Social media bans how they don't work and what does work.

Introduction

As of a certain time in December the Australian government has now attempted to use a ban on social media to protect "children" the reality is the measures taken are insufficient relative to the actual harm social media organizations cause and their actual complicity and failure to appropriately moderate, and curate a safe or safer platform for children. When focusing on the children we are quick to judge while being hypocritical and ignore the fact the platform is not even safe for adults, many adults daily are exploited by social media companies, due to their failure on duty of care of its' users. Hopefully in this blog post I can explain why the ban is a botched mess and how better to deal with social media, I am going to discuss some very dark subjects so if you are not prepared please do not read further.

Underground pressure

Banning children from social media will put them at a disadvantage the reason being is many of them from solace in many of their online conversations, with friends they have met, the reality is banning them will push them underground, and trust me when I saw you want to be able to "observe" what happens in the many platforms that exist, Friends are more important than anything for kids, by removing social media you remove a critical organization hub for them to plan outings, and communication with friends, social media is not entirely the demon in this regard but they are partially responsible.

Measures Necessary to instate a proper ban

To properly enforce a ban you would need to take draconian measures for it to work correctly, ranging from technological measures, to policy measures, But I would call it extremely unethical and unconstitutional if those measures were to be taken I understand the actual necessary tools because if you've read any of my blog pages I know my stuff and the technical specifications for an encompassing bar are again draconian ethically dubious so the best way to mitigate harm is to deal with the sources of those harms.

Social Media platforms involvement

Social media platforms are often very hands off with their involvement in moderation and have moved to using artificial intelligence systems to moderate their platform the big problem here is social media where inappropriately material discussion would happen because the movement to "AI based moderation" the development of 'coded' language evolved, because AI systems do not process information like human beings coded language has come about to support the unscrupulous activities individuals engage in, that can range from emojis to other methods. Adding further I would not trust social media with the "age image" they take, everything and I mean everything you post online is scrapped by AI, Facebook was caught and several other ML training datasets containing billions of photos of children, social media platforms really do not care about ethical compliance.

There are simple ways social media companies could mitigate a lot of harm

• Approved Advertisement sources which are known to be safe: This means companies known to be safe from a stand point of unlikely to post objectionable material. A simple case of safe advertiser would be "Lego". Approved safe source would be well known brands from various sectors who have a record on not posting excuse the expression age non-appropriate material.

  
  

• Advertisement should be appropriately approved of and moderated by human beings, that means people who get a report of say a "p**n" add showing up in heir feed parents can "flag" that material.

• Be aware of coded languages and constantly developing methods to mitigate the effectiveness these companies are multi-billion dollar organizations if they can't comply with the psychological research needed to build safety tools they shouldn't be operating in Australia.

The Dangers and Darkness

Lets examine the true deep dark hole that is the internet lets open up this discussion examining the many facets of how dangerous the internet is without appropriate education for both children and adults.

1. Generative Models and CSAM(Child Sexual Exploitation material) - You would be forgiven for not being aware of this, but your children photos are crawled by AI models and some companies will accept some moral responsibility by respecting "no crawl" requests but there are many more out there that will not.

   
   

2. Generative Models and Malicious Coercion - Generative models no matter what safety restriction are placed on them, can be jail broken, and can deliberately lean into mental health disorders amplifying the effects of them, because the LLMs will re-enforce any behavior a child may believe this re-enforcement is dangerous, very dangerous. Because anything an LLM is often implicitly believed people seem to have an air of a belief because the answer came from a machine it is accurate and correct. LLMs have also spread false information and even dangerous ideas, food recipes being for one, that involve toxic compounds and liquids.

   
   

3. Predators - and other actors are starting to operate at scale using LLMs to manipulation, and target at a scale unlike anything you've seen. We've already seen hundreds of Discord bots in open places posting "links" to their objectionable material, yes in front of your children again social media platforms are partially complicit with this.

   
   

4. Scaled manipulation - On social media children are sent both by the algorithm and by users in directly levels of manipulation you would have a hard time modelling and understanding, I understand this because I know about the actual tools used to build this apparatuses. Generative models and LLMs are now "roaming" the internet having conversations with real users and people many of the times being completely unaware of this.

   
   

5. Social media algorithms are programmed to drive engagement - this is a simple metric to evaluate, when you like, share or comment this is classed as a engagement, this means some of the worst of the worst material will bubble to the surface ranging from actual p**n to potentially violent and disturbing content which is very much not appropriate, The problem with this model is it can be gamed, and manipulation allowing even the worst of the worst content to boil to the surface. These are a somewhat objective measure and it lacks an ethical framework around it. Engagement simply is a volume game.

   
   

6. Algorithmically induced depression - yes this exists, as the recommender systems are driven by engagement, a child only has to look at certain categories of material, and their algorithm will begin converging to the worst of the worst in some cases, certain video-sharing platforms come to mind, sending children down the deepest rabbit hole you can think of, dangerous, mentally harmful and actively destructive material.

   
   

7. Digital drug - what is the difference between a drug addict and a children who is constantly exposed to social media from certain sources? None the same brain activity pathways drug addiction exploits are the same certain short-form video platforms intentionally target, bright, colors, emotionally loaded, material just to name a few of the categories of digital crack is used. In younger children you can see this in some very popular children YouTube shows, I will let you work out which ones I am talking about.

   
   

8. Mental health amplification - All children who have existing mental health conditions need to be extremely careful just like the point about malicious coercion the internet is full of sources of causing mental health disorder amplification including isolation, and lack of knowing the self. Many social media platforms actively amplify those conditions which may lead to future psychiatric hospitalization as a result.

Adults are far from Immune

There is a misconception because you are an adult you are immune to this system being used, but trust me you are not, unless you have a natural neurological trait which leads to you having hyper attention to detail, then you are unlikely to be immune to this manipulation. The same techniques used against kids are then used to target them as an adult. Adults daily are subject to scams, hacking, and deepfake p**n yes some of your cherished photos are exploited by unscrupulous actors, and you would probably never know.

Advice to Parents

Regularly talk with your children about what they've seen or what material they may have come across, and how it affected them, being completely open about the discussion is better then trying to bury your head in the sand. Being aware of what children view and who they talk to is critically important. The social media ban employed by the Australian government has so many methods to circumvent it is not funny, and by trying to control their usage like this it sets them up for reduced critical thinking, and ability to navigate the dangers that the internet continuously is developing day by day. I am only providing guidelines I do not have children, I just see this from a purely logical and analytical perspective.

Critical thinking is the one over-arching concept here understanding who wrote something, why they posted, when did the post it, and where did the post. This is often a good way to start thinking about what material, is and what is is doing. This includes maybe asking someone who is more technically qualified in the field of technology, Removing them from the problem will not allow them to build digital resilience and mental skills needed to cope with this constantly evolving threat landscape, when they are forced to confront it as an adult they may not even know how to deal with it.

1. Provide an open communication path about children's activities

   
   

2. Teach critical thinking skills for evaluating sources, content intent, engagement metrics utilized by social media companies.

   
   

3. Regularly have a conversation about dangers present on the platform encourage active discussion about the content they've seen, recently.

   
   

4. Monitor unobtrusively and passively be on their 'friend list' and make sure you use some means to disguise your presence they may not like mum or dad being on that list, choose a profile that would blend in do not interact with them through that publicly. This way if their friends see that list they'll just think you are another person, they regularly hang out with. Simply state the only reason I monitor your groups and friend chats is for your own safety avoid embarrassing.

   
   

5. Old school text messages are an alternative if you want complete authority over the safety of your children phone use if they aren't on social media you can simply get them to use specialized group chats via text, or other methods, or leverage more closed forms of communication which you are actively engaged in Signal chat or any of the Matrix chat protocols. Some apps like Element are incredibly secure once you set up something called E2E no one can read the contents only you.

   
   

6. Social media companies are a threat to both you and your children acknowledge that. And treat them as such.

   
   

7. Companies know what they are doing treat them as a threat to your child safety, that includes explaining to them to restrict what they share and how much they share. Social media companies do not care about you, your safety or your child safety.

   
   

8. Avoid chastising or criticism you'll only throw a defensive wall up, and they will be less receptive to discussion.

Please do note I am not a Psychologist if you need more help beyond this, please constant a psychologist and technical specialist. If you would need that service from me I can do it, but I am limited to technical subjects in what I can provide, so I can discuss this with a psychologist and bounce the concepts back and forth if you need to use more tough measures. All social media companies prioritize profits over people, know this and as I stated treat them as a threat not just a company.