Tech companies put on notice as Australia passes world-first social media ban for under-16s | CNN
Tech companies put on notice as Australia passes world-first social media ban for under-16s | CNN
Australia’s parliament has passed a law banning social media for children under 16, putting tech companies on notice to tighten security before a cut-off date that’s yet to be set.
Wonder how it's actually going to be enforced. Judging from the article, it'll all be up to the tech companies themselves which historically didn't turn out to be that effective (examples: age fields on services like Discord and Gmail and porn).
The only effective way I can think of is having to send a picture of your ID but that's hella invasive
There are existing systems that use a digital token created with the ID document. Only this token that confirms the user's age is sent to the social media site, which means its minimally privacy invasive. Unfortunately, it seems like nothing like this is planned to be used in Australia.
This is not good. This isn't about "protecting the children" this is about control. This will hurt those who are most vulnerable. If it weren't for the internet I probably would have died a while ago.
Adults, take my warning, they will come for you next. Its a matter of time
You think they're going to raise the drinking age too? This is not inevitable.
Yeah, maybe I'm being too negative, but people need to act,
This seems like it's going to be really bad for LGBTQ+ minors. Finding community online at around 13-14yo literally saved my life.
About time somebody tried it
And they expect that a 16-year-old won't figure that out...
I guess we'll see what happens.
Unlike in the past, current-day teenagers are less technologically competent than older people. The vast majority will not be able to figure it out, especially those who were using TikTok as a search engine (I wish I was making this up).
Permanently Deleted
Awful
I'd prefer for kids to learn to navigate social media whilst they have access to adult supervision and oversight. 16yos aren't going to listen to their parents' advice.
16yos aren’t going to listen to their parents’ advice.
That's why I started and continued to talk to my two sons about it from a very young age (5 years old). Now they are teenagers and don't have any online problems.
Something the article doesn't clarify is whether this is meant to only to apply to kids in Australia. Normally that would be obvious, except that Australia already has tried to demand social media companies remove content even for non-Australian users on the basis that Australians could bypass geo blocking with VPNs. If age checks are location/ IP based, they could make the same (bad) argument.
But didn't they already have a popup window asking if they're old enough? That should have fixed it already.
Australia hopefully has their own home grown social media sites by now. Every other country that decides to wholesale ban all foreign social media tend to have replacements ready when they do it.
Whether this is good or terrible honestly kind of depends on how they define social media. Is discord social media? Are forums? Is Reddit?
Arguably nobody really benefits from exposing children to feeds full of toxic and angry adults, but that doesn't mean no communities should allow children. Like, there's nothing wrong with kids dipping their toes into the Internet and learning and growing from it, but I don't think it's necessarily the best thing to just hand them the keys to the worst elements.
Also like, I prefer adult communities over all age communities by a long shot.
*Mass Identification Scheme
Which empire has the best firewall?