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Australia bans social media for under 16s (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 day ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[-] Chick3nDinn3r@lemmy.world 8 points 1 hour ago

What the government should be doing is mandating that a social media/drugs literacy course is taught in schools. Kids should fundamentally understand that things are not black or white, good or bad; things are grey. They have upsides and downsides; risks and rewards. Kids should be taught that Social media is a great way to connect with your friends, but you are also susceptible to being influenced/manipulated/addicted in X, Y, Z ways.

[-] s08nlql9@lemm.ee 1 points 44 minutes ago

thats a lot of work for the government dude, let them take the easy path

[-] Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago

Ah fuck. Canada is likely to copycat this, we love copying Australia's homework. NDP and Cons BOTH already favor this idea except it's also all 18+ websites. Gov ID to wack off. Puritans are on every wing and I wish we could shake them off.

[-] Jason_Ph03nix@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

For a second I thought the headline said Australia banned social media for 16 seconds 🤣

[-] ouch@lemmy.world 12 points 3 hours ago

I don't think there is a technical way to implement this without privacy issues and potential for future misuse and scope creep.

Government doing parenting instead of the parents never works.

[-] VerticaGG 23 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Is anyone talking about the fact that it's the predatory, short-term-quarterly-gains oriented behavior of the platforms themselves which is in fact rampaging though democracies, massively affecting and survielling Adult's behaviors on a loop of ragebait-induced dopamine/seratonin manipulation?

Because Kids are going to connect with one another, on whichever the next platform is that's not banned. What's more, the institutions they attend will inevitably ask them to do so as...things like Youtube arent exactly 100% avoidable.

Pretty pathetic to clamp down on Youth Liberty in a society that has basically none, when centrally-hosted platforms owned by corporate behemoths are all-but-physically trampling the landscape like some kind of fucked up gentrification-glorifying-voiceline-repeating Megazord

[-] derpgon@programming.dev 7 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

It is easier to enforce access than to enforce ethical algorithm. Sadly, it is not perfect, but it is better than allowing it.

[-] VerticaGG 1 points 2 hours ago

Well we agree but it's only as much better as it is effective...because when it's not it's giving the impression of doing something while in reality it's legitimizing the stripping of the autonomy.

[-] lightsblinken@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

"best worst case?"

[-] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 17 points 10 hours ago

I feel like every law I see coming out of Australia is just telling their citizens they’re not allowed to do something else mundane. All while the government services get worse, and the corrupt become more entrenched.

What a shithole.

[-] auzy@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Like what?

Often the things that seem mundane actually aren't

Like vaping is just tobacco 2.0.. and we don't need everyone to have easy access to guns (especially not kids). Networks like Facebook are so unmoderated at the moment they should be held to account.

Asbestos and engineered stone? Enough said

And that's mainly everything I can think of that's banned that I can think of...

[-] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 7 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Like vaping is just tobacco 2.0

What is this, govern me like a strict old nan?

Is dancing allowed down there as well or is it a gateway to thievery or something?

[-] auzy@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Vaping companies like Vape4life were writing petitions on Facebook arguing that Vaping was great to help smokers stop smoking.

Meanwhile, the same dodgy companies were selling vapes to 10 year olds online (they had NOTHING in place to stop underage people buying them). What possible health use could underage people have for vapes?

Meanwhile, every vaping fuckwit around was smoking vapes illegally on trains and in heavily populated public areas. And every asshole (including my ex housemate) was vaping inside (I literally told her not to. I want to do high altitude mountaineering in the future so I need my lungs. And she was getting super cheap rent). When you tell them to do it outside, they always say "vaping is just water, it's perfectly safe".

If you want to "eat the rich", you should be telling Smoking companies to fuck off. They're lying to their userbase, whilst their exec's become wealthy millionaires. And when their clients get cancer (or the people around them get cancer), they run down the clock on the lawsuit so they don't lose any money.

Fuck Tabacco and cigarette companies.

[-] auzy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Also, I had some absolute wanker the other day throw a lit cigerette on my nature strip (I was amazed, and I was sitting in the car), on a hot day. I'm lucky I saw him do it and he didn't start a grass fire (and yet, if one was started, he'd be responsible, not the tobacco company). Everyone in cigarette companies knows this happens and could provide a way to extinguish them in the box, but instead, they know people are chucking them on the ground

i have attached the photo of the guy (if anyone in Victoria happens to recognise him)

And it is super common for people to throw cigarettes out of their car, leave them on the ground, or throw their vape cartridges on the ground. Smokers and Cigerette companies had EVERY opportunity to be respectful. There might be some respectful ones, but, there are plenty who aren't

[-] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 10 points 6 hours ago

The vaping industry likes to argue that they are safer than other tobacco products, and don't deserve to be regulated the same way, but the evidence suggests otherwise. It's a fine example of why we should be happy that regulations exist at all.

[-] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

No part of my argument had anything to do with safety or health.

A person's autonomy is their business. Leave them well alone. Their life, their path.

Or I guess alcohol doesn't have a purpose then, and we can get rid of it too?

[-] petrol_sniff_king 5 points 5 hours ago

Everyone is really concerned, GHiLA. We think you might have an addiction. But we're here to help. Please remember the bans are only for under 18s. You have to remember. Look at your wife, she's dying of.. asphyxiation or something. Because you keep hotboxing the bedroom.

[-] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

Oh I've got like three at least, that I know about.

You guys are one of them.

uwu

[-] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

For real. A whole fucking country infantilizing themselves. Pathetic to see bootlicking at this level.

And it’s not even a good government. I guess I could empathize, if the government was not corrupt and delivering fantastic quality services. But they’re shitting on these people, and telling them to say thank you for it.

[-] auzy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Wow. You're such a rebel. /s

If you want to fight authority, start by fighting against the rich assholes causing 30% of stonemasons(and others) to get silicosis from engineered stone. The guys making the money aren't the ones getting sick. Help them live long enough to get justice and get paid.

Fight against the companies and rich assholes who are still giving lots of people cancer by using asbestos products to save money (and are putting asbestos in products and not declaring it). The people manufacturing this shit are getting rich, not the people installing it (or who have it installed)

And fight back by helping people live longer, so they can get justice against tabacco companies for lying to them and making shitty claims like claiming menthol cigarettes are medicinal. Companies like Vape4lyf had nothing in place to prevent sales of vapes to kids whilst starting petitions claiming they were needed for quitting smoking (what possible use could kids have for vapes other than to START vaping). Every shitty vape company out there is basically advertising their products as safe

Do you think the execs give a shit if your kid dies? Nope, they have lawyers on retainer, and they've become increasingly good at fighting any lawsuits and running down the clock. Do you think they give a shit if the people around other smokers die from second hand smoke? Nope, because you can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt a specific company caused an issue. People are suffering.

Nothing says "badass" like a guy who is willing to fondle the balls of the marlboro man whilst he lies to you and dodges responsibility. Vaping is Tabacco 2.0. They're making the exact same claims they did in the past for other products.

I'd suggest you grow a pair and stand up for people. That takes courage. It's not bootlicking. What you're doing is bending over for millionaires who give no fucks about you, and defending them

[-] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 1 points 28 minutes ago

Prohibition never works. Even if you put an anti-corporate spin on it.

[-] Juigi@lemm.ee 16 points 12 hours ago

What they consider as "social media"? Is it every site where you can communicate with others?

This seems fucked if its so.

[-] Ihnivid@feddit.org 4 points 12 hours ago

While specific platforms haven’t been named in the law, the rules are expected to apply to the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, per the Prime Minister. Sites used for education, including YouTube, would be exempt, as are messaging apps like WhatsApp.

[-] VerticaGG 10 points 7 hours ago

Youtube: offers Shorts and aggressively markets them at any demo that responds well to Tik Tok, competing for a more toxic comments section with years of experience.

WhatsApp: all the group chats and online bullying that you banned facebook to get away from, 1:1, day of the ban.

Should we identify society root causes and address those? 🤔No. No, it's the kids who are wrong /s

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 hours ago

It's the parents who are wrong.

Parents shouldn't allow their kids to use social media until they can handle it. Some kids don't have issues, whereas others end up experiencing severe depression largely as a result of too much or too little social media exposure. Parents should be the ones responsible here, both for deciding the age and for culpability if they knowingly contribute to problems by either intentionally over or under exposing their children to social media.

But at no point should the government be deciding things like ages, because enforcement would necessitate privacy violations of either the parents (if they need to allow an underage account) of the children. Screw that, let the parents decide and hold them accountable for any abuse.

[-] VerticaGG 1 points 2 hours ago

I basically agree, with the caveat that Youth Liberation requires buy in from all the adult influences in the Youth's life and all that follows...yeah otherwise no notes

[-] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 16 hours ago

This is technically feasible, and bussiness don't need to know your id. If anonymous government certificates are issued.

But I'm morally against it. We need to both educate on the dangers of internet and truly control harmful platforms.

But just locking it is bad for ociety. What happens with kids in shitty families that find in social media (not Facebook, think prime time Tumblr) a way to scape and find that there are people out there not as shitty as their family. Now they are just completely locked to their shitty family until it's too late.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 6 points 12 hours ago

I think that the chances of a kid from a broken home finding an exploiter online is much more likely than that kid finding a helpful, supportive community.

[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 hour ago

Those kids already have exploiters; their parents. The right to communication should be granted to all, and especially the most vulnerable.

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[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 30 points 18 hours ago

The fact that people even considered this with a straight face, discussed it and passed it is just indicative how tech illiterate we've become.

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[-] AllToRuleThemOne@lemmy.world 18 points 17 hours ago

Pssst! Hey kid, wanna buy some memes?

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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024

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