Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban • Hacker News Board

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#611

Post by subscribed » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:14 AM UTC

taejavu wrote: post #274

subscribed wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an adult, not living in Australia, and yet my backup Roblox account has been barred from using any form of in-app chat unless I send my face and ID to some third party service. All of my (adult) friends living in AU had to perform various forms of age checks on almost all platforms they used, which seems to be very far from invisible. I'd much prefer anonymous, safe, reliable age checks (that can be done!) that d…

Can you give examples of what your friends had to do for each platform? No one I know has been affected, so it does seem “invisible” to me. However I’ve also been an adult for quite some time now. If you don’t mind me asking, are your friends young adults?

One is young adult (20-ish), graduate, another is 40-ish "professional". They live in the opposite parts of the continent, have completely "normal" /mundane interests (we bonded over a specific book series and share one more hobby).

It did not affect them too much, but they had to use either their government issued id or consent to biometric scan (age estimate via camera).

Nothing particularly problematic, but nevertheless irritating and may become a deal breaker.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#612

Post by pokstad » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:19 AM UTC

feb012025 wrote: post #161

I feel like everyone in this thread is assuming this is a good faith move by Australia to help kids in school and with socialization. I think phones and social media are harmful, but I get the sense there's a political motive behind this. We've been hearing politicians complain for years that they're losing the youth when it comes to long-standing foreign policy positions, etc... And suddenly they ban social media. R…

As someone with kids, I’m really surprised to hear this. I viciously keep my kids off social media. There’s no political connection. It’s a safety and mental health concern.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#613

Post by rtpg » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:20 AM UTC

pajamasam wrote: post #465

ivan_gammel wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a) normalising people uploading identification documents and hence lead to people becoming victims of scams The reasonable approach to solve this problem is verification protocol that mandates integration with the apps chosen by users. You have your wallet with digital ID and you use only it on any website, sharing the bare minimum of details. No uploads of anything anywhere. Independent wallet providers ensure pri…

> sharing the bare minimum of details The reasonable approach, yes, but the approach most in the interest of the governments and corporate players driving these laws...?

I think people are overindexing on how much of this is "get more data on users".

I don't get why people believe there's a conspiracy here. There's perhaps a large tent, but "social media bad" is not a controversial opinion! "The gov't should do something about it" is more controversial, though I think the controversiality is less heavy in spaces with parents, teachers, places where people have to deal with kids.

Not that this is how things should be determined, but... I think reading this as a "get more data and track people" play feels like giving everyone involved too much credit. It really just feels like what it says on the tin here.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#614

Post by uplifter » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:21 AM UTC

indymike wrote: post #406

Father of five here, and founder of a social media marketing company (exited). Our kids are up against problems we didn't have during the great expansion of social. The three big things: 1. State level actors and well funded not for profits are fighting an information war to influence our kids. And they are very good at it. Down to having troll farms to talk one on one. Every time something new happens in the world,…

Is this really an attempt to regulate children's speech or association any more than denying kids entry to a pub?.

I don't think the framers of this law are even worried about what kids are saying or who they associate with, as long as it isn't the criminals, sexual predators and state actors you mention.

Frankly if kids were visiting a physical hang-out where they could expect to be attacked by such people, any and every responsible guardian would order them to never go there.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#615

Post by rtpg » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:22 AM UTC

jen729w wrote: post #441

zmmmmm wrote: post #405

A lot of the criticism is based on the concept that it won't be technically watertight. But the key is that it doesn't have to be watertight to work. Social media is all about network effects. Once most kids are on there, everyone has to be on there. If you knock the percentage down far enough, you break the network effect to the point where those who don't want to don't feel pressured to. If that is all it does, it'…

> normalising people uploading identification documents and hence lead to people becoming victims of scams We've long lost this war. I'm in Italy, staying at my 3rd Airbnb. I was surprised when the first asked me, casually, to drop a photograph of my passport in the chat. I checked with Claude: yep, that's the law. (I'll remind you that Italy is in the EU.) On checking into this place last week, the guy just took a p…

I'm pretty sure in most places in the world if you are travelling from abroad you are asked to share your passport, and have been for a very very very very long time.

The difference between sending it over a chat and handing it over to a clerk (who then photocopies it or types in the data into the computer) feels almost academic. Though at least "Typing it into the computer" doesn't leave them with a picture, just most of the data.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#616

Post by walt_grata » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:25 AM UTC

devmor wrote: post #514

delbronski wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on dude, you are on HN. You probably know that social media is no longer about free speech. It’s a targeted advertising machine that is extremely effective on kids and teenagers. It preys on them so, so efficiently. It’s a technical work of art. A young mind is extremely susceptible to the algorithms on those platforms. Much more than adults are, and adults are already really susceptible. This is what this ban i…

Why do we have to ban networked communication for teens instead of regulating it? Nearly everything about it that’s bad for teens also sucks for the rest of us.

It's not networked communication that's a problem, it's a company pumping algorithmicly prioritized feeds of content while being run by unscrupulous profit driven people.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#617

Post by yladiz » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:28 AM UTC

drnick1 wrote: post #556

yladiz wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the EU you don’t need to upload your ID anywhere, the service can use the government’s portal for ID verification. In the case of age verification they can get a yes/no response if the age is above some threshold. This is opaque to the service so they wouldn’t get any additional ID details.

> In the EU you don’t need to upload your ID anywhere, the service can use the government’s portal for ID verification. In the case of age verification they can get a yes/no response The issue is that now the government knows what you are doing online, and that should never be allowed to happen. I grew up when the Internet was truly free, before Facebook even existed. People shared source code, videos, MP3s, games, r…

I don’t really get your point. Your government is generally able to compel your ISP to give them logs of all of your traffic, if they don’t already vacuum it up, so it’s honestly a bit naive to think it shouldn’t be allowed to happen, because in practice it absolutely can.

There is a distinction between getting data from an ISP and getting it via your use of their portal, but I’d argue it’s without much of a difference in reality.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#618

Post by mxfh » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:28 AM UTC

indymike wrote: post #406

Father of five here, and founder of a social media marketing company (exited). Our kids are up against problems we didn't have during the great expansion of social. The three big things: 1. State level actors and well funded not for profits are fighting an information war to influence our kids. And they are very good at it. Down to having troll farms to talk one on one. Every time something new happens in the world,…

Seriously, the biggest and most prevalent danger to kids online, is unregulated marketing directed towards them building unhealthy habits and potential loss of self worth due to unreachable ideals potrayed in advertising.

Not any of the three points you bring up there.

Those superpredator bogeymans you make up here, have to actively seek you out and have a limited budget in comparison.

State actors are after everyone, not kids primarily. In the current state of thing I would have no qualms just shutting down X, Facebook, YouTube Shorts and TikTok live for starters for all.

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#619

Post by kubb » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:29 AM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #459

zmmmmm wrote: post #405

A lot of the criticism is based on the concept that it won't be technically watertight. But the key is that it doesn't have to be watertight to work. Social media is all about network effects. Once most kids are on there, everyone has to be on there. If you knock the percentage down far enough, you break the network effect to the point where those who don't want to don't feel pressured to. If that is all it does, it'…

Well, yes but the other problem is this is putting authoritarians in charge of more stuff. I had a comment comparing this to allowing people to eat too much food and that is literally where the logical outcome of this sort of thinking goes - it happens in practice, that isn't some sort of theoretical risk. The more the government decides what people can and can't want to do the worse the potential gets when they make…

Authoritarians use social networks to undermine democratic principles so not exposing kids to that takes power away from them. Or did I misunderstand something?

Re: Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

#620

Post by bongodongobob » Thu, Dec 11, 2025, 12:30 AM UTC

delbronski wrote: post #487

roenxi wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes but the other problem is this is putting authoritarians in charge of more stuff. I had a comment comparing this to allowing people to eat too much food and that is literally where the logical outcome of this sort of thinking goes - it happens in practice, that isn't some sort of theoretical risk. The more the government decides what people can and can't want to do the worse the potential gets when they make…

Come on dude, you are on HN. You probably know that social media is no longer about free speech. It’s a targeted advertising machine that is extremely effective on kids and teenagers. It preys on them so, so efficiently. It’s a technical work of art. A young mind is extremely susceptible to the algorithms on those platforms. Much more than adults are, and adults are already really susceptible. This is what this ban i…

It is a targeted advertising machine, that is one of its functions. I also don't think there is anything wrong with that. I don't think the government has any businesses banning speech either. I also don't believe they want to "save the children".