My thoughts immediately go to all the queer kids in rural areas who stand to be cut off from the only support networks they have.
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Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
411–420 of 498 posts
Re: Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
#412Every single Australian 's ID will have to be verified (in order to confirm their age). Depending on the degree of cooperation (/coercion) the Australian government has with social media companies, the Aus Govt will be able to access citizen social media data with relative ease. So no more pseudo anonymous accounts (or, at least, they'll be made more difficult, especially for non-technical folk). Reminds of the 'chil…
Australia was already fucked more than the U.S. before that regarding Police state status... But all world states are walking toward this
Re: Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm getting a 502 error trying to access the original content. It doesn't appear to be a scientific study, but rather a testimony from a Facebook executive talking about how they disregarded user safety in the development of algorithms that increased engagement. That's not quite what I'm looking for, though. I'd like to see something examining the effects of those behaviors on the population. I will say that the leng…
> I'd like to see something examining the effects of those behaviors on the population. In the testimony, they explain it: We took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook, working to make our offering addictive at the outset. Allowing for misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake news to flourish were like Big Tobacco’s bronchodilators, which allowed the cigarette smoke to cover more surface area of the lungs. https:/…
Still no science though. One exec's views in a large company doesn't equal science.
If exec's views are science/truth. Then I bet you would have found execs in tobacco companies who thought they were doing good.
Re: Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
#414If you’re tempted to think “this isn’t worth it, too hard to enforce without affecting something else”… read “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt. There is very real, irreparable harm being done to young people, and it merits trying to make it right, not just surrendering to it. Surely the problem of verifying a property of someone (the Boolean of “is over X age”) without sharing further details, is a surmounta…
Parents should be more responsible. That's it. This measure is, potentially, deeply ingraining the (terrible) idea that the State is responsible instead, so when all these young kids have children, they, just as their parents, will lack the ability to take responsibility and make their children more responsible by proxy, and so on, and so forth. It's a never ending cycle that is perpetuated by not tackling the proble…
I’m sure the same argument was made about tobacco? If you want your children to not smoke tobacco, just be a better parent. How dare the state prevent children from purchasing tobacco? The state is not your parent!
For network effect products (social media, drugs, and alcohol), the easiest solution is in fact to use the government to ban the sale of said products to minors. It’s a coordination problem that’s bigger than the family unit.
Re: Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
Frankly I want Australia to go ahead with this law so the rest of us can have a test case for it. If it works well we can copy it with tweaks. If not, then we know to seek other options.
What do you even mean by "work". You live in a fantasy land if you think the government will say we expect outcomes A, B and C from this law and will repeal or adjust it if all outcomes aren't met in 3 years. It's either a power grab or lobbying as others have suggested. SERIOUSLY! Is anyone claiming that childhood depression and suicide will go down to some range after this law is put in effect? Of course not. Will…
The key indicator is a simple question: how many of Australia's teenagers continue to use social networks now.
Re: Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
#416Re: Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
#417My question is: What behaviors will come sideways out of this prohibition? My guess: You can’t outwit a digital native generation. Websites with less concern for the rules in general will become digital hangouts.
I'm excited to see the outcomes. Hats off to Australia for engaging in this experiment. One unique aspect of social media, as opposed to, say, porn, is it's reliance on network effects. Sure, maybe 25% of kids will use a VPN and log on, but if most of your friends don't care enough to spend their allowance on a VPN, then what's the point?
Ya that’s true. I guess I’m imagining the “25%” being pushed towards 4chan type environments, and perhaps then a subset of that towards more dangerous environments.
Re: Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
#418Earlier quoted context omitted.
You realize HN here is social media, too?
I would argue that "social media" requires the social aspect, namely, contacts and direct messaging.
We socialize here, just last month I read someone's comment about life in the Canadian country-side and realized he's the brother of a Youtuber I'm watching for years. The same happens on any other social platform be it in the internet or real life.
Re: Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
#419Here in Austria in fourth grade kids take a little test for their bicycling skill. Not that it matters much in a car-centric country, but people forget that cycling, even in company with a parent, give kids the chance to learn the necessary traffic rules. Why not have something similar for social media or as the problem seems to be general conduct in social media, educate the kids and give them better ways to raise t…
> as the problem seems to be general conduct in social media is that the problem? I'd have thought the problem is more about the ill effects of social media on children, not the children's behavior on said social media.
Hen or egg? To make it worse, for some it's simple in their nature to show some degree of anti-social behaviour. We all have to learn how to interact with others in a social manner, be it on the playground, school or internet.
Re: Australia: Kids under 16 to be banned from social media after Senate passes laws
#420Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many under 16s read newspapers or watch news anyway? All you need to do is look up the mental health stats since the iPhone release to see why parents are massively concerned. There has never been a time when an alert parent didn’t have a fair idea of what info a kid was exposed to. This is why going to university is such an awakening. Now the parents basically need a background in infosec to stop their kids acce…
> stop their kids accessing hardcore porn, violence and other mind bending content. Such sites are not among the social media sites required to verify Australian's ID/ages, which hints that protecting kids is merely a pretence.
Well but that content is also distributed over this social media sites.