Australians to face age checks from search engines

Post by marcus_holmes » Fri, Jul 04, 2025, 12:50 AM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #255

nullc wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And let me guess, this rule isn't eliminated if your property is isolated by a reduced pressure zone device? I assume that in your post "WA" means Western Australia -- as I can't imagine this kind of absurd protectionism law flying in Washington state, even though it's a little more paternalistic than average for the US.

Yeah, Western Australia. And of course not! As mentioned - the rule has even recently been extended to 'protect' people like us who live semi off-grid, with rainwater capture for drinking and a septic system. Australians really seem to loooooove rules. And of course, for the most part, nobody's actually checking this stuff and people pay varying levels of attention to the rules. Seems like a waste of time all round.

Post by immibis » Sat, Jul 05, 2025, 7:46 AM UTC

kypro wrote: post #202

hilbert42 wrote: post #13

A resident of said country here. Another questionable measure by Government to protect our mollycoddled, insufficiently-resilient society. That said, a better approach would be to limit kids under certain age from owning smartphones with full internet access. Instead, they could have a phone without internet access—dumb phones—or ones with curated/limited access. Personally, I'm not too worried about what risqué stuf…

100% agree. The framing that explicit material is bad for kids, while probably true, is besides the point. Lots of things a parent could expose a child to could be bad, but it's always been seen as up to the parent to decide. What the government should do is ensure that parents have the tools to raise their kids in the way they feel is appropriate. For example, they could require device manufactures implement child-m…