We’re constantly seeing a shift in what’s illegal and what’s legal . Ten years ago, it was mostly legal to talk on your phone while driving. At the same time, a certain now-legal recreational substance was against the law. Times, and laws, do indeed change.
How will things look in ten years? Redditors shared their thoughts on what’s legal now that might not be in 20 years.
Tackle football for kids.
“Its eye-opening with how many former players are publicly against their own kids playing. I mean it’s insane that 8 year old kids have to deal with repetitive hits like that. I could totally see a big shift towards flag football for youth football.”
“Convenience” fees.
“Convenience fees. Or fees for paying rent online. Or CC transaction fees (I know these aren’t charge by the merchant directly but by the network, but seriously, do Mastercard and Visa really need to make that much money per transaction?)”
Bullying.
“Hopefully bullying. If the victim ever stands up for themselves, the school almost always punishes them instead of the bully, which leads to so many of victims killing themselves. Even if they don’t kill themselves, bully victims end up having irreversible trauma.”
Combustion engines.
“This is already underway in the UK.
2030 is the end date for selling cars that rely petrol or diesel. By 2035 cars and vans have to have 0 emissions from the tail pipe.
Although this is only for new cars. Not sure what the stance is going to be on secondhand cars.”
– u/Goetre
Lobbying.
“I really hope to see lobbying in all forms ended soon. It’s literally just bribery. It undermines the very base core values the country was built on, and I hate it so much. I really don’t understand why it’s allowed in the first place.”
Fireworks.
“It’ll probably be illegal for civilians to buy fireworks in the US within the next 20 years. With how wildfires continue to be devastating each year as well as how often accidents involving fireworks occur, I wouldn’t be surprised to see fireworks be made illegal. They’ll probably only be available to professionals.”
Cars without speed limiters.
“I expect that this, and the comment you replied to, are actually some of the most likely ones. Hell, the big insurance companies are already selling OBDII things that will monitor your driving to give you discounts, and IIRC England has recently proposed a law requiring that all cars be electronically limited to the speed limit on the current road.”
True anonymity online.
“I wish it wont happen but I have a feeling it will in the future. Making it illegal to engage in social media without a digital ID removing digital anonymity. And im sure they will hide the reasoning under the guise of addressing and mitigating troll accounts.”
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Brachycephalic dogs.
“I don’t know if there will be a ban in twenty years but there will at least be a major push for it.
Right now there are significant pushes for a ban on advertising featuring brachycephalic breed, when that’s eventually brought into law the next logical step will be either a limit in breeding or an outright ban.”
Alcohol advertising.
“I think that advertising alcohol the way they do will become illegal, it’s so bad for you and kills so many people daily yet you go into your local shop and there’s this massive alcohol section with big posters of people people drinking together and slogans that almost push the idea of needing to have a drink to relax on a Friday or pushing the idea that you can only have fun on a night out if you drink.”
Drug commercials.
“I don’t understand it to begin with. When I go to the doctor, THEY recommend the medication.. because they’re the doctor. Do people go to the doctor and say, ‘hey I saw a commercial for Cymbalta, can I have a prescription for it?’ I mean they must since they’re advertising to SOMEONE, but it’s just weird to me. I just assume the doctor knows better than I do.”
– u/[user]
Telemarketing.
“It’ll never get banned per se, but almost certainly the technology to ensure that telemarketing never reaches anyone who doesn’t want it will happen.
Already my phone (a Pixel) can determine that a phonecall is likely suspicious and have an AI pick up and ask what the reason for the call is. 99% of spam calls I receive just end right there without me even picking up the phone.”
Internet-only subscription services.
“Something I found out recently is that you can no longer just buy Photoshop as a one time purchase. There is now only a subscription service which means 2 things 1. You’ll never be able to access Photoshop without an internet connection and 2. You’ll pay more than that cost to get Photoshop as a program after a certain point.”
Multi-level marketing schemes.
“Some of the largest customers I worked with were MLMs based in Utah. There was no end to the money. They’d gladly fly in people from across the world to solve an issue, often at last minute, when most other companies would try solve it remotely.
They were building systems capable of shipping more product per day than the Amazon warehouse down the road, which made no sense, but they ‘needed it’ for the growth curve.
It was absolutely insane.”
Certain family vlogs.
“There’s been many instances where families have exposed intimate inappropriate parts of a child’s upbringing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are legal cases in the future for exploitation or damages. I’d say it will be age restricted at least since the kids can’t consent.”
VPNs.
“I’m pretty sure there will be laws soon that outlaw VPNs. They will be written saying that its because they are ‘criminal tools’ that facilitate theft of intellectual property such as downloading music, movies, and other property without paying the property owner… but in reality it will be bills backed by corporations that want better access to information about you that you don’t want them to have access to.”
Child marriage.
“Some states have at least minimum age req but those vary from 14-18 and some states you can literally marry off your child at any age old with parental consent. About 300,000 children with a few as young as 10 were married in the US between 2000 and 2018. Not surprisingly, most are girls (86%) married to adult men.”
Ad blockers.
“I do think companies will start enforcing it more themselves. Some websites today already block you from viewing their content if they detect an adblocker. It’s easy to ignore 1 website but if all of them start doing it then adblockers become effectively useless because you can’t view anything.”
Charities donating very little to charity.
“One of the biggest disappointments was learning how little the Wounded Warrior Project actually spends on veterans. Most goes to ‘overhead,’ then they donate to other organizations with their own ‘overhead’ and lastly they spend just enough on vets to drum up PR to get more donations.”
High fructose corn syrup.
“I think some of the ingredients found in American foods will be outlawed at some point. As we get more and more info about some of the most common food ingredients (like we’ve known for nearly 2 decades that High Fructose Corn Syrup causes cancer in mice, and we already can’t export it to Mexico or Canada) will be eliminated, altogether. If not by regulation, then by consumers’ increasing awareness of the negative consequences.”
