Meta, the megacorporation that owns Facebook, wants the government to pass new legislation regulating the Internet. They say that they want this to protect your kids and your privacy.
Folks, common sense will tell you that Internet companies care about your privacy the same way oil companies care about the environment. What they really care about is public relations. The real reason Meta wants these regulations is because Meta is sure they can afford the compliance costs (as well as any fines associated with non-compliance). And Meta also hopes that compliance costs and fines keep start-up social media sites from growing into competitors. Meta wants to keep the next new thing from doing to Facebook what Facebook did to MySpace.
Facebook has it’s problems, but I still like it enough to maintain an account. To be sure, Meta has better values than, say, Gab and Parler. But corporations still should not be protected from competitors. Facebook is already a monopoly as it is. Meta isn’t so much concerned about protecting your kids as they are concerned that your kids would rather be on TikTok or whatever else is coming down the pipeline.
But how do we actually go about keeping kids safe online? There is no easy solution here. None.
Parents can only monitor and control their kids’ Internet usage if all devices that the kids use have the appropriate software. Kids could evade parental controls by acquiring burner phones or any device that their parents don’t know about. Someone could make a case for banning the sale of any Internet capable device to minors, but such a law might motivate kids to steal what they aren’t allowed to buy.
Other safeguards would require websites to distinguish between adult users and children. How do we normally prove that we’re old enough for mature entertainment? We show our ID. Or the grey hairs and wrinkles convince the bouncer that we’re old enough. Websites could require that you submit a copy of your ID, or they could use facial recognition software. But this also creates privacy concerns.
It should be stressed that any regulatory power that we give to the Biden Administration in 2024 could be used by a different, possibly Republican, administration in 2030.
The Internet can be a fun toy, a useful tool, or a deadly weapon. The same can be said about cars, and yet learning how to drive has been a key rite of passage for many generations of American teenagers. It’s ultimately up to parents to decide when a child is mature enough to access the Internet safely.