Social media to be fully banned for under-16s in UK.

Gradine · Sep 17, 2026

Bohandas said:
I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out this age-gating thing was somehow planted BY the social media companies as a smokescreen to keep people from going after their addictive algorithms

TheSword · Sep 18, 2026

Well if this is the case it’s a spectacularly bad idea, because both targeting of children and addictive algorithms are getting targeted.

Count_Zero · Tuesday at 4:25 PM

Honestly, considering some of the language I've seen uses to sell the ban, there's probably more of a goal to keep LGBT (particularly Trans) kids from finding other LGBT (particularly Trans) people to help them understand who they are.

These days that train is never late.

Kaodi · Tuesday at 4:40 PM

Not going to read through the whole thread to see all the twists and turns it has taken but just wanted to say that even I am trying to dump Facebook as much as possible now. I have had it with the constant torrent of naughty word that it hoses us with. In a just society Zuckerberg would be in the dock for spreading hate because that is exactly what his platform encourages. Not just allows - encourages . No matter how many hateful bigots I block because their nonsense has shown up in my feed unsolicited there are always more. And now we have to contend with fake AI naughty word as well. I have had enough.

gnarlygninja · Tuesday at 6:09 PM

Kaodi said:
Not going to read through the whole thread to see all the twists and turns it has taken but just wanted to say that even I am trying to dump Facebook as much as possible now. I have had it with the constant torrent of naughty word that it hoses us with. In a just society Zuckerberg would be in the dock for spreading hate because that is exactly what his platform encourages. Not just allows - encourages . No matter how many hateful bigots I block because their nonsense has shown up in my feed unsolicited there are always more. And now we have to contend with fake AI naughty word as well. I have had enough.

Facebook also knew about and allowed some large scale disinformation about vaccines during the pandemic.

Bohandas · Wednesday at 12:08 AM

Kaodi said:
And now we have to contend with fake AI naughty word as well. I have had enough.

How is AI fake? How do you define AI?

I've seen several people throw this accusation around and all I've been able to determine is that they must be using a radically different definition of what constitutes AI? Do you think it needs to be conscious? Or autonomous? Or what?

Morrus · Wednesday at 12:10 AM

Bohandas said:
How is AI fake? How do you define AI?

I've seen several people throw this accusation around and all I've been able to determine is that they must be using a radically different definition of what constitutes AI? Do you think it needs to be conscious? Or autonomous? Or what?

Presumably this is a reference to generative AI generated content being presented as though it were real and/or factual.

Kaodi · Wednesday at 12:13 AM

Bohandas said:
How is AI fake? How do you define AI?

I've seen several people throw this accusation around and all I've been able to determine is that they must be using a radically different definition of what constitutes AI? Do you think it needs to be conscious? Or autonomous? Or what?

I mean naughty word has been made with AI with a flimsy masquerade of being a real person. Pure attention mining drivel.

Bohandas · Wednesday at 4:46 AM

Kaodi said:
I mean naughty word has been made with AI with a flimsy masquerade of being a real person. Pure attention mining drivel.

Ok, I think I get it now now, it's not that the tech itself is fake, it's that it's being used for deepfakes, phishing, catfishing, spambots, robocalls, and other forms of deception

jian · Wednesday at 11:43 AM

Kaodi said:
Not going to read through the whole thread to see all the twists and turns it has taken but just wanted to say that even I am trying to dump Facebook as much as possible now. I have had it with the constant torrent of naughty word that it hoses us with. In a just society Zuckerberg would be in the dock for spreading hate because that is exactly what his platform encourages. Not just allows - encourages . No matter how many hateful bigots I block because their nonsense has shown up in my feed unsolicited there are always more. And now we have to contend with fake AI naughty word as well. I have had enough.

Yup, went off Facebook a few months ago, really haven’t had any problems. Still on Bluesky (which is basically non-algorithmic and fun enough for following various writers etc) and of course here.