The scariest thing about new #AgeVerification laws being introduced in Europe (France, I was expecting more from you) is to see the positive reactions of my family members, who have fallen hook, line and sinker for the arguments discussed in the media. "It's to protect the children!" No it isn't.
I'm sending this superb article by the @eff to all of them:
π: eff.org/issues/age-verificatioβ¦
Now is the time to #resist and speak up and educate those around us β #privacy
Age Verification and Age Gating: Resource Hub
Age verification (or age-gating) laws generally require online services to check, estimate, or verify all usersβ agesβoften through invasive tools like ID checks, biometric scans, or other dubious βage estimationβ methodsβbefore granting them access β¦Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Erik Jonker
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Elena Rossini π
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •For the record, I am positively fuming over the new #AgeVerification laws being introduced in France.
How convenient that this way Big Tech behemoths like Meta, X and TikTok won't have to change a thing. (Don't get me started about Grok, which should have been banned MONTHS ago).
AGE isn't the problem. It's the TOXIC, PREDATORY, EXTRACTIVE nature of these platforms that is the real issue.
They are getting away scot-free. I hate it. All I can do is speak up with those around me π«€
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Γrion
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •monkee
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •bioactive
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Wolkensteine π³οΈβπ
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •The best argument in my opinion to get people on board that aren't tech savvy is to show them that this doesn't even work. Because Australia has shown it doesn't.
If a kid has not to worry about harsh consequences and breaking rules is so easy they will certainly do it.
Also I totally agree with you, if Social Media is so dangerous, why not protect all from it by regulating dark patterns, manipulative design and other such things?
Australia: The "cool kids" ignore social media ban, many return
Martin Holland (heise online)Alex
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •agreed.
It's like showing the dust under the carpet and saying that the house is now cleaner.
And I foresee even worse with ChatControl. Von Der Leyen is a joke
juliette
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Laura
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •sknob
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Aral Balkan reshared this.
Aral Balkan
in reply to sknob • • •@sknob Just dropping this here from *checks the calendar* seven years ago:
ar.al/2019/11/29/the-future-ofβ¦
They know exactly what theyβre doing. They were told it to their faces.
The Future of Internet Regulation at the European Parliament
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Aral Balkan and Elena Rossini π reshared this.
sknob
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Great speech. The surveillance part of surveillance capitalism is clearly hard to resist for governments π
Aral Balkan
in reply to sknob • • •Elena Rossini π
in reply to sknob • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Lydia Conwell
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Lydia Conwell • • •@lydiaconwell Youβre too kind. Not sure what I am but I do know I canβt stand bullshit :)
π
Rania rizq
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Nicovel0 π
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •βοΈSolgubben
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Also, even if these bans worked, then they'd pull the carpet under the feet of a generation that grew up with them, and know nothing else.
To me the whole mainstream media discourse around this has been quite obvious. It's about doing *something*, but be darn sure it only impacts young people because they are not allowed to vote, and have no financial power. Don't change anything that'd inconvenience the adults, or the profit hoarding owning structures.
spook
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •DoomBananas π³π΄
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •s1m0n4
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •I am against identity checks too and I disapprove of this point of the French law recently adopted.
However reducing the matter to main SM, even if they're extremely toxic and dangerous, is looking at the tip of the iceberg.
Between 1999-2022 teens endurance has dropped 18% in π«π·.
univ-spn.fr/enquete-aupres-de-β¦
Half of 11 y/o students is unable to run more than 5 min.
franceinfo.fr/societe/enfance-β¦
An increasing number of studies also shows a cognitive debt associated to the use of AI chats.
/1
EnquΓͺte auprΓ¨s de 2Β 400Β professeurs dβEPSΒ : « Nos Γ©lΓ¨ves manquent de souffle et deΒ forceΒ Β» - UniversitΓ© Sorbonne Paris Nord
LΓ©a Ferbos (UniversitΓ© Sorbonne Paris Nord)jali π
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Rahaf Jomah
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •gen2punk
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Em
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •stand a little out of my sun π
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Mark
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Mostly because the age verification AI magic (and data collection) has been left upto big tech to implement, who also have no incentive to ensure their methods (and when that check happens) are particularly effective.
I read all this as being more of another haphazard and bumbling way of attacking the political influence of American tech companies.
Elena Rossini π
in reply to Mark • • •@markopolo141 thank you for sharing this.
I wish French lawmakers could speak to people like you. Actually scrap that, they absolutely KNOW it's a band aid measure for a massive wound... but hey, at least it shows they are doing a little something, grrr
Marcos Dione
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •> France, I was expecting more from you
Unluckily #France is getting more and more right wing, specially since the government (supposedly centrist) is OK'ing everything they bring up:
* crypto backdoors
* presumption of self defense for police brutality
* ID checks in websites
* deregulation of pesticides
I can keep going...
@eff
Elena Rossini π
in reply to Marcos Dione • • •Conny Nasch
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Petra van Cronenburg
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Living in France, I feel helpless. At the moment, we have to resist against so many important things (pesticides, less ecology/climate action of the government, the fascists, growing poverty) that most people, including me, feel overwhelmed.
Yes, it's wrong ... but our chaos government ... well ... π
It's a little bit late to resist the new regulation?
@eff
thisislieven
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Elena Rossini π
in reply to thisislieven • • •thisislieven
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Stoneface Vimes
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Radioactive Ken ββ
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •when it happened in Australia I knew it would happen in the UK and when it was passed in the UK I knew it would start to catch on in EU countries.
Dreadful.
Elena Rossini π
in reply to Radioactive Ken ββ • • •Gyula R.
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •How about protecting democracy, including children, by banning Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and TikTok in the EU?!
Those toxic, unethical for-profit social networks keep funding the white supremacist BS in the US, Europe, and beyond; they allow the spreading of fascist propaganda and wild conspiracy theories and also expose kids to harmful content. Moreover, they have become tools of mass surveillance in fascist hands to silence and punish dissent.
KΓ©vin β
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •France by Macron isn't the France you'd expect and his party (including those in that orbit) is all about stealing ideas from Le Pen's party.
The law still has to pass the Conseil Constitutionnelle before it can be implemented which is still an opportunity for it to be shot down
mamot.fr/@LaQuadrature/1169646β¦
La Quadrature du Net (@LaQuadrature@mamot.fr)
La Quadrature du Net (Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net)RejZoR
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •It's wild how quickly everyone just fucking drops everything when "think of the children" argument is involved.
I fear how restricted internet will become when I'll refuse to "verify" my identity online. Because the whole thing stinks of speech control and how people think and has very little to do with safety of children. There is many ways to do that and none of them picked those options or methods.
Ivan G.
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •I'm becoming very pessimistic, and in the future a VPN will be necessary (before it will become illegal)
Elena Rossini π
in reply to Ivan G. • • •@dreamos82 some of my family members are looking at me as if I were an extremist - for suggesting that "age verification" laws are a Trojan horse bringing in the end of anonymity on the internet (and further surveillance).
And I mean, even those highly educated are reacting that way... because they take at face value what they read in newspapers / see on TV news
Ivan G.
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Or the other argument is: "if you have nothing to hide".
Main problem is it started with porn, now with social media (tbh if facebook instagram and tiktok will disappear i'll be happy, but that's not the issue), then what's next?
And I wonder: will it be available on every platform, or only android and iphone or only a specific browser (by google)?
Murdoc Addams π§π» π¨π¦
in reply to Ivan G. • • •@dreamos82
In case it's helpful to anyone reading this thread, there are some quick and easy resources about privacy concerns and even the "nothing to hide" argument here: techne-system.neocities.org/prβ¦
There's also a lesson on Media Literacy in the Critical Thinking topic.
8 Technology & Society I :: Techne
TechneElena Rossini π
in reply to Murdoc Addams π§π» π¨π¦ • • •Tagomago
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •@murdoc Also, we should not overlook the exponential value of the aggregate (not just individual data) in terms of surveillance and control. Maybe youβre OK with it, but the society as a whole is affected, and the systems and services you use will suffer.
Anyway, people who argue against this actually are blindly saying βI just want to use this app, let me aloneβ.
Murdoc Addams π§π» π¨π¦
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •βΎοΈ
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Ryek Darkener
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Iβm out of feasible ideas.
Richard Quinn
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Elena Rossini π reshared this.
Lien Rag
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •romli
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •your post reads like Europe, and especially France, are the bad guys for spying on people accessing social media.
The bad guys are the big tech platforms they're trying to restrict. And big tech already spies on you way more than this gov measure will. You think big tech don't have a good idea of the age of users already? Or a full profile of their habits? Big tech didnt push for this. People and parents did .
This needs to be framed as a reason not to use big tech. Not a reason to divide democracies by fostering the idea that it is 'Europe' that is spying on people rather than big tech
eiskjchs
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Elena Rossini π
in reply to eiskjchs • • •eiskjchs
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Marija_
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •FranΓ§ois Lemaire π΄ββ οΈ
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •@eff
Mattiz6276
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Bowreality π¨π¦πͺ
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •David Guillot
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •> France, I was expecting more from you
The man who runs the French Republic is not representing the French people anymore for a while now.
He nominates Prime Ministers who cannot agree with the coalition that won the legislative elections, ending up finding deals with the far right.
He makes decisions the competent Ministers disagree with, and forces them through Parliament.
We sign petitions (on the official Parliament petition platform), they ignore them, against the rules.
And the mainstream media, being held by personal friends of his, find nothing to say about it.
Don't expect anything from us until the next violent revolution.
nini
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Patrys
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •DecentraliseEverything
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •HumanBeing
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •Doerk
in reply to Elena Rossini π • • •