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Social media as bad for children as smoking, British doctors say
(www.reuters.com)
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this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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One causes children to do dumb shit. The others actually kill them. Yeah completely comparable.
All of this is propaganda to enforce ID checks and tracking for using the Internet.
Its really weird to me that instead of making social media companies responsible for their content with actual real consequences including shutting them down and criminal charges and painful monetary fines, they are pushing world wide ID and tracking on the rest of us.
We need more people saying this. Almost everyone has been tricked into accepting the false dichotomy of mass ID or nothing.
Personally i think the better option is to force parents to parent. Can't? Too bad, they'll be better off under parents who can.
Everyone else kills the Internet and this can solve many more problems.
Sure. But isn't that a quintessential example of "easier said than done"? Like it's not a solution on it's own.
IMO metaphorically we have lions waiting on the edge of camp to prey on the weakest of us. Sure we can teach kids about the lions and keep them away from them whenever possible. But it would also be prudent to remove the lion's easy access to vulnerable people.
I think age restricting social media is akin to putting a fence. Not gonna stop determined lions or children, but it will eliminate the lions' line of sight.
I don't think age verification for accounts fundamentally requires giving every corporation our ID. We legislate it such that corps are only required to cease services upon suspicion(reports etc) and have an appeals process that legally cannot use direct ID verification. Instead they use 3rd party verification like online banks. This is already a working alternative method used to access Canadian government services. It piggy backs of the security people already have on their personal finances. The 3rd Party simply verifies the person is of age and discloses no other data. There may need to be some tweaks to that model but it's already working in Canada.
You're comparing the outcome a lifetime of smoking to the early stage consequences of social media use. Kind of apples to oranges. I'd wager way more kids are getting bullied, committing suicide, getting addicted to xyz, and being indoctrinated or exploited somehow... than are getting lung cancer.
Cigarettes didn't become mass produced until 1880. By 1920 most US states had restricted the sale to over 18. So the timing of this conversation about social media makes sense. Considering USA banned ALL tobacco advertising in 1971, we need to look critically at how social media has bypassed this to popularize youth vaping; leading to popcorn lung.