids (allegedly) can't see them anyway.

watwut a day ago | parent [-]

I am for ban on gambling ads, full stop. It is easy to argue for it. It is easy to say it.

toofy a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

i agree with the sibling comment here. someone in a comment section somewhere is crying foul about everything.

kelseyfrog a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

People cry foul about every other thing too. It's best to ignore them.

datsci_est_2015 a day ago | parent [-]

Unfortunately we can’t ignore them when they’re our “representatives” in the government.

morkalork a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Because the implementation is a shit show?