It is absurd to suggest that children should not be allowed to socialize online. Have we completely forgotten the internet we grew up on? I would be dead if I hadn't been able to make friends online.
When I was a kid I joined a random BBCode forum with a group of 10 people who taught me how to program. There were challenges some passionate person set up and he would give tips to me and a few others for free. We hung out all day. That's gone.
We can create spaces like that again, and teach the younger generations, instead of antagonizing them, coddling them and banning them from congregating on the internet.
The actual forces promote toxic platforms like TikTok, Sora, Twitter, BlueSky with no real productive value at all. Even HN is a waste of our lives yet here we are.
I have a great time on the internet. I meet new people all the time, and I have met many of them in real life, and many of them have become good friends. I am sorry you're having such a bad time, but if you looked around, you'd see there are many healthy communities built around all sorts of interests.
Some of them even live on TikTok. I don't use TikTok, but my girlfriend uses it quite a lot and while there is plenty of brainrot, she also learns a lot from it, too.
