With the Social Media Ban coming in next month what's the plan? (aussie.zone)

submitted 1 month ago by Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone to c/australianpolitics@aussie.zone

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I feel it's only to impose forced identification of all users on the internet.

I download Mullvad VPN but when it's connected via anywhere but Australia i can't even access lemmy via this account.

I couldn't use Reddit either unless I VPN through somewhere in Australia so I assume a VPN won't work to get around these new laws.

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[-] Nath@aussie.zone 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

We have had zero guidance from the government on what "reasonable steps" to ensure users are over 16 looks like. Frankly, I don't think the government is ready for this law to come in. I won't be at all surprised if we are given a new date.

All I know is what we won't be doing:

We won't be pulling a 4chan and totally ignoring the law.
We won't be asking for people's ID. We are not equipped to deal with that.
We won't be introducing IP blocks from Australian IPs like some sites have done to the UK.
We won't be closing down.

I know this isn't really answering the question. But our stance hasn't really changed from 'wait and see what everyone else does to comply'. I have something of a game in mind, I'll go that way if our hand is forced on the original date.

[-] Taleya@aussie.zone 7 points 1 month ago

Do that thing where the modmins requested you send them an alcoholic drink with your username in the gift note. You have to be over 18 to purchase said drink, the age verification is taken care of by a third party, and you get drinkypoos

[-] Nath@aussie.zone 5 points 1 month ago

I'm not against this being a method people can employ for verification. But it won't be the only method. I'm not going to ask a recovering alcoholic or a Muslim to walk into a pub and buy a beer.

Also: it's users under 16. Not under 18. While I'm not aware of any users under 18, we did have a 17 year old last year.

This method has been considered, but it wouldn't catch everyone.

[-] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 4 points 1 month ago

I appreciate the response, I'm pretty well fully off all social media apart from here and messenger because it's how my wife communicates with me along with my friends who we have a group chat.

I'll sit tight and wait and see what happens.

Be a shame to have to hermit off the internet but I guess I'll have a lot more time for other activities haha

[-] Ilandar@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago

This is how I feel as well lol

I'm willing to jump through some hoops for messaging services, assuming all my friends and family do the same, but for just general social media I am perfectly content to wave goodbye. It is so far from being an essential part of my life.

[-] mycatsays@aussie.zone 7 points 1 month ago

Tbh I would be amazed if anyone in the government knows that Lemmy exists. But we'll see.

As of Nov 5, this is as far as the list of sites affected goes:

Services that eSafety considers will be age-restricted social media platforms

Facebook

Instagram

Kick

Reddit

Snapchat

Threads

TikTok

X (formerly Twitter)

YouTube

Services that eSafety considers will not be age-restricted social media platforms

Discord

GitHub

Google Classroom

LEGO Play

Messenger

Roblox

Steam and Steam Chat

WhatsApp

YouTube Kids

https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/industry-regulation/social-media-age-restrictions/which-platforms-are-age-restricted

[-] Nath@aussie.zone 6 points 1 month ago

Tbh I would be amazed if anyone in the government knows that Lemmy exists.

It would be unwise to base any sort of response on this assumption. Section 13 of the legislation is pretty clear:

(1) For the purposes of this Act, age‑restricted social media platform means:

(a) an electronic service that satisfies the following conditions:

(i) the sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between 2 or more end‑users;
(ii) the service allows end‑users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end‑users;
(iii) the service allows end‑users to post material on the service;
(iv) such other conditions (if any) as are set out in the legislative rules; or

(b) an electronic service specified in the legislative rules;

I'll cover these "legislative rules" in a sec.

Most of the lists of affected sites you see flying all around the place are misleading, because they're being used by the media to get engagement rather than helping people to understand the actual law. In short: every site that meets section 13(1a) above is bound by the law. Which includes aussie.zone.

Services that eSafety considers will not be age-restricted social media platforms

These exception lists are important. For reasons, the government has included a provision in the legislation to exclude sites from section 13(1a). There are a whole bunch of provisions in the overall legislation that hang on the magic words "legislative rules". There are in fact 24 references to legislative rules in the legislation. If you read the thing all the way to section 240 (yes that's not a typo), you'll get to this bit:

240 Legislative rules

(1) The Minister may, by legislative instrument, make rules (legislative rules) prescribing matters:

(a) required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed by the legislative rules; or (b) necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.

In other words, the communications minister can ad-hoc declare that any site/service that meets the criteria in section 13 is exempt from this law whenever she likes.

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

Thanks. The only one of those I currently use is YouTube, and all they have to do to verify my age there is to look at the age of my account. Hopefully that'll be enough. Otherwise, they can accept my anonymised digital driver's licence.

[-] wilfim@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

For reddit I tend to jump around countries until I'm not blocked. Albania is my country of choice.

For Lemmy I have never been blocked, however I think lemmy.world has some rules around posting with a vpn for some reason, but double check on that.

[-] No1@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I download Mullvad VPN but when it’s connected via anywhere but Australia i can’t even access lemmy via this account.

How are you acccessing the site? Is it via app or via web?

I can access https://aussie.zone/ via browser connected to most non-Aussie VPNs, but I will get a momentary "Checking to see if you are human". If you still can't access via that, it may be your browser/configuration.

In general, many web sites block VPNs. Eg with Reddit and other sites like youtube, it depends on a server by server basis if they are blocked. Eg, the Sydney ones rarely work, but some others in Australia do.

[-] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

I used connect for lemmy Android app.

I'll try via browser when I get home, but I mainly use lemmy via app

[-] No1@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago

You should probably try some specific servers too. Don't just pick "Australia" or even "Sydney". Go through the cities and pick individual servers one by one, and you might get lucky.