Ofcom has warned social media companies they will be punished if they fail to take significant extra steps to address the problem of children pretending to be adults online. A newly released survey, conducted by the UK media regulator, indicates 22% of eight to 17 year olds lie that they are 18 or over on social media apps.
Yes, what's driving this is registration of everyone on social media by the back door, under the guise of 'protecting children'.
This is despite the Online Safety Act (OSA) requiring platforms to beef-up age verification, a responsibility that will come into force in 2025. Ofcom told the BBC its "alarming" findings showed tech firms had lots to do to meet that new legal standard - and said they would face enforcement action if they failed to do so. It said children being able to pass for adults increased their risk of being exposed to harmful content. "Platforms need to do much, much more to know the age of their children online," Ian Mccrae, Director of Market Intelligence at Ofcom told the BBC.
There's really only one way to do that, isn't there? And it's not going to stop at children wanting access to social media, it's going to affect everyone. Powerful people want to strip anonymity from the Internet, and this is the Trojan Horse they will use to get it.
A number of tech firms have recently announced measures to make social media safer for young people, such as Instagram launching "teen accounts." However, when BBC news spoke to a group of teenagers at Rosshall Academy, in Glasgow, all of them said they used adult ages for their social media accounts. "It’s just so easy to lie about your age", said Myley, 15. “I put in my actual birthday - like day and month - but when it gets to the year, I’ll just scroll ten years back," she added. “There’s no verification, they don’t ask for ID, they don’t ask for anything," added another pupil, Haniya, who is also 15.
The kids seem all right to me.
1 comment:
'The kids seem all right to me. ' I have to agree!!
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