Australia's government restricts usage of social media to users 16+ years of age

So yeah, thats happening

Extremely rushed, bipartisan legislation that was forced through in a week despite 15,000 public submissions in 24 hours. They only gave 3 hours in parliament to debate it and all but one of the experts they bought in during the debate were against it.

It has no real support from experts in privacy fields or even child health/psychology.

Because heres the kicker...

The Government has not revealed HOW they are going to make the social media companies verify that a user is over/under 16, despite threatening $50 million fines to companies that breach. The law doesn't actually kick in for 12 months, during which time AusGov is going to be testing various age verification methods.

The common theory is...

Linking EVERY AUSTRALIANS social media accounts to a Government issued digital ID OR having to somehow verify ID with the social media companies (ie provide them with proof of ID). Both are horrible ideas. Either the socmeds get your real world ID, OR the government can link your real world ID to your social media accounts.

And many of the worst social media and similar places, like 4chan, telegram etc wont be covered because they have no presence in Australia, so can't be fined in Australia. So, teens kicked from the big ones will flock to worse places with far, far worse content.

Quote from bethesda

Are you happy that at least they'll at least be kicked from the big ones?

no

Not at all

Ridiculous short sighted rule. There are many positive things teens get from social media. Support groups. Community. An escape from a sometimes terrible real world. Learning.

A blanket ban, that not even parents are allowed to override, removes that. LGBT kids, kids with weird hobbies, immigrant kids, rural and super remote kids (in Australia we have VERY remote towns) will lose all kinds of support circles.

We will NOT prepare kids for a growing future digital economy or navigating it properly. Instead, suddenly, kids will turn 16 and be expected to figure it out.

And in being removed from the big sites, that at least have SOME degree of moderation, will mean teens, especially boys, will seek out places where much more evil, extremist stuff happens. But also where the allure of "forbidden" is greater.

Girls use Social Media to "See and Be Seen". Content swapping and actual socialising. Posting images of themselves and their lives and living vicariously through the lives of celebs and influencers. This ban will really impact that a lot as the alternative options are not nearly able to fill this kind of Social Media use.

But boys, a lot of them, use social media to a lot more "consume and trade" information. Not good information necessarily. They might communicate with each other yes, but theres a bigger element of watching things like Twitch and "lifestyle" types, which unfortunately include very toxic types of lifestyle influencers... your Andrew Tates, Fuentes and gross IRLstreamer types. And young males are also more comfortable with being more "anonymous" online, so they can better trade memes that start going too far, outrageous viewpoints and other harmful content. Pipeline content.

Now, the big Social Media providers definitely do a fuck awful job of monitoring the pipeline content, but they still do to a degree. The places like Telegram, Rumble, Kick and the chans... do not. They will be all too happy to funnel the mass of suddenly content starved young males, and I bet some of the nasty influencer types they follow will also be happy to provide the signposts directing them there. Into the dark places... where they can be much more free to be as gross as they want.

So no. I'm not happy about ANY aspect of this shitty rushed law.

The party that bought it in, Labor... It's the "left wing" party in Australia, that used to be proper Left Wing. I was a life long Labor voter. This legislation and some other terrible, stupid things they've done this year and last means I will no longer be voting for them again.

I'm going to The Greens.

This video by cold fusion really got me thinking; This seems that the true nature of this bill could have been a grab against the freedom of privacy. Whereas a y/n confirmation that would have sufficed most porn sites in the US, the Australian government seemed to be more inclined to scan faces, upload government documents, and have self-reporting hardware or other things.

Not to mention the swiss-cheesie-ness of a potential enforcement and the veritable cat and mouse game that ensues.

Stuff like chitchatter, telegram, hyphanet/freenet, onion browser, or simple VPNs already provide well and truly difficult nuts to crack already for traditional laws like that against CSAM or drug trades for those who are technically handy.