Florida is on the verge of passing one of the nation’s most restrictive bans on minors’ use of social media after the state Senate passed a bill Thursday that would keep children under the age of 16 off popular platforms regardless of parental approval.
The measure now goes back to the state House, where the speaker has made the issue his top priority during the legislative session that ends March 8. Still, critics have pointed to similar efforts in other states that have been blocked by courts.
The bill targets any social media site that tracks user activity, allows children to upload material and interact with others, and uses addictive features designed to cause excessive or compulsive use. Supporters point to rising suicide rates among children, cyberbullying and predators using social media to prey on kids.
Have they? I see plenty of them out and about doing all the same shit Millennials and GenXers were doing 30 years ago - building computers from parts to save money, fucking around with electronics and sticking leds on everything, experimenting with python and downloading shit off torrents, and occasionally bricking a phone because they did something to the firmware.
I also see folks insisting 10 year olds should have the same experience as a college grad, which is a bit weird. But I’m hard pressed to find these bad-at-computers Gen Zs/As.
It’s just different now, sure some may have taken an interest. My optimal experience/computer fitness would have been as a high school senior, not as a college grad. In high school I was fluent in a few different older programming languages, web development of HTML/CSS from scratch, just received an A+ Certification, and could solder out components with the dexterity of someone who does it professionally.
I have retained some of that, and could research myself if needed. But I couldn’t code my way out of a cardboard box at this point. Coworkers are amazed, aghast even that I can and will use VBA in excel.
And all of that was a hobby really, I had no interest working with tech. I wanted to go into finance, or so I thought. And this would have described every other one of my peers back then as well.