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That's a lot easier said than done though. I mean it is quite easy to imagine how letting a 12 year old join a forum with anonymous adults can go wrong. Then a

That's a lot easier said than done though. I mean it is quite easy to imagine how letting a 12 year old join a forum with anonymous adults can go wrong. Then again that is basically the same fear that is preventing children from playing outside unsupervised. And not letting children play unsupervised may end up doing more harm, whether it is playing outside or exploring the internet. That said I'm not sure if not doing something is an option here, partially because I'm getting the impression it's not simply the (luckily) rare 'bad people' that are a problem on the internet, there's whole industries that profit from children without concern for their wellbeing.

1827163 3y ago
How much harm to children is caused by the advertising industry, across the whole of society? They are not the typical 'predator' but they sure do prey on children, grooming them to buy their products, and displacing other pastimes that the children themselves would have done and loved, if it wasn't for the marketers' influence. All that potential creative activity, by children, lost due to stupid toys being pushed. What an opportunity cost that is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pester_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pester_power Sadly there's no chance of a moral panic ever happening over this, because the media which stoke the panics, are funded by advertising from the #1 predator of children, the marketing industry. So the media are never going to bite the hand that feeds them. And of course the traditional media loves focusing on their competitors such as social media and saying that it causes harm. While completely ignoring the advertising towards children that likely causes a different type of harm, but it's still detrimental to children. However the severity of the harm from social media is much greater, because we have an enormous increase in suicide rates in teenagers since 2012, and the prime culprit is the smartphone.

1827163 3y ago

How much harm to children is caused by the advertising industry, across the whole of society? They are not the typical 'predator' but they sure do prey on children, grooming them to buy their products, and displacing other pastimes that the children themselves would have done and loved, if it wasn't for the marketers' influence. All that potential creative activity, by children, lost due to stupid toys being pushed. What an opportunity cost that is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pester_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pester_power Sadly there's no chance of a moral panic ever happening over this, because the media which stoke the panics, are funded by advertising from the #1 predator of children, the marketing industry. So the media are never going to bite the hand that feeds them. And of course the traditional media loves focusing on their competitors such as social media and saying that it causes harm. While completely ignoring the advertising towards children that likely causes a different type of harm, but it's still detrimental to children. However the severity of the harm from social media is much greater, because we have an enormous increase in suicide rates in teenagers since 2012, and the prime culprit is the smartphone.