Can anyone name any sector that, when left to self-regulate, has actually behaved in a responsible and constructive manner? Any company that did the right thing in the absence of regulation telling them to?
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Comic books also self-regulated for a long time.
Maybe it's different in the US, but in my country, age ratings on media aren't the sector regulating itself. Film and TV are rated by an NGO (who issue ratings based on a list of criteria determined by government legislation), and games are rated by an organisation that is accountable to the government. So I'd consider both to be externally regulated, not self-regulated.
I don't think we can let the current big AI players regulate themselves, but the ESRB hasn't been too bad at doing its job.
...it is now commonplace to find elements that are considered psychologically equivalent to gambling with real money in games rated E for everyone, therefore recommended for children of all ages.
ESRB may be plenty harsh on violence and sexual content, but it is completely neglecting their job where rating conditioning monetization elements accurately might earn the industry less money.
They were spawned to stop the government from regulating video game content thanks to games like Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.
Yes, I know. My point is that as new needs for self-regulation have come up, they are playing coy. Because as industry representatives it's more profitable to pretend they don't realize there is a new risk, that justifies ratings and warnings for children and their parents. If they will not catch up until the threat of government regulation comes up, they are not doing their job properly.
Ironically they are more harsh at fictional depictions of gambling than at lootboxes with real money, so they always knew there were some risks of this kind.
I get you.
We let Google self regulate. We let Facebook self regulate. We let Microsoft self regulate. How did that turn out again??
When profits are of concern, "self-regulation" gets defenestrated!
At this point, I think that regulations are useless. Not because these companies aren't harmful. But because they will either convince the government that they'll self-regulate, or they'll use their insane profits to bribe the politicians into castrating the regulatory agencies. I'm convinced that the only way to prevent these greedy scum from harming humanity is to never let them grow that big in the first place. When these companies are big enough to control the government, they should be cut down to size with a healthy margin of safety.