[fivetenpen]

The internet was never a danger to children’s mental health until social media engagement algorithms. The real solution is to ban any and all engagement algorithms that are designed to get people addicted. Age checks, aka identity checks, are just another blatant attempt to siphon more personal data by linking your real identity to all of your web activity

[ben_w]

> The internet was never a danger to children’s mental health until social media engagement algorithms.

I suspect that depends on subtle phrasing.

If for the sake of argument I presuppose that film classification ratings are necessary to protect children’s mental health, then the un-filtered contents of shock sites and porn sites will have had an impact even in the early years of the internet.

However, the early years of the internet simply had a much smaller proportion of kids online to experience this.

[tosti]

I don't think the distinction matters that much. Remember ogrish? I was already an adult when that gore came out and I was terrified. I can still picture the throat gasping for air as he was being sliced alive.

[ben_w]

> Remember ogrish?

No*, however the point is valid: the internet overall is indeed unfiltered far beyond what is allowed in even the highest cinematic ratings.

* I avoided such things, however I do know the low end of what they can be, and had in mind 2girls1cup which I understand to be criminal "extreme porn" by UK standards, though have never actually seen it.

[tosti]

Yes, especially back then. But I don't think age-gating is useful for gore. Even if I had dementia I'd be horrified. Just with the benefit of not being able to remember it.

[isolli]

It would benefit adults too...

[bluebarbet]

This is conspiracism-adjacent and therefore unhelpful IMO. Perhaps people (and therefore politicians) simply believe that it is more feasible to implement end-user ID checks than somehow to put the genie of two decades of social media back in the bottle. I agree that this is not necessarily true but the failure of imagination seems very plausible.