[nomel]

This is an incredible parental competence, awareness, and knowledge failure.

If you know a child in public school, ask them about what other kids watch on their phones at school.

It's a literal felony if you were to hand a kid a porno, gore/death videos, etc, but handing a kid a phone with unrestricted internet is completely fine for > 50% of parents [1]. And, the children of these failed parents go around the schools showing other children "shock" videos to get their reactions, like (an example I know) another child being murdered, on a gore website.

Seems like something has to change. Or, for those who think nothing has to change, should we stop pretending, and remove/lessen the existing laws around giving children access to inappropriate material? Maybe lower 18+ content to 10+, as it currently is with > 50% of the children accessing the internet?

I've talked to some of these parents, and they use the same justification as they do for letting their elementary school children watch rated R horror movies, "I don't want to shelter them".

[1] https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/press-release/abc-online...

[20after4]

The internet shock sites existed back when I was a teenager. I was exposed to those things. It didn't damage me any, as far as I can tell. Not to mention there were always things like faces of death which I found to be far more disturbing than any internet shock content that I ran into in the 90s.

[nomel]

Neat anecdote, but it would be interesting to look at studies on how it impacts broader society when the majority of the population is exposed to this, and porn, starting pre-teen (see stats).

[akimbostrawman]

There is an obvious difference between few shock videos now and then on a PC at home and constant flood of all kinds of emotional manipulation from ads to propaganda only an arms reach away inside your pocket 24/7 which you also need to use to be part of society.

If you just watch kids using tiktok or even just browse it yourself the difference should be quite obvious. The internet of 2026 is not comparable with the 2000s.

[20after4]

I've seen enough of tiktok (and youtube, and facebook) to understand that there are extreme levels of manipulation happening. I think it's just as harmful to adults as it is to teenagers. The whole over-protective "think of the children" routine is just disingenuous and frankly it's just yet another example of emotional manipulation on the part of the people promoting these laws. I'm confident that they don't give a rats ass about actually reducing harm or regulating the dark patterns that are now everywhere in modern society.

[akimbostrawman]

>I think it's just as harmful to adults

Yes however like any drug or bad habit they are substantially more harmful and more difficult to resist the younger you start them.

>I'm confident that they don't give a rats ass about actually reducing harm or regulating the dark patterns

I'm sure. I wish we could have these laws without all the verification garbage for everyone. All kids in schools should just be required to hand over there phone like in the past and if it's not in a child mode that prevents social media the parent get fined. This will very quickly make parents actually care to monitor there children's online activities.

[shant_extry]

I didn't think there was much on/about the internet and devices that I was ignorant on but I literally never thought about it like this..."It's a literal felony if you were to hand a kid a porno, gore/death videos, etc, but handing a kid a phone with unrestricted internet is completely fine for > 50% of parents [1]. And, the children of these failed parents go around the schools showing other children "shock" videos to get their reactions, like (an example I know) another child being murdered, on a gore website."

[20after4]

I think 13+ is an appropriate age to view explicit content. No matter how hard you try to prevent it, kids are going to be exposed to things. By the age of 13 or 14, like it or not, a lot of kids are partaking in the activities you would have them prevented from even seeing.