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Australia bans social media for under 16s
(www.theverge.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Sounds like a pretty weak law. It will require a birthday when creating an account and accounts under the age of 16 will be restricted/limited. As a result users (people under 16) will lie about their age.
Companies don't like this because it messes with their data collection. If they collect data that proves an account is under 16 they will be required to make them limited/restricted. However they obviously collect this data already.
I wonder if Facebook and other apps will add/push education elements in order to become exempt.
People should lie about as much as possible to most companies they interact with online anyway (obviously don't lie to your bank, or doctor, or whatever). Do always, without fail, lie randomly about your age, gender, address (if it's not relevant) or anything else that's not actually needed to provide the service.
Any stonger, and they wander into China "Great Firewall" territory.
Lets not make every country into an authoritarian shithole.
Oh I agree. I wouldn't want a stronger law. I'm just not too concerned with this one. I think if there are concerns with social media we should discuss how to solve them for everyone.
We generally say 16-21 you are an adult so fuck it, whatever happens to you is your fault and ignore the predatory nature of organizations.
We should outline the specific concerns and determine what, if any, steps we can take.
As an example, gambling. I think it's fair and reasonable to allow gambling. I think ensuring gambling isn't predatory is a reasonable limitation. I expect for most people it isn't a problem but I think providing help to gambling addicts is also reasonable. Social media should be viewed through a similar lens.
Huh, I thought all kids immediately say they were born in 1969
I doubt it, and if they do, they'll classify a whole bunch of nonsense as educational content in order to do so, e.g. religious content as science.
I mean YouTube has educational content, but that is far from its primary purpose. Assuming YouTube is completely unrestricted it wouldn't be hard for Facebook to add enough content to be arguably educational.
Hell plenty of people use TikTok for educational reasons. I'm not saying it's right, but you could argue TikTok is educational in the same way you can argue YouTube is educational.
Now if YouTube is forced to classify it's educational content the same way they classify children's content (aka poorly), maybe that'll work.
No, it merely requires the sites to provide an alternative, such as face scanning using a mobile phone unlock. Using a computer ? Then you'll have hand over your ID.
The law also explicitly gives sites the right to onsell private information if its outlined in the terms of agrrement.
Re verification per AP,
So it sounds like an ID will not be a requirement.
I suppose a face scan is possible, but I find it unlikely. Obviously if it heads in that direction then the law should be amended to clarify that is also not acceptable.
In terms of selling information I assume that just clarifies the status quo and isn't new. Not that that makes it acceptable, it just means that's something to tackle.
Sure, but gov ID is permitted as an option if another non-ID option is also available.
Simply choose between submitting your government ID or, say, switch on your front facing camera so we can perform some digital phrenology to determine your eligibility.