[em-bee]

the problem is that in developing countries smart phones are a massive technology jump for people who lack the education to even have a clue whats going on. treating people as adults does not work if they don't have the education needed for that.

these people aren't gullible. they are ignorant (in the uneducated sense). they are not making bad decisions. they are not even aware that there is a decision to be made.

and worst of all, this problem affects the majority of those populations. if more than half of our population was alcoholic then we absolutely would restrict the access to alcohol through whatever means possible.

it's a pandemic. and we all know what restrictions that required.

[tremon]

> Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience

-- C.S. Lewis

[em-bee]

this is not about moral busybodies. it's not even a moral issue. it's an existential issue. this is about demands from the population to be safe from scams. those scammers ruin lives. do you think those people really prefer to be scammed and lose their life savings?

the correct solution is of course education, but education takes time. we can educate today's children so that they can protect themselves in the future. but that's the next generation. for the current generation that kind of education is to late.

the proposed solution is a stopgap measure. do you have a better idea how to solve the problem? (maybe putting more effort into persecution, but that costs money. or making banks responsible for covering the loss. but then you'll get banks demanding the protection. tyranny of the banks then? is that any better? that's actually happening in europe now.)

not doing anything will hurt a lot of people and make them unhappy. as a government you really don't want that either.

[plst]

To add to that, I think it's important to point out that the problem of people not understanding how to safely use their devices is in big part caused by technology companies racing to get widest adoption everywhere, both in terms of location and in terms of industries. I'm not against "intuitive UX design" in general, but at it's extreme, it just fuels incompetence. We shouldn't now let them pick the most convenient option, the option that just happens to also increase their powers over the users, as a way to "fix" the problem.

[em-bee]

I'm not against "intuitive UX design" in general, but at it's extreme, it just fuels incompetence.

how does it do that? (i am not getting hung up on "intuitive", i just mean you argue that the currently used design fuels incompetence)

how is a UI designed that doesn't fuel incompetence?

i have a hard time imagining what design aspects matter here, and how to improve upon them.