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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

#201

Post by betteryet »

eddythompson80 wrote: post #181
betteryet wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about we break up the tech industry instead? This muskian "I am above laws so I'll break up the USA/EU" is asinine and societies should come down on it like a ton of bricks.

Is the assumption that non "tech industry" communities (e.g: voat, parler, ovaries, gab, truth, lemmy, mastodon, 4chan, 8chan, etc) are less likely to be a problem or to negatively impact teens than the mainstream "big tech" ones (e.g: facebook, twitter, youtube, tiktok, reddit, etc)?

Not my point. The original comment said the tech industry can decide to break up the federal government because they don't want to be forced to clean up their act. Societies should be stronger than any industry and fight to maintain freedom, health, peace, and prosperity. If the tech industry is against that, then they should be the ones broken up.

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

#202

Post by Cyclone_ »

didibus wrote: post #134

To be honest, I wouldn't mind they'd ban it for adults too, would help me from wasting time on them. In all seriousness though, I'm curious what counts as social media, can they not play MMORPGs anymore for example? Are niche forums included ? What about chat apps like Whatsapp? Phone texting? Email? I'm also curious if say TikTok and YouTubed simply deactivated their social features? No comments, DMs, and so on for…

It looks like for now the ban is just limited to 10 apps. There's quite a few which are arguably worse that received an exception.

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

#203

Post by atmosx »

betteryet wrote: post #165
mullingitover wrote: post #71

Florida passed a similar law, and a bunch of other states are attempting to but are blocked by federal courts. Will be interesting to see if the tech industry allows it, or decides to break up the federal government before it becomes too powerful.

How about we break up the tech industry instead? This muskian "I am above laws so I'll break up the USA/EU" is asinine and societies should come down on it like a ton of bricks.

I agree. It’s just there has not been a pro-EU vote in any form or capacity by any EU population. So the stopped doing referendums but the EU grew only even more unpopular- and lately with VDL and KK, its as if its a cruel joke we all expect for it to end soon.

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

#204

Post by oersted »

miroljub wrote: post #197

The only appropriate comment here would be invoking Goodwin Law. Everything else is too mild to describe the journey of former democracies to totalitarian regimes.

Let's not go overboard. While I don't agree with this law, it's not much different from other underage laws that are commonplace: alcohol, tobacco, driving... I don't think it's an indicator of totalitarianism, it's just the same-old lawmaking philosophy updating to new developments.

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

#205

Post by RobotToaster »

betteryet wrote: post #165
mullingitover wrote: post #71

Florida passed a similar law, and a bunch of other states are attempting to but are blocked by federal courts. Will be interesting to see if the tech industry allows it, or decides to break up the federal government before it becomes too powerful.

How about we break up the tech industry instead? This muskian "I am above laws so I'll break up the USA/EU" is asinine and societies should come down on it like a ton of bricks.

Why not both?

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

#206

Post by delfinom »

kube-system wrote: post #176
chistev wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Break up the federal government?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn%27s_Early_Light:_Taking_B... That is basically what the Heritage Foundation wants to do.

Not going to help the tech industry given their largest audience bases are in blue states, who will happily just regulate them to death if the federal government doesn't.

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

#207

Post by lonelyasacloud »

jl6 wrote: post #106

Is the mechanism of the ban actually going to work, or is it just going to train more kids how to use fake IDs and VPNs?

Not sure it matters.

It's a relatively uncontroversial ban, with public support in Aus because of mental health concerns, and key social media sites complying.

VPN's come with their own minimum age 18 T&C's. As do the credit and debit that are usually required somewhere along the line to pay for the services.

Historically, if it's awkward to circumvent most people tend to comply; which means in turn that minority that can figure out a way around it are unlikely to find many of their friends present. While for majority there's unlikely to be much of a draw or peer group pressure to circumvent.

I'm sure Aus gov will monitor, media will highlight problems etc, but would be surprised if it was not actually quit effective.

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

#208

Post by iteria »

TimByte wrote: post #113
nephihaha wrote: post #56

There is a pattern of government using moral panics to exert greater control. Australia and New Zealand seem to be used as a testbed for projects which are introduced elsewhere. The UK government wishes to police social media more heavily, and has been using internet porn and illegal immigration (two unrelated issues) to push through digital ID. The exact same mentality - controversy, panic, dubious solution... In th…

The offline-socializing point is good, but it's also a cultural shift that won't magically happen because a law is passed. If anything, the hard part is rebuilding the offline spaces and social norms that used to make that easy.

Kids are in these spaces because there is no place for them to be. People call the police on unaccompanied kids outside. Teens are banned from malls. Where are teens supposed to be where they won't be harassed. When I was a kid we used to just wander around and chat. There used to be a whole event on Friday evenings where high schoolers would decent on this mall across the street from two movie theaters. We went to the skating ring. There were teen clubs. More. Right now, I can't think of a single place a teen could just hang out besides at each other houses which is mostly what I watch them do. It makes sense why they end up in virtual spaces. They can socialize privately that way.

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

#209

Post by Barrin92 »

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…

>We've been hearing politicians complain for years that they're losing the youth when it comes to long-standing foreign policy positions,

When Twitter added its location feature and it turned out that political accounts with millions of followers are run out of Pakistan or India you have to be crazy to still deny the scope of foreign influence that is exerted over social media.

You see it with the rise in anti-semitism or Russia's explicit promotion of influencers targeting Western youth. Why on earth would we let our kids be brainwashed by foreign intelligence agencies? There is no reason to assume this is some "hidden agenda", this is as big of a public issue as the mental health of teenagers. The United States used to have media rules that limited foreign ownership in companies with a broadcasting license, and now 14 year olds get their political lessons straight from Moscow, it's ridiculous.

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

#210

Post by stronglikedan »

betteryet wrote: post #165
mullingitover wrote: post #71

Florida passed a similar law, and a bunch of other states are attempting to but are blocked by federal courts. Will be interesting to see if the tech industry allows it, or decides to break up the federal government before it becomes too powerful.

How about we break up the tech industry instead? This muskian "I am above laws so I'll break up the USA/EU" is asinine and societies should come down on it like a ton of bricks.

It's not going to happen, at least not in the land of crony capitalism.
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