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Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s

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Re: Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s

#241

Post by itshossein »

xxs wrote: post #185
cchi_co wrote: post #184

This legislation is a bold step, but it raises a lot of questions about implementation and unintended consequences. While protecting children from online harms is undoubtedly important, enforcing an age limit like this on social media platforms could be incredibly challenging

It already works for gambling. It will reduce the access to adults, of course, but I can't say it'd see it as a negative

gambling is a little bit different, as you have to pay and receive money (easily enforceable bans). But here we are talking about a free service which is also offered by many foreign alternatives (which of course are not going to cooperate.)

Re: Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s

#242

Post by anon373839 »

> The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts

Unless the fines accumulate, it seems the law is rather toothless? US $33M is a parking ticket for companies at this scale.

Re: Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s

#245

Post by xxs »

itshossein wrote: post #241
xxs wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It already works for gambling. It will reduce the access to adults, of course, but I can't say it'd see it as a negative

gambling is a little bit different, as you have to pay and receive money (easily enforceable bans). But here we are talking about a free service which is also offered by many foreign alternatives (which of course are not going to cooperate.)

The age verification is on creating the account prior to any deposits.

As for not cooperating - I'd expect to ban them altogether (ISP) unless they comply. Gambling is exactly the same.

Re: Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s

#247

Post by discordance »

hcfman wrote: post #65
discordance wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re not mutually exclusive, and this isn’t about democracy. We know that developing brains have been deeply impacted by the easy dopamine engineered hits Meta and Bytedance deliver. To me this feels like a contemporary version of the opium wars, but instead of nation states at war, it’s companies vs people.

Perhaps we should also make it illegal to report on the war in the Middle East in case young people find it traumatising to see that that the western democracies are supporting dropping 2000 pound bombs on children in other countries. Can you image the damage being caused to young minds seeing that death and destruction visually through their own eyes ?

This is not about reporting or content. This is about the health outcomes of young people being negatively impacted by companies maximizing engagement metrics at all costs.

Reporting on war happenings occurred before social media was around.

Re: Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s

#248

Post by wokwokwok »

chris_wot wrote: post #224
wokwokwok wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not for this legislation, but your argument doesn’t hold up. If people are hiding it, that in itself normalises that people are not using social media. That’s the point; taking someone’s phone away makes them an outcast. If no one at school is “allowed” to have a phone, then it’s normalised, it’s normal to not have one. It is pandering to the minority, but your argument hides behind insults to avoid facing the re…

Except it wasn’t up for debate. It was opened for public scrutiny on the 22nd, submissions closed on the 23rd, then it was put through Committee (who asked for only 1 or 2 page submissions because they themselves didn’t have time to review it properly) and was initially put to the House on the 26th and passed on the 29th. The Act has no provisions for checking ID (that will be decided by the eSafety commissioner with…

You’ve taken literally one word from my comment, out of context.

Yes, you’re right, they rushed it through. …and that sucks.

Now what? Is that really the only meaningful complaint you can come up with about it?

I don’t support it because I think it’s overreach by a government that is already trying to make a nanny state.

…but I’m not naive enough to think it’s not going to work. It will work.

It probably has unintended consequences; that’s the problem.

Re: Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s

#249

Post by partomniscient »

theteapot wrote: post #220
matwood wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If every kid was injecting heroin we would not just expect, but demand the government step in. This is in addition to whatever parents are doing.

So true. In addition, if every kid suddenly became a vampire, we would not just expect, but demand the government step in.

Not only that, at some point the vampires will form a government for vampires which will be at odds and at war with the non-government vampire and there will be individual vampires that disagree with and feel a lack of representation from their vampire government.

Re: Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s

#250

Post by null0pointer »

threeseed wrote: post #37
ENGNR wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re a nanny state, the government is just going to use it to track us

ASIO has been able to track you for decades since they have real-time metadata feeds from Telstra, Optus, NBN etc. They have access to your location estimate, URLs of sites you've visited, people you talk via email/phone etc. And we know that this dataset is shared to the Five Eyes. So if you are concerned about being tracked I would strongly recommend leaving Australia.

It’s more about who has access to the data and how easily. Plus the potential of creating a massive target for hackers.
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