4 wk. ago • 100%

Tech companies put on notice as Australia passes world-first social media ban for under-16s | CNN

www.cnn.com Tech companies put on notice as Australia passes world-first social media ban for under-16s | CNN

Australia’s parliament has passed a law banning social media for children under 16, putting tech companies on notice to tighten security before a cut-off date that’s yet to be set.

25 comments

Wonder how it's actually going to be enforced. Judging from the article, it'll all be up to the tech companies themselves which historically didn't turn out to be that effective (examples: age fields on services like Discord and Gmail and porn).

The only effective way I can think of is having to send a picture of your ID but that's hella invasive

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- There are existing systems that use a digital token created with the ID document. Only this token that confirms the user's age is sent to the social media site, which means its minimally privacy invasive. Unfortunately, it seems like nothing like this is planned to be used in Australia.
  
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  Someone still needs to create that digital token from your ID, which means someone's still using and storing your data, and potentially selling it or having it leaked.
  
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This is not good. This isn't about "protecting the children" this is about control. This will hurt those who are most vulnerable. If it weren't for the internet I probably would have died a while ago.

Adults, take my warning, they will come for you next. Its a matter of time

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- You think they're going to raise the drinking age too? This is not inevitable.
  
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  Yeah, maybe I'm being too negative, but people need to act,
  
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This seems like it's going to be really bad for LGBTQ+ minors. Finding community online at around 13-14yo literally saved my life.

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About time somebody tried it

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And they expect that a 16-year-old won't figure that out...

I guess we'll see what happens.

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- Unlike in the past, current-day teenagers are less technologically competent than older people. The vast majority will not be able to figure it out, especially those who were using TikTok as a search engine (I wish I was making this up).
  
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Awful

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I'd prefer for kids to learn to navigate social media whilst they have access to adult supervision and oversight. 16yos aren't going to listen to their parents' advice.

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- 16yos aren’t going to listen to their parents’ advice.
  
  That's why I started and continued to talk to my two sons about it from a very young age (5 years old). Now they are teenagers and don't have any online problems.
  
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  It's not enough just to discuss it in the abstract, they need to interact with it in a controlled environment
  
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  What did you go over?
  
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Whether this is good or terrible honestly kind of depends on how they define social media. Is discord social media? Are forums? Is Reddit?

Arguably nobody really benefits from exposing children to feeds full of toxic and angry adults, but that doesn't mean no communities should allow children. Like, there's nothing wrong with kids dipping their toes into the Internet and learning and growing from it, but I don't think it's necessarily the best thing to just hand them the keys to the worst elements.

Also like, I prefer adult communities over all age communities by a long shot.

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Something the article doesn't clarify is whether this is meant to only to apply to kids in Australia. Normally that would be obvious, except that Australia already has tried to demand social media companies remove content even for non-Australian users on the basis that Australians could bypass geo blocking with VPNs. If age checks are location/ IP based, they could make the same (bad) argument.

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Which empire has the best firewall?

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*Mass Identification Scheme

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