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Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

reuters.com

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

#11

Post by OhioMan2943 »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #9

How does a country effectively enforce this? Below is how they propose doing this. If you don't have any form of verification of your actual age, it's seems like they are just going on what the user says ( self reports). How can a company be found liable if a used lies about their age? >the days leading to the ban, some teenagers said that they were prompted to verify their ages using a facial analysis feature, but t…

How can seatbelts be enforced? This is preposterous and imbecilic- if there isn't a policeman inside every car checking every minute how will we make sure that people are wearing them. Clearly there is no point in trying!

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

#14

Post by [deleted] »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #9

How does a country effectively enforce this? Below is how they propose doing this. If you don't have any form of verification of your actual age, it's seems like they are just going on what the user says ( self reports). How can a company be found liable if a used lies about their age? >the days leading to the ban, some teenagers said that they were prompted to verify their ages using a facial analysis feature, but t…

[deleted]

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

#15

Post by hallole »

N_Lens wrote: post #8

Quite a decisive move by the Australian government. I don't know if it's a move in the right direction or not but the research clearly shows that around the time social media became mainstream, teens' and preteens' mental health took a nosedive (Especially girls).

Hugely decisive! Feels more like a policy for idyllic hypotheticals. "Suppose we could ban social media..." well, hey, they actually did it.

I'm very interested to see how their socializing evolves in response to such a shock. Do the social behaviors of pre-internet times re-emerge? "Third spaces" reappear overnight? We shall see!

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

#16

Post by deminature »

As an Australian experiencing this first hand and considerably older than 16, absolutely nothing has changed. It seems like all the social networks are doing age estimation of accounts and only taking action on those that fail and are detected as underage. The change is otherwise completely invisible if you're an adult user. Obviously I'm only a sample size of 1, but I've not heard of any other adults being adversely affected by this, so it seems the estimation is accurate.

Pretty well executed - I'm impressed. Given how seamlessly this occurred, it will undoubtedly be rolled out in Europe next year, as the EU has expressed an interest in doing so, but was waiting to see how the implementation went in Australia.

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

#17

Post by falaki »

I really hope other nations, including the United States, copy this. Australia proved that it is possible. I think the results will be so overwhelmingly positive that others will take notice. Good job Australia!

Reading "Anxious Generation" is a must for all parents in this day and age.

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

#18

Post by tartoran »

falaki wrote: post #17

I really hope other nations, including the United States, copy this. Australia proved that it is possible. I think the results will be so overwhelmingly positive that others will take notice. Good job Australia! Reading "Anxious Generation" is a must for all parents in this day and age.

Of course it is possible, why would it not? I'm glad this is happening and I'm sure it'll follow in other countries, probably not the in the US though. Frankly I really hope most people just get off social media's grip and start interacting the way we used to.

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

#19

Post by NoPicklez »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #9

How does a country effectively enforce this? Below is how they propose doing this. If you don't have any form of verification of your actual age, it's seems like they are just going on what the user says ( self reports). How can a company be found liable if a used lies about their age? >the days leading to the ban, some teenagers said that they were prompted to verify their ages using a facial analysis feature, but t…

Go and read the actual report of what the eSafety commissioner is requiring.

The company can't be found liable if they have put in reasonable age verification technology, particularly if the user lied about their age or found a way to circumvent the restrictions.

They clearly aren't going by just what the user says as the companies have implemented age verification tools that try to do that detection.

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

#20

Post by AngryData »

falaki wrote: post #17

I really hope other nations, including the United States, copy this. Australia proved that it is possible. I think the results will be so overwhelmingly positive that others will take notice. Good job Australia! Reading "Anxious Generation" is a must for all parents in this day and age.

Isn't it a little early to declare success? I think the bigger worry with the US though is not whether it is technically possible, but whether anyone in power cares to actually help kids versus using this it as an excuse to implement Orwellian surveillance upon citizens.
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