The Australian government has announced what it describes as world-leading legislation that would set 16 years as the minimum age for children to use social media and hold platforms responsible for ensuring compliance.
Difficult debate. Not sure the traditional media are so much better. I personally think that educating teens to handle whatever medias would be preferable to a blanked ban. It’s going to be interesting to see how it will evolve.
Traditional media aren't associated with bullying and suicide risk. Social media are.
Teens have always bullied, so it's hardly a surprise or preventable on social media. It implies that the victim cannot escape from it though and at least leave it at school. So moving entry age to a level, bullying isn't as bad is a good idea in my book.
Well yes but those aren’t the only dangers are they? And not all social medias are equally problematic ; we’re better here than Facebook or so I like to believe.
And life, in general, is filled with bullies.
I used to read Australian news every day. Now I just don't bother. This government just wastes their time on complete and utter nonsense like this while we're in the middle of a housing crisis that they're doing their absolute best to exacerbate.
I feel like I became dumber just reading this article.
I mean there's a point to be a had. A blanket age restriction is probably the wrong way to go about it, but like, stranger danger doesn't apply to just the physical world. We teach kids the importance of not talking to strangers, but are completely fine with literal nazi forums. Nobody would let their kid attend a KKK meeting, but yet again, a literal nazi forum is fine?
I am becoming convinced that trying to establish a generally applicable age limit is the wrong way to go about these types of things, but instead we must focus on identifying the specific developmental markers which represent each phase and focus on those. We should teach parents to "read" their children's progress and determine dynamically, based on both general data and individual empirical observations. Some children may not be ready for Social Media even at 16, while others who have more natural social inclinations may be hampered by a delayed introduction of these realities.
We've been treating the subject of children like they're a bulk product, but they're just as individually specific as any other human being. They just lack a fully defined brain structure and the contextualisation and understanding which come from life experience, but I doubt anyone could argue they don't have a personality or cognitive uniqueness.
Note: I am not talking about the age of consent! That one should always be a thing!
Because nostr and the fediverse care so much about what they think. I'm absolutely certain that every fediverse instance will immediately block any Australians under 16 years old. /s
I've been in online communities since shortly after my 10th birthday and this has never once been a problem.
Most of my friends when I was a teenager were people I met online. It was beyond a reasonable doubt good for me to be on the Internet during that time because it was the only place where I fit in, where I could be myself.
If I ever have kids, I hope they fit in better than I did offline, but if they don't, there is no way I am going to prevent them from socializing in online communities.