Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 89 posts

Re: Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

#11

Post by michaelt »

phatskat wrote: post #2

On the one hand I’m glad HN doesn’t do embedded images, on the other I’d really like to see this thread just be popcorn eating GIFs. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how this plays out - I feel like Twitch reaches such a large and diverse demographic that the response will be palpable. I haven’t looked, but I’m assuming this ban already applies to YouTube, right?

> I haven’t looked, but I’m assuming this ban already applies to YouTube, right?

Apparently someone from the government looks at the site and assesses how 'core' the online social interaction is to the site.

Banned: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Kick and Twitch

Not banned (yet): Pintrest, YouTube Kids, Google Classroom, WhatsApp, Discord, online games like Roblox, AI chat.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyp9d3ddqyo

Re: Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

#12

Post by mulquin »

WastedCucumber wrote: post #8

Are they going to do age verification? And how? The only way I can think of would effectively require identity verification as well.

They will most likely utilise some sort of system where a photo or short video are uploaded and an AI will make a determination of age. It’s not going to be accurate but will probably be compliant enough.

Re: Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

#13

Post by nottorp »

vkou wrote: post #10
johnisgood wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is, that it sets a precedent, and next they will come for other websites whose ban will strike you as "bad". Edit: I can definitely see them banning anything related to Linux and resources related to OSes because of how processes can be handled, e.g. "kill parent", "kill child", and so on. The term "kill" already has to be censored out on many websites. Of course context matters, but people really have diffic…

While your slippery slope argument can be applied to literally anything that children are restricted from, it consistently fails to materialize. Perhaps it's predictive power is not as expansive as you think.

They won't ban Linux for containing "kill" but because it teaches kids to "hack" :)

Re: Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

#14

Post by nottorp »

What does this ban actually mean?

As I understand it, it bans kids from creating an account. They can still doom scroll or waste their life watching reels without a login, don't they?

This may push social media back to making their content accessible without an account :)

Re: Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

#15

Post by viktorcode »

michaelt wrote: post #11
phatskat wrote: post #2

On the one hand I’m glad HN doesn’t do embedded images, on the other I’d really like to see this thread just be popcorn eating GIFs. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how this plays out - I feel like Twitch reaches such a large and diverse demographic that the response will be palpable. I haven’t looked, but I’m assuming this ban already applies to YouTube, right?

> I haven’t looked, but I’m assuming this ban already applies to YouTube, right? Apparently someone from the government looks at the site and assesses how 'core' the online social interaction is to the site. Banned: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Kick and Twitch Not banned (yet): Pintrest, YouTube Kids, Google Classroom, WhatsApp, Discord, online games like Roblox, AI chat. https:…

This list indeed seems to be a random selection

Re: Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

#16

Post by threatofrain »

vkou wrote: post #10
johnisgood wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is, that it sets a precedent, and next they will come for other websites whose ban will strike you as "bad". Edit: I can definitely see them banning anything related to Linux and resources related to OSes because of how processes can be handled, e.g. "kill parent", "kill child", and so on. The term "kill" already has to be censored out on many websites. Of course context matters, but people really have diffic…

While your slippery slope argument can be applied to literally anything that children are restricted from, it consistently fails to materialize. Perhaps it's predictive power is not as expansive as you think.

I think there is such thing as a moat on legislative and cultural movement, whether that moat is good or not. So rather than "slippery slope" I think of it more like reducing or building moats.

Re: Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

#17

Post by lm28469 »

johnisgood wrote: post #9
gnarlouse wrote: post #3

This doesn’t strike me as “bad”. Seeing the content on Twitch and how parasocial it is, it doesn’t seem healthy for kids under 18 tbh. Like Facebook was the craze when I was exiting highschool, and then it was instagram/snapchat/twitter through college. “Quitting” social media was one of the healthiest adult choices I ever made—comparison is the thief of joy, blah blah blah.

Problem is, that it sets a precedent, and next they will come for other websites whose ban will strike you as "bad". Edit: I can definitely see them banning anything related to Linux and resources related to OSes because of how processes can be handled, e.g. "kill parent", "kill child", and so on. The term "kill" already has to be censored out on many websites. Of course context matters, but people really have diffic…

You can use this train of thought to argue against laws in general, it doesn't sound like a very strong argument

Re: Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

#18

Post by dyauspitr »

viktorcode wrote: post #15
michaelt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I haven’t looked, but I’m assuming this ban already applies to YouTube, right? Apparently someone from the government looks at the site and assesses how 'core' the online social interaction is to the site. Banned: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Kick and Twitch Not banned (yet): Pintrest, YouTube Kids, Google Classroom, WhatsApp, Discord, online games like Roblox, AI chat. https:…

This list indeed seems to be a random selection

Seems reasonable to me.

Re: Streaming platform Twitch added to Australia's teen social media ban

#19

Post by throwaway290 »

gnarlouse wrote: post #3

This doesn’t strike me as “bad”. Seeing the content on Twitch and how parasocial it is, it doesn’t seem healthy for kids under 18 tbh. Like Facebook was the craze when I was exiting highschool, and then it was instagram/snapchat/twitter through college. “Quitting” social media was one of the healthiest adult choices I ever made—comparison is the thief of joy, blah blah blah.

Twitch problem is not just parasocial... possible to get stalked. sometimes full chat of kids is prompted into disclosing their ages/locations and they do it because guard is down
Post reply on HN