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Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

abc.net.au

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Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#101

Post by philistine »

hilbert42 wrote: post #86
lnsru wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. We all have been 16 in different world. Now pornography starts at 10 using classmate’s cellphone.

"Now pornography starts at 10 using classmate’s cellphone." I went to Australian schools. For comparison I'm old enough to remember when a brand of bubble gum came with cards that had photographs of famous female film stars on them. Whenever we boys got duplicate photos we'd swap them with one another (it was pot luck, until we unwrapped the gum we couldn't see the photo). I recall an incident in the classroom where…

You are not describing anything resembling what kids today are exposed to. There is no scarcity. Any phone can access an endless scrolling list of pornographic videos. Kids can spend hours scrolling and watching new-to-them pornography for free.

The first step in solving the problem of those prudes trying to build an inescapable surveillance state because there is way too much porn online, is accepting that they’re right that children are going to suffer because of the porn accessible online.

Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#102

Post by Nasrudith »

trollbridge wrote: post #42
ggm wrote: post #24

In full expectation of being downvoted, I would like to say here that I think the comments below show an astonishing lack of awareness about how most ordinary australians feel about the risks to children online. I believe most australians vox-popped in the street would say they expect the government to do this. I'm not for a minute saying either the current government, or any past government is either competent or ca…

I agree, and most the comments here also show a lack of awareness of how much parents really don't want their kids running across Andrew Tate-esque material online and think it's okay for the government to regulate things in some way so that kids don't just accidentally run across that. And yes, I think barely anyone exists who hasn't functionally identified themselves to Google. And I'd venture nobody exists where G…

They are aware - they just believe in things like fundamental human rights which make what those idiots want matter about as much as the price of tea in China.

And good grief the lack of understanding of the basics of consent is downright appalling! It is literally the same logic as a rapist's defense that their victim was promiscuous so they couldn't have been raped!

Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#103

Post by rpdillon »

ghssds wrote: post #7

What about Yandex? If I wanted to see porn, I'd go to Yandex, not Bing or Google, because Yandex is the superior search engine for that kind of thing. If Yandex is unaffected, this age check is useless. What about Marginalia? A small operation like Marginalia, if affected, may not have the ressource to implement age check. Is this some kind of regulation capture scheme? Why don't you just shove a leash up my ass?

Thanks for the Demolition Man reference. Great movie, and apt!

Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#104

Post by const_cast »

lnsru wrote: post #82
huijzer wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> BBC Channel 4 had a documentary in which a psychologist described 16-year-old boys with erectile dysfunction coming into his counselling room. I think that must be another medical condition or the boy lied, but we’ve all been 16 here and seriously those problems are extremely unlikely. If there is one problem that 16 year old boys have it is a too active sex drive.

No. We all have been 16 in different world. Now pornography starts at 10 using classmate’s cellphone.

I have zero reason to believe pornography is the culprit.

Erectile dysfunction is a physiological issue. It's almost always an issue of blood flow. This young man could have heart failure or some other condition limiting his blood flow to that of an old man.

Not to mention testosterone levels have been declining for what, 70 years? Why are just intuitively, and pre-emptively, blaming random stuff on pornograhpy? You can't do that. You have to show the causation. The world is complicated.

Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#105

Post by const_cast »

vkou wrote: post #12
hedora wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of these laws (the US has some now) are designed to set up a censorship regime that can control speech or oppress undesirable groups (Project 2025 calls out LGBTQ+, for example). The age verification also will inevitably let the authorities create a list of adults to persecute.

> The age verification also will inevitably let the authorities create a list of adults to persecute. If your government has slid that far down the dystopian shithole scale, why would they care if the person they are persecuting is an adult or a child?

> If your government has slid that far down the dystopian shithole scale

The problem with laws such as this which rely on benevolent enforcement is that they're volatile. Any country could become fascist, at any time. We're all just sort of hoping that the data and privacy we've all given up isn't used for evil - but certainly the frameworks to use it for evil are there, and are being expanded constantly.

Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#106

Post by cindyllm »

const_cast wrote: post #105
vkou wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The age verification also will inevitably let the authorities create a list of adults to persecute. If your government has slid that far down the dystopian shithole scale, why would they care if the person they are persecuting is an adult or a child?

> If your government has slid that far down the dystopian shithole scale The problem with laws such as this which rely on benevolent enforcement is that they're volatile . Any country could become fascist, at any time. We're all just sort of hoping that the data and privacy we've all given up isn't used for evil - but certainly the frameworks to use it for evil are there, and are being expanded constantly.

[dead]

Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#107

Post by tzs »

logicchains wrote: post #64
sixtyj wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am old enough to remember how hard it was to find access to adult mags. I understand that they want to make it harder for kids to access the flood of material that will destroy their brains before they even realize it. Unlimited access to materials not intended and understandable by evolving kids’ brains is not really good. BBC Channel 4 had a documentary in which a psychologist described 16-year-old boys with erec…

>I understand that they want to make it harder for kids to access the flood of material that will destroy their brains before they even realize it. This is hyperbolic crap. Since at least the 70s boys have been growing up with access to adult images and it hasn't "destroyed their brains". Certainly a minority of people have a problem with porn addiction, but even completely banning porn access to teens would just del…

> This is hyperbolic crap. Since at least the 70s boys have been growing up with access to adult images and it hasn't "destroyed their brains".

In the '70s for most boys that meant finding an occasional issue of one of the adult magazines that was available at regular magazine shops. Mostly Playboy and Penthouse, maybe Hustler if you got lucky.

Those are all very tame compared to what is now readily available for free on the net today.

Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#108

Post by Smoosh »

spacephysics wrote: post #94
RachelF wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "online safety" of kids is just an excuse, I suspect. Australia really wants to be able to identify and track the ID of all their citizens online. No more Internet anonymity for them.

Jokingly, it’s not surprising given many of their short-term ancestors were prison guards or criminals. Looks like the ruling gov still sees their citizens as such

“England transported an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts and political prisoners, as well as prisoners of war from Scotland and Ireland, to its overseas colonies in the Americas from the 1610s until early in the American Revolution in 1776, when transportation to America was temporarily suspended…”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_transportation?wprov=sft...

Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#109

Post by Smoosh »

heavyset_go wrote: post #40

This is just a step towards killing anonymity and free speech online, as well as a hand out to shady government contractors. We are going to have to give our IDs and biometrics to untrusted 3rd parties just because some people don't like the idea of other people's kids using the internet. If these sites are so bad, maybe laws should instead target that problem. For example, make it illegal for social media companies…

> If these sites are so bad, maybe laws should instead target that problem.

We apparently live in a world where companies are legally considered to be people, and thus have rights, yet they have no moral obligations whatsoever.

Re: Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

#110

Post by heavyset_go »

philipallstar wrote: post #93
heavyset_go wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am old enough to remember how hard it was to find access to adult mags. It wasn't difficult to find, it was just in your parents' or siblings' drawers, or your friends had it, or you or someone else had Pay-per-view TV or one of the soft core channels, or you or someone had illegal cable/sattelite, or it was just out in the woods[1] for whatever reason. No one's minds melted from that. If access to content is so…

> If access to content is so unhealthy for anyone, then policy should address that Kids aren't the same as adults. It's like saying "no one should drive/smoke/drink because kids aren't allowed to". > cartoon adult content in with his comic books. This was shit from literally 100 years ago, and yet that generation turned out alright by most standards You can't be comparing, surely? A drawn picture of breasts compared…

If laws were consistent, they'd apply equally to tobacco and alcohol, but they get special carve outs to cater to entrenched industry.

If any of those things are as harmful as proponents claim, there is no excuse for letting them continue to harm anyone for profit. Children aren't the only sympathetic victims here.

> You can't be comparing, surely? A drawn picture of breasts compared to the most hardcore and (almost always female) degrading stuff imaginable in 4k?

I am. The content of those magazines was horrendous by today's standards. Just because it was drawn does not mean the content itself was wholesome. I was genuinely shocked by what it contained.

Still wouldn't ban it, though.

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