Minecraft at least engages their brains and can genuinely be used as a good tool for creative outlet. I have 3 kid nephews, and I'd much rather have them building random stuff in Minecraft for half the day than letting them anywhere near youtube shorts for even 10 minutes.

I actually witness this fairly regularly. The eldest has a phone (but only allowed to use it for an hour on weekends). He immediately becomes snappy, moody and basically is just a cunt of a kid as soon as he gets sucked into the brainless shit that youtube pushes on him, whereas he has never acted that way when it came to any video game. Sure he'll complain a bit about wanting to play more, but whether that's a video game or playing football with his friends he'd be complaining anyways, and I'm sure every single child in the history of humanity has complained about not being able to play for longer. Ripping the reels away though? It genuinely feels a lot more insidious to me the effect they have on his mental wellbeing, it turns him into an actual thoughtless zombie for a while as soon as he lays his eyes on them.

And this is coming from the Uncle that was obsessed with video games when I was his age (and I still am!), I'm very happy I didn't have anything like tiktok when I was growing up and was forced to dig holes in the dirt and throw marbles at my friends instead to get my entertainment.

No. Feed-based apps are uniquely bad.

But in Europe you can drink at 14. Age of consent is also 14.

So, no, there is no official line at 18-21. Especially in the EU.

> But in Europe you can drink at 14. Age of consent is also 14.

That is hilariously general. You're conflating a lot of different nations there. In practice; its different depending on the nation, consent is usually 16 and alcohol is ~18.

I was referring to Germany, the largest EU nation. But sure let's look at percentages.

40% of the EU has age of consent 14 or lower. (Germany, Italy, Portugal, etc.) 78% of the EU has it at 15 or lower (France, Sweden, Denmark, etc.)

No 'official line' at 18-21.

its more complicated than that, the age of consent you're listing doesn't necessarily universally apply and is mostly that low when both people are within that age bracket. In Germany for example the age of consent is effectively 16, its more that there's wiggle room to 14, if both parties are under 21.

This argument falls apart in the EU though. Where it's legal for 14 year olds to drink alcohol.

That's not because EU countries want people to make their own decisions, it's because not so many people in EU think alcohol is bad for kids.

And that's because they're much more responsible with alcohol. Americans get introduced to alcohol as a rebellion from oppression the moment they go to college. Germans have it with dinner with their parents sometimes when they're 12. It's like how Facebook got boring when your parents were on it.

I don't get that impression from Europeans. Also I've had wine at home since I was 12, but still ended up getting completely wasted the first time I had alcohol in college. Pretty sure anyone who's interested in that will do it at some point, and that's the only way to outgrow it.

Anecdata, but I don't remember my high school friends in Europe being much more (if at all) responsible with alcohol than my US friends were when I went to college there.

They just started getting blackout drunk 3 years earlier.

Fines on US tech companies bring in more money to the EU than the EU's entire tech industry combined.

Haha you may be right.

But instead you may see it as a discount on the money these companies are making from European citizens.

So social media is pure 'poison' with 0 positive impact but other addictive media like video games are tools with noble utility?

The World Health Organization has reached the exact opposite conclusion.

The ICD-11 doesn't include 'social media addiction.' It doesn’t exist clinically. What they did include is 'Gaming Disorder', classifying your 'sword' alongside substance abuse and gambling.

My point is governments could just as easily justify video game crack-downs with this same logic. Is that something we should be cheering on? Really?

It is not about that. There is surely lots of hypocrisy in particular around alcohol. In most parts of the world TBH.

The discussion is whether companies are treated equally with regards to a particular law.

Ya that's my point. The particular law in question - 'Online platforms that are creating any negative effects on mental wellbeing, like addiction'

This is Fortnite, Minecraft, Netflix, Online Shopping, Dating Apps etc.