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Australia is introducing age checks for search engines like Google

abc.net.au

111–120 of 120 posts

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

#111

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…

I never encountered any of the things you list, growing up, and would have been shocked if I had. There's a tendency to overgeneralize a culture based on one's own subculture -- or perhaps you're even assuming things after watching too many '80s movies.

I am speaking from experience. I don't know anyone growing up who didn't have a friend share a Playboy with them, see risque things on TV, or when dial up was a thing, did not use the Internet to search for "boobs".

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

#112
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's been impossible without a phone numner for a while now

I made a Google account without even owning a number a few days ago. Afaik only one of my Google accounts has a phone number and pretty sure that's only because AdSense.

My tinfoil hat theory is that if it doesn't ask for a phone number then it already has a very precise shadow profile about you. Being on linux+firefox+grapheneos compared to windows+chrome+android probably means a lot in that regard.

What do you think?

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

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't just asking for your age, its going to require verification of that through ID.

Australia requires ID to purchase alcohol yet alcohol usage among under 18s is widespread.

And the Nicotine situation... The "government" sure got a good handle on that.

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

#114
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.

Recently the Australian government's been talking about creating a national "internet hate" database to record criticism of Israel and the IDF, it's likely in service of that, as anonymity makes it harder to silence dissent.

> "criticism of Israel"

Like the death chant marches through Australian city streets, burning synagogues, attacking Israeli restaurants, vandalising, threatening, and shoving socialist-activated Palestinian propaganda marches in our faces every second? That criticism?

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

#115

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…

Newsflash: pretty much every site like Google already knows exactly who you are. We gave up anonymity a long time ago in exchange for "free".

> pretty much every site like Google already knows exactly who you are

Depends how much you share with Google when signed in. If I log out of Google services and browse around the web, my browsing activity is not recorded against my Google account.

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

#116

I'd rather use a VPN, it's instant and doesn't require me to go through a whole verification process. I think VPNs are the easiest solution when this gets implemented. Easier than going through an age check.

If you already have a Google account where your location is stated and obvious, why do you think Google won't still demand your "papers please" after these Orwellian Labor party laws attempt to screw us?

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

#117
post #21

I think it's telling that this is happening via "policies" instead of laws, because almost nobody cares or wants it. It's also telling that Google and Microsoft aren't in opposition to this new burden, they're giving quiet yet full support. This will *necessarily* entrench the big players through the burden to implement, make it easier to track individuals across different accounts and services, and endanger the priv…

> campaigns to educate parents on using parental controls.

Exactly this.

The other possibility is that Google & Microsoft won't want to hassle people for ID or "papers please" just for liking a post, reviewing a business or sending email.

If I were Google, I'd be worried about losing a LOT of customers who simply won't provide invasive personal details which routinely get stolen in Australia from poorly secured "trusted" organisations like Qantas and Optus.

People won't want to send their ID to "trusted ID contractors" for simple web services because e-Karen has a final solution. I'll close my Google accounts if they ever deny me access on that basis, and I'll take action against the measures in any way I can to make things as uncomfortable as possible for whatever authoritarian government ushers this garbage in.

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

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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 r…

"You are not describing anything resembling what kids today are exposed to."

Right, that was the whole point of my comparison.

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

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> The content of those magazines was horrendous by today's standards

Without specifics, how was it horrendous by today's standards? As in you'd never see anything on the internet anywhere near as degrading as it?

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

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> The content of those magazines was horrendous by today's standards Without specifics, how was it horrendous by today's standards? As in you'd never see anything on the internet anywhere near as degrading as it?

Gang r*pe, the violent kind and by and against what we'd now say are those who could not consent to that even if they wanted it to happen.

No, I have not seen anything like that before on the Internet or since, and I hope to never see it.

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