Australia Banned Kids From Social Media...

[@SomeOrdinaryGamers]

I also just want to add an extra point in this video and inform you guys about Australia's official document verification system(www.idmatch.gov.au/), I believe businesses can apply to it for a more secure version of age verification. Surprisingly this wasn't brought up as a point in the legislation but I imagine it could be the best compromise as this heads forward. The final point I mentioned about VPNs is also a concern that none of these laws seems to address as it's a very clear bypass for these laws and with some VPN services offering anonymous purchases it makes me question how enforceable any of these laws will be.

[@LostCauseAJ]

Gonna address hasan?

[@CastanOpiu]

Hey Muta what do you think about a popular MMORPG game selling 0,1% of their company to professional users to create NPC for the game play with real life answers and conversations to the players and that NPC would be a NFT with real value coming from an user part time player in the game? The more realistic the NPC the more popular the NFT and more money for the creator part time user and player in the game?

[@DullyDust]

I was about to point out a service like this as well. I grew up in Denmark and moved to the Netherlands 3 years ago and both countries have a verification along the lines of Australia's id match and it's honestly a really easy (and hopefully relatively secure) way to be able to assure different government-, health- and banking/payment sites that you are who you proclaim you are

[@blakebrown115]

edit: nvm theres a () infront of it thats why

[@thecabrera3963]

ngl W Australia, its funny reading the "it should be the parents job" from pseudo intellectuals here that surely doom scroll too much and for sure have a record of getting brainwashed by some financial influencer, it def becomes a govs job to stop brainrotting culture

[@mionfel1350]

As an Aussie I was surprised to hear the legislation was rushed through at the 11th and a half hour with a whole host of other bills but with no word what so ever on how to implement the ban. Typical politicians do nothing all year, then just as parliament is about to close for the year they do their job

[@Justacatlmao]

Ikr

[@sparkselm173]

Except it's not even accurate to say they were "doing their job", because the Senate's job is to DEBATE the bills in a timely and thorough manner, which you can't do if you're spending 15-30 minutes looking at a bill with dozens of pages, newly added amendments, and 15,000+ submissions from the public criticising the bill.

[@allegorx58]

As an Aussie you should be way WAY more outraged at your government. But you’re not so you’re definitely screwed.

[@DontReadMyProfilePicture99009]

😮❤😅❤don't Read My Name 😎.....

[@DPedroBoh]

Here in brazil it's kinda like that but they sometimes do extraordinary assemblies in the middle of the night to propose and aprove controvertial stuff like self raise their sallaries, so people end up mostly not knowing anything happened and journalists as usual don't report it as well as it should.

[@Chesslover69420]

The government has assured everyone they won't misuse it, and since they have never lied or abused their power, I am satisfied.

[@supertoastboi3231]

Stolen from redit 😂

[@looksirdroids9134]

The liberals lie and abuse their power the most.

[@DontReadMyProfilePicture99009]

❤😅😅❤😅❤don't Read My Name 😎.....

[@kion_dgl]

i feel sorry for the people who are stupid enough to think that the government cares about them.

[@Twofrogsonecup]

Oh yes and friendly jordes can back up the Australian governments truthfulness and integrity

[@JustSomeReptile]

This shouldn't be the government's job, it should be the parents job.

[@Jenna_Miles]

We wouldn’t need any laws about children if parents did their jobs tbh

[@daltonharmon1018]

it shouldnt but the fact that parents arent doing it and that theres no real safe places for kids anymore online, this is sadly needed.

[@ares395]

100% agreed. Tbh children will almost always try to circumvent parent rules but not having them at all just makes things so much worse. It's the difference between knowing you are doing something wrong vs being allowed to do anything willy-nilly.

[@Nobody-w8n4s]

Shit is drugs, as much as I keep my kid off SM they find a way. You can’t even remove KZbin from any tablet or device. Now if your kid has like a ig/tictac/Snapchat account, that you ok’d that’s wild.

[@TheNightquaker]

Well, when parents are bad at their duties (which they often are), then it becomes the government's job.

[@MononymousM]

As an Australian, the general consensus (speaking very unscientifically and from personal experience) seems to be that this will accomplish nothing except pissing off everyone - with the exception of the boomers who actually believe this will work to 'keep the kiddies safe'. Stupid, intrusive, wasteful and ineffective at its stated purpose.

[@davidripley2916]

Your final sentence just described perfectly the British Government 👌

[@strange-universe]

boomers don't give a crap about "your" kids.

[@fruitloop831]

@@davidripley2916 I think it describes most governments

[@shifterzx]

Not a boomer and honestly idgaf about the bill. I've already taught my kids what a cesspool and advertisement data mining world social media is and they have zero interest in using it anyway.

[@MangoPanic]

The general consensus I've seen is that people agree that social media prob shouldn't be used under 16. Or at least under 14-15, but they don't like that the government has no plan for this and it's going to come at a cost of the privacy of everyone else in the country

[@AlanShore97]

Muta has covered things pretty well. Just a couple of issues, the ban is on account level access not public level. The legislation as written is basically useless, with “all reasonable steps” being undefined & the Federal Court has already questioned that wording as used in the eSafety Act (different law). The missing context is the ban is a response to a year long News Corp campaign attacking Facebook because Meta withdrew from the News Media Bargaining Code costing Murdoch millions. That context is more scary to me because it just proves how the lives of 27 million people are held hostage to the whims of a few billionaires.

[@MsHojat]

Another very very important thing to mention is that the legislation explicitly prohibits all web services from requesting users to show/link any sort of government ID or digital ID.

[@kenlen8029]

@@MsHojat So in other words it's absolutely useless, a waste of time and a waste of tax payer money. I wonder who's mate gets the contracts. I don't think these politicians realize how low people think of them every time they pull this kind of stuff. It's quite dangerous.

[@Iden_in_the_Rain]

Any form of age verification that includes providing *any* form of personally identifiable information should be struck down. Parents need to parent their kids, rather than having the government punish other adults.

[@mainmkpc2740]

Why do you think we have governments and their departments in the first place?

[@Iden_in_the_Rain]

@@mainmkpc2740 certainly not collective punishment because some parents can’t parent?

[@kidinhat32]

im ngl, parents aren't parenting so it is what it is

[@fragalot]

It's also illegal to do so if you're giving out your personal info over seas. And kids can't give out their personal information at all.. but just because it's illegal doesn't prevent things like this from occurring. Kids lie.

[@TheKinren]

Lack of Parenting is why Government has to do crap like this.

[@raul_ribeiro_bonifacio]

This is not to protect the children. The end goal is to end online anonymity

[@DudeSoWin]

The purpose of anonymous Internet is to End Offline Promiscuity.

[@hafirenggayuda]

Tbf, online anonymity is double edged tool. While there's good from it, there are also crimes and bad culture

[@tossacointoyourwitcherOriginal]

What are you on about? ​@@DudeSoWin

[@tossacointoyourwitcherOriginal]

​@hafirenggayuda and those vanish once you put laws in place. Right? Like drunk driving, discrimination, drug use etc. Just poof it's illegal so people won't do it :)

[@tux_the_astronaut]

@@hafirenggayuda well yeah freedom is inherently more dangerous. We can create a world with systems in place to make everything super safe but that requires giving a lot of power to one group putting all our trust in them and hoping for the best. Id rather have more freedom at the cost of things being a bit more dangerous

[@papasprinkles]

Another thing about how scary this bill is, the Australian government only gave the population one day to submit comments on the bill. They got over 15 thousand submissions and it would've been more but people had trouble uploading the document and time ran out before they could submit it. On top of that, both our left wing and right wing parties wanted the bill to go through. That fact alone should terrify anyone that thinks this bill is a good idea.

[@nottomclancy2439]

Unfortunately most people DON'T think. That's why things are the way they are.

[@ziroskillsgaming7786]

we run the social media collection for The Five Eyes countries over here no real privacy

[@TwoDollarGararge]

this is how democracy works either stuck in the mud or dirty games are being played.

[@CoOlKyUbI96]

The bill isn’t a good idea. But that’s what the Australian parents get for not doing their job. If they didn’t want this to happen, then they should have been better monitoring their children

[@asaka616]

They rushed through a bill that requires intense scrutiny and debate, and the real kicker is that the bill doesn't come in to effect until 2026. Absolute mockery of democracy.

[@karatecupcak_e]

As an Aussie I am convinced our Government doesn't think at all, I agree with you on this video

[@MangoPanic]

Australian here. Our previous government tried to introduce legislation that would require us to use our full legal names on every website we use. I trust this government more, but there is still such a huge potential for abuse and erasure of anonymity. The tokenized approach is absolutely the best one, and I would be okay with that as long as there is no communication of personal details between the platforms other than a yes or no to above 16/18. The worry is that as of now they seem more intent on making all social media websites implement their own solutions, which puts our data in the hands of god knows who. They've passed this law with the intention of taking a year to figure it out when they should've planned this beforehand

[@Justacatlmao]

"Oh no, I'll have to select another country on my VPN."

[@-KillaWatt-]

Not sure that works unfortunately. They do ID checks and you have to have your location turned on.

[@pjd418]

they will come for vpns next

[@Somethingfs-sx1ft]

@@pjd418 than it will be china

[@SubtotalAnt8185]

Is this referring to people in other countries using Australian VPNs, or people in Australia using VPNs?

[@radionukeunyu412]

kids wont search out social medias regardless if they don't know it exists or isn't allowed on it

[@genfox1g913]

"Protecting the children" for me is just saying that so when there is backlash they can make you feel like you are in the wrong by saying you don't care about the children.

[@YouTubeDweller8008]

Wouldn't be a problem if the parents did their jobs to begin with. Government is here to solve problems and they solve them horribly if ever at all. But, it's a problem that the parents won't solve, so guess what?

[@dizzyshar]

@@KZbinDweller8008 Parents can not watch their kids 24/7. Even if a teenager did not have a computer or phone at home, they will just go elsewhere to view the stuff.

[@Max128ping]

​@@dizzysharokay, so what the solution? Because you don't like mean old government to do it Parents are too incompetent to talk to their child about online behavior and awareness of bad stuff online..oh wait, that would do it

[@TerabyteSprite]

@@Max128pingnah my mom did that with my bro and he still got groomed by a pedo on roblox

[@UnofficialViewer-n2s]

​ @dizzyshar As a 17 yr old, parents are neglecting both their children and the ease of obtaining adult content on the Internet and it cannot be blamed on nobody but the parents themselves. Group of middle school kids the caught watching porn during science at my school; you can't blame that on anyone but the parents for not putting up protection from these forms of content by simply researching and setting up filters with the amount of tools we have today Edit: literally changed a typo

[@womp6338]

Australia has a digital id platform they have been trying to 'encourage' people to use for a while now. Their goal is the end of online anonymity.

[@PowerfulRift]

That would be the Labor government.

[@womp6338]

@@PowerfulRift Both parties have been pushing it. Dutton has even said in parliament he wants to end online anonymity.

[@thatonefpsgamer1339]

I mean when said anonymity has lead to bad things yeah, it's time to do something

[@Nandolorian]

Lmao you act like big tech haven't been selling our data for years. Online anonymity is a myth

[@jonathancunningham8739]

Source trust me bro.

[@Link-ik4ww]

As an Australian. I can confirm. This country is fucked. The government is more corrupt and tyrannical than ever. Yet, we continue to do nothing. We will do nothing because we are conditioned to do nothing.

[@ShaawtyB]

As an Aussie this bill is bullshit. It's too much of a privacy concern and too much of a slippery slope for our government not to, in due time, use this against us. It's not about protecting kids. Our government is fucking joke. All this overreach is happening everywhere in the west now. Everyone should be terrified.

[@CecilTheDarkKnight234]

Never by any means give the government this level of power. I know we all joke saying "minors begone from twitter, discord, reddit etc" However giving up our freedom to privacy to do so is not worth it. Parents to need to step up and do THEIR DAMN JOB.

[@lachlanbrown8110]

This is a way to force everyone to use the new myID digital ID service launched by the government so they can monitor and watch everything you do online.

[@fruitloop831]

110%

[@wesleyleigh8590]

Nope and nope

[@BigThonk999]

proofs?

[@lachlanbrown8110]

@BigThonk999 eSafety commissioner keeps trying to police and control what’s on the internet. Albanese has repeatedly said he wants to ban anonymous posting online, he tried to introduce miss and diss information legislation which can fine and charge individuals but excluded mainstream media (which failed), myGovID rebranded to myID very recently, the age of 16 at which you can use social media is coincidentally the same age you can enroll in digital ID.

[@thomgizziz]

@@BigThonk999 right... not so bright are we?

[@tomasz9429]

I would ban politicians from using the internet. Under the threat of capital punishment.

[@jonathancunningham8739]

They already are ban from tik tok and it is until 16 calm down.

[@Vortex-7358]

​@@jonathancunningham8739 that's not the issue. its how they verify your over 16 i dont want to link my "myGovID" to every platform i use and then have one of them suffer a data breach and that info being public why i agree that social media causes far more issues at a young age than the benefits it provides and i agree with this ban how they are going to enforce it is NOT what should be done

[@NickH-o5l]

wtf why capital punishment

[@変質者-o8j]

Aw is the 13 year old sad he can't watch his TikTok feed?

[@ascina]

"I would ban blah blah blah, blah boo boo blah" No, you wouldn't ban anything, at all. Now go to sleep.

[@asaka616]

This social media ban for under 16s needs to undergo a Constitution Test via the High Court of Australia (Australia's version of the Supreme Court). There are many concerning things about this bill.

[@ColonialBurton]

This bill was put forward in the first place due to a 12 year old committing suicide after being bullied through social media. What they don't talk about is a large part of bullying also happens outside of social media too in public places. While I was in high school, even though social media was still fairly new, I was mostly bullied at school, and attacked between my home and school. The teachers at my school would always turn a blind eye, or just make excuses, and unfortunately, it's still the case today, so the onus isn't just on social media. I firmly agree that the responsibility should be on the parents, not the social media companies. If the laws were in place, and making it the parents responsibility to adhere to the law, penalizing them for breaches, I bet the parents will start doing a better job of keeping an eye on, and disciplining their children. Forcing everyone to provide ID is a dangerous move, as you said, security can be an issue, but it also really opens a larger can of worms. We had incidents where police, not just ordinary police, but the 'Fixated persons unit' were used to suppress journalists. Linking online accounts to our IDs also means we can be tracked even more closely, and who's to say that the politicians who have no problem using police assets in a corrupt manner, aren't going to use this in a corrupt manner also?

[@Walm89]

When will parents stop expecting the government to protect their kids? Why can't they, like, be parents and take matter into their own hands LIKE with alcohol or literally anything else?

[@tdx_1138]

I agree with you. But Ipads and IPhones are practically raising kids these days. Parents have been utter failures for a while now.

[@TwoDollarGararge]

because people do a thing she ends up pregnant and don't want to be the parent just the fun part.

[@devonboyer626]

How easy do you think it is for the average parent to keep their kids away from social media or the internet?

[@strange-universe]

agreed, but like like most "but, the children" crap, it has nothing to do with actually protecting kids. It's all end-arounds to get what they really want.

[@matthewvandyk7773]

So how dose a parent prevent there kids friends with full smart phone acess; from sharing adult content at school?

[@loboneiner1034]

I'm not sending a selfie or ID to any social media site. If they end up requiring that in the states I'll just become anti-social and quit everything.

[@serqetry]

You can quit everything and still not be anti-social.

[@spazmatron3605]

Sadly they’d still let you leave, there’s plenty of people who are wiling todo this :,)

[@QuantumNetwork]

Funny you think they don’t have it already

[@loboneiner1034]

@@spazmatron3605 it's not gonna hurt my feelings.

[@loboneiner1034]

@@QuantumNetwork I haven't been required to manually enter my I.D. on any social media site as of right now. If they illegally acquired my information outside of social media, than there is nothing I can do about that.

[@-KillaWatt-]

What they are actually saying is we want to collect your ID to connect you to your account in case you are guilty of wrong think.

[@DudeSoWin]

Also them: your child has not been endorsed by any international cartel therefor no learning until 21.

[@jonathancunningham8739]

Hm no non of that wtf.

[@R_Phoenix0]

Exactly. "Oh, you said something that we don't agree with? Boom. Bank Account frozen

[@belstar1128]

yea it will also make it so you can't have more than 1 account and it will also crash often .

[@OlGregge]

They literally did try to legislate wrong think. Labor voters are not human and should be ridiculed.

[@darkplayerltd]

I'm just going to put my hat into this since my line of work is keeping the privacy of people as the highest priority. In Canada, specifically in Quebec, there is a law called Québec Document Destruction Policy. It is a law that forces companies that uses any Québec resident's identification cards to be deleted as soon as you have verified their information, regardless of what it may be. If the Québec government catches you not following this policy, you'll have a hefty fine to revoking your license from operating in the Canadian province. So I think this is a step to the right direction because a lot info brokers will pay a lot of money in order to get those precious info.

[@SirWolfsbane3]

Thats really interesting- definitely something that should be implemented.

[@0daadaadaa0]

Question: If the same person wants to use the service again in the future, they'll need to provide ID once more? I assume this is so because the company will delete the info as soon as verified.

[@darkplayerltd]

@@0daadaadaa0 that actually depends. If the company only needs to use the ID once for verification, then submitting it once will be enough. I won't go into further details but if you don't follow specific steps provided by the Québec government on how to use the identification cards and made a mistake, you need to ask the same ID again for reverification. This is more of a hassle for both customer and employee that has reviewed their account and immediately noticed the mistake. Regardless, once you ask for the ID again and follow proper procedures, mistakes can be avoided and you can delete the ID without issue.

[@ticktockbam]

Yeah, good luck applying that and not having companies selling that data anyway lol

[@HeatherHolt]

If parents applied the “age appropriate privacy” rule this wouldn’t be so necessary. But let’s be real, too many parents just don’t care. Even knowing the negative sides.

[@alfredxsiv]

parenting is NOT the government's job.

[@AdamLinwood]

When parents don't do their job, society pays the price. So when parents don't do their job, the government steps in.

[@peterbabicki8252]

Parents who are doing their job won't be punished. I don't see a problem here.

[@aDeprivedSeal]

If only parents were doing their jobs.

[@Sujamma_Enjoyer]

In the same way, that children get taken away by child protective services because they abuse their kids this is no different. Sometimes a third-party has to step in because parents are unable to be parents.

[@CoOlKyUbI96]

Australia wouldn’t be in this mess if parents did their job in the first place. If they don’t want the government to overreach their authority, then parents shouldn’t make the situation bad enough that the government has an excuse to pass a bill

[@monochrome5178]

Anyone advocating for the destruction of privacy, should be stripped of it for all to see.

[@TheAceAdventurer80]

Social Meia under 16 in Australia is now brought to you by SurfShark

[@Try_Again_Bragg]

I said the same thing. Kids will just change their age. How fo you enforce it?

[@rowlandp6314]

@@Try_Again_Bragg Been saying that for awhile now, it's going to be amusing i'm sure.

[@sneazymcsneaze4214]

@@Try_Again_Bragg Simple. Give the australian Goverment ALLL of your information, of course! On an unrelated note, saying bad things about Australian Elections or the Econemy is now Illegal! (I wish is was joking, thankfully, the bill was scrapped, but.... they kinda tipped their hand TBH)

[@Try_Again_Bragg]

@@rowlandp6314 Yup. What annoys me more is that our goverment is spending time arguing this and trying to get the Bali 9 home instead of focusing on things that need to be looked at.

[@Try_Again_Bragg]

@@sneazymcsneaze4214 yeah i saw that bill was scrapped and i thought the dame thing. Hand was shown.

[@MonitorLizardGaming]

This is hard to enforce and probably won't accomplish much. Vaping is banned for kids in the US, but come to any school and you'll see kids ripping e-cigarettes in the bathrooms.

[@kenlen8029]

Same with vaping in Australia. There is a huge blackmarket now.

[@ticktockbam]

Some things are harder to ban than others. I can see this being easily implemented, but being "easily" circumvented with a VPN.

[@andoryus]

Aussie here, you don't have to provide government ID to verify your age to register on social media websites. You can still set your age as 90+ or whatever to fake your age. All this did was allow governments to fine companies and get a stream of money from companies, essentially scamming them.

[@StephenMcGregor1986]

Tariffs on Australia for harming American interests

[@ticktockbam]

It says they will implement it in 2026 bro lol

[@MINETURNNOWGamingRblxOnYT]

This is a rabbit hole that the Australian government doesn't really understand how messy this will become.

[@johannderjager4146]

Oh, but they do. They know EXACTLY what they're doing. You think this is about protecting kids? No, it's about controlling what people see online. It's about requiring ID verification so the government can track whatever they do. Australia is becoming USSR 2.0.

[@Ultima64]

They probably do, but they are just so power addicted as most leaders are that it is basically a gap-closer to that outcome regardless of the consequences of their actions

[@dp5694]

its by design to enforce a digital id for all those above 16. how else are social media platforms going to scrutinise the user accounts for age verification and legitimacy social credit score incoming 1984 0.o

[@captainmycaptain8334]

the government? they know exactly what theyre doing with this and what power they seek in the future. theyre laying the foundations for it now, their goal is to control their population, now the people that didnt shut this sh down on the other hand, yeah. theyll be wishing they had sooner or later

[@braxat52]

It will be quickly solved once the stuff people in the government is browsing starts being leaked around, since logs will be kept somewhere.

[@ltcinsane]

on the plus side our government here in Australia may be too incompetant to actually make this work in the long run.

[@squashn.695]

First they will spend hundreds millions to billions before they give up.

[@davidripley2916]

Tent, NOT tant. . The bit about incompetence lol 😆 This is why education actually matters. . . Everyone using tech has a Spellchecker available but can't be arsed to use it. . . Just Slaying 🗡💀

[@ltcinsane]

@@davidripley2916 *shrugs* my memory & typing skills aren't what they once were.

[@heckinlmao]

They will just raise our taxes some more to make up for it, dont worry

[@MadeUpNoun]

no no no, first they will draft a plan that will actually work, then half way through enacting the opposition will turn around and change everything making it cost 100 times more to implement

[@artemprotectron]

This is such a poor "implementation" of a law. Do they not realize the can of worms they literally just opened? What if as an adult, I don't want to have to send my identification/proof that I'm not a child just to access social media... also what do they define as social media anyway? Does KZbin or Discord count towards that?!?! All this law brings is more and more questions, rather than a solution.

[@Mrmumps-tb4no]

If it meant no more kids on social media, then id be more than happy to show a picture of my driver's license or whatever

[@Ohyeahitsnotme]

I can use discord and KZbin just fine?

[@TechnoMinarchist]

It is quite sad how many people in this comment section don't understand the authoritarian implications of this. They will require all ID to be connected to your social media. If you're a tourist and visiting Australia? You can't access your social media without letting Australia know everything about you and your online accounts. VPNs won't work because the companies are going to employ AI to determine where you are based on your posts context. This whole, do it for the children argument is purely a red herring. Edit: oh, and did you know Australia banned international phones from their networks now? So when you visit Australia, you'll also have to buy an Australian phone. Which might I add, by law, have federal backdoors installed on them.

[@ronel7836]

The legislation is dumb for security reasons as well. Although I see a bunch of comments saying that the legislation was rushed through with other bills and also did not provide how to apply the ban since they have other shit to take care of. So we will see if it gets scrapped or "better" brought up

[@Paulfromwish]

A person under 14 has no business having Instagram or Snapchat for literally any reason ever

[@robertfeil1828]

I will never understand how “social media addiction” is different than sitting on the couch for 4 hours binging a tv show or even the news it’s all the same acquisition of content. Whether the artistic or informational value is not determined by the platform or function of the content

[@sanchorim8014]

The big difference is that social media has algorithms designed to personalize the experience to make it as addictive as possible to each user. TV doesn't have that so it is considered less addictive, though it certainly saw its share of controversy over how much kids watched it, too.

[@rattusskelly6393]

@@sanchorim8014also many of them rely on short form content

[@belstar1128]

yea and at least were i lived by the year 1998 they would show a lot of stuff that would be too edgy for KZbin on tv usually at night.

[@Quasar-fv8to]

The difference is the adults already went through school, got productive (or unproductive) jobs, contribute to society, and get to reward themselves with that 4 hours of lazing around. Your world view on the detriments of social media addiction is narrow and ignorant, because you came at it with a purely emotional basis without much context or logic. TV is factually less addictive just by the fact that there are no algorithms designed to control the dopamine/seratonin process in a childs brain to maximize engagement. I'd say TV is about 1/10th to 1/20th as addictive. That being said, its also a terrible idea to give such a sweeping and vague bill for banning kids to the government. the aussie gov. is notoriously super corrupt, and they will actively abuse this power to control thought and impliment social credit systems in the near future.

[@damianabregba7476]

I would say it twists interactions between people and reinforces toxic behaviours. Watching tv is passive. Not that it makes it much better

[@gyro5080]

The Aussies are definitely screwed, if anybody thinks that this is just for children are lying to themselves, it all about control.

[@jawadalam5014]

children arent neccessarily the best at control though..

[@billmelater6470]

@@jawadalam5014 WHOOSH!

[@RJDJ__]

Yeah, they tried to pass the misinformation bill, which thankfully didn't go through. But it would have allowed them to control whatever was on social media for all Australians. So, if you criticize the government fairly and they find that, they can legally remove that and whatever else they want.

[@CassowaryGod100]

My country is being a bit stupid right now

[@someguywithayoutubechannel5430]

pretty much turning into a police state

[@fives6375]

I'm reading some of these comments and it's crazy how much people agree with this ban. It's a horribe bill to be introduced. More government control is not the way to combat this.

[@jerricaleonard2123]

Especially when it's pretty much designed to be abused.

[@ChristoffRevan]

It's the idea behind it that's good...like, let's ignore the government aspect: wanting to protect kids is a good thing, and objectively the internet can be a very depraved place, and kid's minds are very malleable and can 100% get messed up with not just too much screentime, but also the kind of content they end up seeing. But yes...the security aspect, well...I agree it's bad because again...ignore the government: websites requiring IDs to sign up means they probably have scans, and if they store scans of them then if someone hacks your account they can commit identity theft and ruin your life. THAT is the main concern here...like, the average person talking about "privacy violations" don't seem to understand that their privacy is gone anyway, any website you use to purchase things on already knows who you are...and websites that are free, like internet search engines and social media, have algorithms that can end up figuring out who you are as a person with your interests, hobbies, political inclinations, etc...and they may be able to do it good enough that your "digital fingerprint" gives you away and your actual identity can be revealed from that (like...if you post using your real name on Facebook and share a specific kind of story in a post, and then share that same specific story anonymously on KZbin... Google's algorithm can see the correlation and tentatively pair your IRL known info with the anonymous info and judge that it's probably you)

[@rowlandp6314]

@@jerricaleonard2123 I'm afraid you are more than correct on this, truly worrying.

[@itsjustmaddisen]

It's really vague in wording and we all know the government doesn't abuse their power, like, EVER/s 😂

[@Sujamma_Enjoyer]

You are all way too paranoid, and it is at the cost of actual kids everyone knows that kids should not be online. You can say well. The parents should be the ones to control that but they’re not so are we going to just let that happen let more children become desensitized all sorts of horrible things because of the Internet have access to PDFiles I see this is an absolute win

[@Diegotheartist1]

Knowing the possible malicious worst case scenarios that can occur after an ID breach, the government of Australia just made a big mistake.

[@jonathancunningham8739]

How? non of that is connected.

[@generalyoda8325]

@@jonathancunningham8739 Imagine an ID breach of thousands of children. I guarantee you the results won't be good.

[@nyny873]

Don't worry, we Australians have only had our personal information leaked several times by the government already. I'm sure that it won't happen again right? /s

[@aaronmccullers384]

Frankly this can be done in such a way that that isn't an issue since most governments already have vaious forms of IDs stored in their records that people/companies can request verification of for legitimacy, the problem is how this gets implemented and how much of the info on the ID can the companies retain and/or distribute.

[@Synol]

@@nyny873 Came to say this. They get hacked every other year anyway, this won't be anything new.

[@JAYZ-47465]

I’m Australian and I personally think this is also the parents responsibility and not just the government’s 💀

[@PowerfulRift]

Then stop voting Labour and vote one nation otherwise this will continue to get worse. This is basically light communism.

[@bdhale34]

Parents let their 4 year old play M rated games like they are mario bros, parents haven't been parenting for a long long time.

[@Paulfromwish]

Then you don’t have kids and if you do your not involved as you think you are

[@reservoirfrogs2177]

The parents aren’t responsible. If they were legislation would be irrelevant

[@glytchthefox]

​@@Paulfromwishwe wish people would think like that. People are dumber than you think. I actually loke the idea of banning kids from the Internet. Its not healthy to be exposed to so many issues like pdf files, mature sites, evil people, and of course brainrot. It'd clean up the internet a decent amount too.

[@drunksuika]

Fun fact; this bill does NOT include porn sites. So kids will have more hurdles to jump through to get on X than Pornhub.

[@rattusskelly6393]

That’s possibly the worst example you could’ve picked lol

[@drunksuika]

@@rattusskelly6393 Fair lmao, but point stands.

[@MsHojat]

Porn sites already have age prompts. Considering that this law specifically requires the companies to not rely on stuff like goverment ID, this is just effectively adding another age prompt.

[@OlGregge]

@@MsHojat It doesn't force them to rely or not rely on anything, only that they do *something* that's effective. You're thinking of the drafted amendments by two faced fence sitters.

[@666chapelofblood]

@@MsHojat Yes that's good, don't tell them about the fact that the Australian government's been talking about implementing a new ID system to verify your age to allow you on social media which totally won't be used to track you at all.

[@josueveguilla9069]

The Australian government needs to be abolished. Permanently. Change my mind.

[@thatoneguyinthetunic]

Sounds good on paper not going to work tor browser and vpn

[@a_plastic_bag]

We miiiight run into some issues with no government. Just a few, perhaps.

[@noneya246]

Common AU government overreach

[@illbet4589]

Not at all. Good move to protect kids

[@Bubbagaming90000]

@@illbet4589 And ruin the privacy of adults!

[@yukkuriwa]

@@Bubbagaming90000 For good measure. TPD

[@ticktockbam]

​@@yukkuriwaFor good measure? Oh yeah, let's just protect the kids and exploit this law that gives us complete control over what every Australian citizen says on social media, depriving them of said social media anonymity forever. The citizens will now be unable to wrong think under the treat of fines and jail sentences, since the we will now who made which comment at all times, "for good measure" 🤡

[@yukkuriwa]

@@ticktockbam I think you took it a little bit too far

[@kaydog2450]

Giving the fact that alot of under 16s here in Australia that are glued to their phones or ipads using social media its not really going to stop under 16’s from faking their age

[@QuantumScribe]

This isn't about protecting children; it's about stifling speech by adults

[@chanr9531]

Imagine if some middle eastern country implemented this under the guise of “protecting their kids”, the west would be crying about the violation of human rights and privacy 😂

[@Gloomyx14]

I disagree as a Australian

[@fus3n]

This is the same kind of person that will also comment saying "why isn't the government taking any action" when parent fail to monitor their children.

[@muhammadzulkarnaen4229]

@@chanr9531 Dumb example and unrelated.

[@MsHojat]

How is it stifling speech by adults? I would have thought you'd instead have said that it's a privacy violation (which is very different from censorship), but the legislation specifically prohibits stuff like government ID or digital ID to be used to verify age.

[@boombok5369]

Thats a complete win , as a 23 yo , finally something useful in this world ....

[@ticktockbam]

It's not a win. You're exchanging your social media anonymity for children's safety. Next time the government does something you disapprove of, good luck criticizing it with the possibility of being fined or put in jail.

[@fandomkiller]

Digital ID is not someone anyone should want.

[@HiddenReub]

It's the way of the future, unfortunately. Especially since there seems to be very little pushback. People will always fall over backwards for something and show unwavering support, if the justification is "the protection of children." Most would even be willing to give up all their rights and privacy. Tyranny is always ushered in under the excuse of the common good.

[@Bozebo]

Aside from places where you already needed to submit your ID like banking and govt services.

[@smith3463]

Gotta get them Fake IDs now

[@ticktockbam]

A digital ID is fine as long as you aren't required to link it to social media or any internet service whatsoever and is only used for government purposes.

[@CYXNIGHT]

This won't work Parents will just age verify the kids stuff with themselves

[@user-yr3om5lx2y]

The failure of parents in Australia is absolutely disgusting and they need a hard lesson especially with how corrupt the Australian government is.

[@Jim-x1i]

Ha! All kids need apps for their schools now. Google classroom and classroom dojo. It's not the parents fault at all. It is the fault of the companies and governments. I told them to block taking videos and pictures of my kids and not to record anything about them, but their grades and performance is recorded. Plus the board of education allows the apps companies to sell that data to ANYONE! As a parent I am not happy and tell them to cut it out, but hey they need to get the government to get rid of the apps at schools in the USA. My kids don't know how to use the internet and enjoy life by going out and playing like it is the 80's or 90's. Other parents specially Asian rich parents around me just dump their kids in front of a ipad or computer or console for hours on end. Asian kids these days are terminally online while their parents work and check out. It's nuts. Most days my kids are the only ones playing outside and riding bikes at the park. People say... You're too old school. No I am not. I am just a normal parent who is involved with their children's upbringing making sure they become normal socialize adults.

[@onceubeenblack5225]

I think they already have a pretty good idea of that

[@MononymousM]

Bro, as a parent in Australia, I hate this. So do my other parent friends. Only people who like it are the boomers who think this will actually accomplish anything close to its stated goals, and the stupid pollies themselves.

[@YouTubeDweller8008]

Agreed. Parents have had a long time to parent their kids and keep blaming government for them slipping through the cracks into the hands of predators. Fine. Government has now taken action and now all of the sudden we're afraid of government overreach.

[@TerabyteSprite]

@@MononymousM I’m not even a parent, I’m a teen and I think this policy is great! No more kids getting groomed or exposed to bad shit like I did thanks to shitty parents

[@O_Livia903]

I was born in 2003. It's weird imagining an 80 year old me, telling people "I was born before social media laws," or "I remember when anyone could get a phone, as long as they had someone older buy it for them." Like it's a pack of cigarettes.

[@n7x]

“Back in my day, you could google anything you wanted without calling a government worker to supervise”

[@Quasar-fv8to]

"Back then, your social credit score wouldnt tank if you asked a question about government policy on google. You could say a bill sucked and still be able to buy lunch the next day, wild times"

[@asdfbeau]

Imagine how those of us, born in the 80s, feel. I remember when Australians were all Paul Hogan; saving the ladies from dangerous animals and even more dangerous NYC residents. Turns out Australia was just UK-lite. Are the Americans really the only westerners left who have any respect for the individual?

[@Bozebo]

That's already the case with a phone's internet connection. You basically can't get that if you're under 18 or 16 depending.

[@ticktockbam]

​@@asdfbeauNot as much respect either in America from the government with things like The Patriot Act, or triple-letter government agencies' shenanigans... the good thing is that you can sue anybody if you believe they infringed your rights and actually win if that's the case, which is good.

[@raina5035]

As an Australian, I don’t want to be age-verified for social media or video games. Additionally, the government doesn’t define social media clearly. For example, Roblox is classified as social media-so does this mean that platforms like Discord or any other game with text and voice chat features would also fall under this classification? This could also mean that social media companies will no longer need to moderate their services. What happens if children bypass the age restrictions by using a VPN or a sibling/parent’s account?

[@ticktockbam]

Social media companies will still moderate their services, since they usually unify their terms of service across most countries, with few minor details where they are needed in order to accommodate individual countries' laws. Also, I doubt they will want to damage their reputation by having unmoderated social media platforms just because there are no children present... at the end of the day, social media connects people all over the world, so the rules are basically the same in terms of moderation, everywhere. And yes, Discord is 100% social media, but you bring up a good point about games with social media features like Roblox.

[@FeiTheVillain]

Good. If this was done worldwide, there would be significantly less trolls around.

[@Klepto_Nite_VODs]

I remember when it was up to the parents to make sure their kids are safe. Ah well, better just have people put their entire identity on the internet

[@detective2221]

Humans are not trustworthy enough to be trusted with keeping anything safe. Another major player must step in to protect humanity from their own undoing.

[@captainmycaptain8334]

@@detective2221 you think the government is going to protect humanity and is trustworthy lolll

[@jurassicjaws]

A lot of morons already put their entire identity on the internet.

[@captainmycaptain8334]

@@jurassicjaws they have that right, we shouldnt be FORCED to however

[@generalyoda8325]

@@detective2221 That kind of logic is what allowed dictatorships and authoritarian regimes to spring up.

[@fragalot]

you know this isn't going to end well... Politicians have no idea how technology works, nor guns.

[@DudeSoWin]

That president who was assassinated in Japan, died by a shotgun made out of sticks and stones with blackpowder crafted from the killers own bodily fluids. It used a battery as the primer instead of a triggering system so as to be more accurate than a normal gun.

[@kenlen8029]

The leader of the "opposition" party which has also been pushing for this stuff for years is an ex cop so......

[@ticktockbam]

​@@DudeSoWinOk... what does that have to do with this? You mean people will find a way to circumvent laws? Of course they are! But laws are for law-abiding citizens anyway, which is the majority of the population. It' easier to deal with a few renegades rather than deal with everyone being able to do something that you don't want them doing.

[@Crimsion_Fox]

Problem with this whole ban is how vague the application of the ban to websites because, technically, TV is a form of social media. How deep does the rabbit hole go? How do you prove you are of age without giving personal identification? Which, to my understanding, children have right to privacy up until the age of 18, so, what law(s) are they breaking to have that reach? How quickly will scammers be able to access your ID's since they're going to be needed in general to be apart of social media sites and stored in some manner for returning use. Australia is at a higher risk of identity theft and scams because of this ban. Edit- Thank you for mentioning that a big problem is parents not being involved in their children's lives and teach them lessons about the risks of the internet and in general.

[@kofi3124]

How is Television a form of social media? You're not engaging with anyone.

[@strange-universe]

hmm, it just occurred to me what the general age group is currently with kids 1-16.(20-40?) Seems it is people that didn't grow into the internet, but had it from early on. I also would want to know what they are considering social media.

[@ticktockbam]

TV is not a form of social media, it's just media. You already need an ID in order to buy a TV service subscription; you don't need an ID to watch TV tho.

[@jurassicjaws]

To everyone saying that parents should use parental controls: Most adults don't use parental control tools or even bother to see if the option exists. They're also insanely easy to bypass regardless. Children should NOT have smartphones. Give them a "dumb phone" for emergency use only.

[@albioncia]

agrees, social media is toxic nowadays if both parents need to work to support the whole family, they can only do the parenting after they go out of work. people seems to misunderstand how hard parenting is, even if you do surveilance on your kid they will still find a way, even if you teach them good morals their friend in the school can still influence them to do drugs, porn, etc especially a friend from social media in which you dont know they had, its hard enough to supervise your kids as much as possible its harder if both parents need to work

[@OzOneAu129]

As in Australian, there was heaps of concerns about this social media ban.

[@HyJyncks]

"UNCLE SAM, MY KIDS BECAME ADDICTED TO SOCIAL MEDIA" Condoms exist people

[@TheSoCalledZoner1]

Humans should be living for themselves

[@ticktockbam]

What do when the kids are already born tho lol

[@itsjustmaddisen]

I've been having conversations with some of my friends here (a few who are mums too) and there's no way this will feasibly work. This shouldn't be something the government has control over.

[@BicBoi1984]

Literally impossible to enforce unless they abolish online anonymity

[@test-rj2vl]

Social media platforms should collectively pull out from Australia till Australians come back to senses.

[@maryjanedodo]

Facebook did that when our former government tried to make them pay money to Rupert Murdoch. Best thing Zucc ever did 🤣

[@Chumpess_X]

As an Australian, a parent of teens, and one child who I managed to get to adulthood without too many dramas…I’m completely against this law. As parents it’s my husband and my job to keep an eye on what our kids are doing online; checking their phone history (and if it’s been cleared the phone gets taken away anyway), blocking certain sites at the modem level, etc... Will they find a way to get around it? Probably…just like they will this law. My frustration is multifaceted… - The government is pushing for a Digital ID, and there are so many ways this could be used against us…think social credit score; don’t like the way I criticise the government online? Let’s raise my taxes, hold back on some benefits, or even make it more difficult for me to get a job. - Don’t take my parenting away from me. - You can get a job at 15, and many jobs use social media to communicate things like shift changes, and staff events. What now? - For some kids who have certain conditions, such as autism, social media can be a place there they feel they can be themselves. It may be the only place they feel social, and telling them “we’ll just learn how to be social like we had to back in the day” is not going to work…they’ll become more isolated, and as a result, more vulnerable. As someone with Autism myself, I learned the back and forth of conversations, I learned how others spoke to each other, the different kinds of humour, and how to communicate in a more appropriate way by watching & communicating on social media. I wouldn’t be the awesome, yet weird person I am today without it. 😉 - Also on the Autism side of things, taking away something like this suddenly may cause serious repercussions in some older kids (11-14ish). The change will likely cause meltdowns (which are not tantrums like some people think), and they won’t understand why it’s happening. They’re going to feel like they did something wrong. A friend who is a clinical psychologist who specialises in autism feels this is a HUGE mistake. It IS a huge mistake. This government needs to be removed.

[@John_Souls]

Based, now ban adults too.

[@Somethingfs-sx1ft]

Why?

[@chancethewizard2336]

@@Somethingfs-sx1ft We're grounded ;(

[@Somethingfs-sx1ft]

@@chancethewizard2336ban the politicians too, get there reaction

[@OptimalToast]

Essentially, adults are also banned, until they can prove their age.

[@etoillenoir6169]

Wouldn’t be surprised if they worked up to that.

[@EatTheHomeless674]

South Park Bigger Longer Uncut literally explained why this philosophy was a bad idea back in 1999🤦‍♂️

[@DuckyShrunks]

Curious on this, was there anything it reiterated on why gov trying to control the internet is bad?

[@EatTheHomeless674]

@@DuckyShrunks It’s not specifically about modern internet it’s general messaging is how parents should parent their kids rather than trying to ban something they don’t like influencing their kids.

[@belstar1128]

you know what was really weird at my old vhs shop that movie was in the kids section next to lion king because cartoon = for kids according to random people in the 90s

[@OtakuWrath]

literally just verify the age during IP purchase. Make it so nobody has to use age verification except for families that have children/under 18's living in the house. There's no need to force all people to verify their age, make parents do it.

[@VirginSnake2024]

It may ban kids from using or making their own social media accounts, but it won't stop them from using their parent's social media if their parents are irresponsible enough to let their kids use them.

[@orireth5107]

Considering a member of our Parliament once sent a counter terrorism team against a journalist he was suing for deformation after he reported factual information about him, I totally believe that they wont abuse this new law

[@前に名前がありました]

Why is the government getting involved when phones have settings of adults customising their children phones? Isn’t that enough? The parent knows the limit of their children phones

[@jurassicjaws]

Most adults don't use parental control tools. They're also insanely easy to bypass regardless. Children should NOT have smartphones. Give them a "dumb phone" for emergency use only.

[@belstar1128]

A lot of parents these days are drunk 24/7 .

[@JTG-wt8eb]

I think im the only one in the comments who agrees and supports this. I wish every country would follow suit. Im not a boomer btw and im not even 30 yrs old yet, but im probably the biggest supporter of this.

[@ticktockbam]

The stated objective, safeguarding the children, is good. It's the obvious abuse possibility from the government that's bad and makes people not want it to become a thing. You will effectively lose your internet anonymity since, as an adult, you'll have to verify that you are not under the age of 16 in order to use social media by linking that account to your government digital ID, so they wil be able to see who made what comment about the government or any government official, or any comment against whatever the government supports, and prosecute anyone who dares to speak out against it. Good luck living in that society where criticizing the government doing a bad job can land you in prison or in debt from fines.

[@aleanddragonITA]

​@@ticktockbam It's not only the Government potentially abusing this that's scary It's even the flaws that can be exploited by Hackers/Malicious People that's f*cking scary too

[@maryjanedodo]

If you support this completely unfeasible proposal then you clearly haven't thought about the practicalities & ramifications of implementing this legislation. Much like the government who hasn't either beyond trying to virtue signal for the upcoming election.

[@shizzledink]

In a perfect world, i would love children to be banned off of social media. Unfortunately the only way to do it is to violate the privacy of everyone else. Not worth it.

[@iRiDiKi]

Not true, you can do a token system where the government (who already has your info) gives you a token and that token is used to sign up on websites via pinging the government list/server which is determining whether you can or can't sign up (in this case it's based on age). Once it pings as a success, your account is created and the token is not even saved by the company and there is no part in this process where your information is being shared, just whether you are above a certain age or not.

[@Bozebo]

@@iRiDiKi So the government force all sites to only allow people to make one account then? Otherwise people would share the tokens.

[@DawnOfTheOzz]

I'm a little torn on this. On the one hand, getting children off social media is a good thing. I have a niece who hasn't even started kinder yet and she's already ruined from using phones to watch her stuff. Better to get my niece off the phone before she learns about the horrors of Twitter. On the other hand, it's the government that rushed this bill so fast through the Senate that most people couldn't get their voices heard on it before it was voted on. And any time I think of the government, I immediately think of that MST3K musical sketch on how the government works (spoilers: it doesn't). Oh, and since Muta mentioned facial recognition software, did you know that Bunnings, a bloody hardware store, was caught breaching privacy laws for using FRS on unsuspecting customers. I mean, they said they were doing so to scan for banned customers but come on, mate!

[@doodoo66]

I actually agree with this. Instead of making everything safe for children, why not say hey kids this isn't for you and keep them off of it.

[@morbster6520]

Just a few months ago before I completed highschool we had to write an analysis piece regarding this ban proposal. I thought this was a prompt but turns out it was actually true the whole time. I guess school really taught me something from the outside world for once, and it being during my last year too.

[@bamboozledbamboozler]

Rip parenting lmao. Why not encourage media literacy? Embrace technology and teach kids how to use it responsibly with parent supervision? Funny.

[@rakly347]

If personal info leaked from somewhere, that company should pay a fine. It's the only way I think to enforce better security.

[@Sebastian-bo7vj]

I'm just waiting for a black hat group to hack into this company. I foresee a large class action lawsuit on the government

[@Bozebo]

And they will sue the government to recover the cost from your taxes or pull the service out of the country (the latter is probably a good thing mostly). The only way to guarantee you will not leak data is to never store it or ask for it in the first place, they are being forced to go against that engineering fact.

[@Funkles]

I for one will enjoy not having to be subject to a child's opinions on the internet.

[@SharmV]

As someone who’s about to have kids and DONT want them to have devices - speaking to other parents, their kids act out - they already fucked up somewhere by not informing them that it’s stupid to use social media…

[@shotslikeHARDAWAYY]

yes give all of your rights away👿

[@BlaaahBlaaah-rc9ge]

Aussie here 🙋‍♀️ - I think there's a bigger issue. Personally, I think one of the only reasons this ban is in place is because of the new digital ID system the Australian government have created. Very few adults in this country are on board with that and banning kids from social media will then force (at least that generation) to have to get their digital ID in order to sign up when they turn 16.

[@WyteChinpira]

its the parents job to limit social media for kids, not the government.

[@bdhale34]

Their responsibility to NOT let their under 13 year old play Dead by Daylight too. But they do let them.

[@scottneil1187]

Yet the parents have done nothing, so what now?. Sit around and keep waiting for the parents to keep doing nothing?.

[@matthewvandyk7773]

​@@scottneil1187 I'm Canadian and plenty of parents have done steps towards protecting children. The problem here is all you need is 1 bad parent and a bad school or teacher. Students here can get access to adult content at school in garde 4 via friends sharing adult content. If parents complain their child watched adult content from a friend's phone at school the parent is called trabsphopic or a bigot and nothing is done.

[@WyteChinpira]

@@scottneil1187 We should also ban fast food to stop diseases, by your logic, Instead of taught discipline

[@douglasedwards1923]

Aussie here, our Gov are corrupt & have no right to push anything on anyone

[@varietychan]

Children under 16 not using social media? Sounds fine to me! Alright let the bill in! Oh wait... fine print... "Force ID checks"... NAH

[@juanreina4554]

This isn't the governments job, this is the parents job!

[@OzzyAusborn]

Social media is dogsht anyway, nothing of value was lossed.

[@Strange9952]

Just because you personally don't like something doesn't mean it's going to vanish

[@XirlioTLLXHR]

Anything that has NSFW should be classified as adult, no matter how little NSFW content it has. OR it needs to have an adult section that requires proper age verification, not just clicking a "YES I'M AN ADULT" or "Warning 18+ would you like to continue? Press Yes/ Press No" This needs to be better regulated. Twitch is ... 13+ yet has 18+ content on a daily basis. They need to start better regulating everything with adult content. Whoever doesn't agree obviously doesn't have a child.

[@Mr_jz_12]

As an Australian. This has NOTHING to do with banning under 16's and EVERYTHING to do with a Digital ID. I as a father of a teenager have to prove im over 16.

[@kyleschultz5565]

Aussies must love their government parenting their kids for them.

[@maryjanedodo]

The government also made it legal to imprison kids as young as 10. So they don't really care about kids - just boomers votes.

[@mr.melancholy4973]

The government shouldn't be involved with parenting kids. They already pulling this nonsense with adult sites here in Texas and I hate it.

[@sonicthehedgehog1606]

Getting mad over porn? Lol

[@bdhale34]

Maybe parents should stop letting their under 10 year old play M rated games.

[@nottomclancy2439]

@@sonicthehedgehog1606 It's about freedom. What is next? You just need a good excuse to control anybody and do anything. Just watch what people are willing to do "in the name of god" or "for the greater good".

[@kameronjones7139]

@@sonicthehedgehog1606 you completely miss the point

[@captainmycaptain8334]

@@sonicthehedgehog1606 Yes. it starts with porn, then leeches into other media. The fact you trust the government to stop at nsfw sites is crazy. only a matter of time before any site they dont like gets put on the chopping block for not meeting their standards. parents should be in charged of their kids and if the parents fail, punish those parents, not everyone.

[@azrieljale]

Australian voter: "I so glad australia prevents kids from getting in harm, instead of us, parents.... doing parenting.." Australia: "protect kids? We just needed a way to deanonymize you LMAO, enjoy linking all your online activities yo your name sucker, because to ""protect"" kids we will need to know your ID and wheather youre over 16 to be able to use internet😂😂😂😂" Australian voter: "no, but.. this.. this cannot be! This is not what i voted for?!!! I just wanted to be obsolved of parenting duty, how could this be happening to meeeeeee"

[@PowerfulRift]

This is the labour governments doing, not the entire government as a whole. Labour needs to go.

[@Waddeledee]

You think Australian voters voted for this? No it was rushed through the Senate.

[@Waddeledee]

@@PowerfulRift sure the current Labor party is bad but its better than the alternatives tbh

[@PowerfulRift]

@@Waddeledee Albo needs to go!

[@Waddeledee]

@@PowerfulRift yeah

[@Olter_]

Who would have thunk that the prison colony ends up treating their own citizens like criminals

[@LukeSly91]

Did u forget about Covid already lol this is their MO

[@Olter_]

@@LukeSly91 Oh absolutely. This is yet another mark on a massive track record of oppressive government behavior.

[@davidripley2916]

Sounds like Britain 🇬🇧 right now. . . ☹️🚷💩

[@fruitloop831]

Government should not be in charge of this or making laws around it, parents should be making the rules and enforcing them and being real parents

[@AshnSilvercorp]

this presents a new form of blackmail even without trying to visit adult websites. Someone registers a card in your name, accesses a site online, then impersonates you to get you fired from your job... Just existing in this type of dystopia is a threat.

[@Novacification]

Just make actual data privacy rules and these companies will have to charge money. Problem solved.

[@SpirallingOut]

It's just about pushing Digital ID laws. They want to monitor everything you, as an adult do & say online, including and especially, politically.

[@CPorter]

if this was like people under 13, that'd be understandable, but this is just rediculous and harmful to us all

[@Reelix]

Kids under 13 are playing 16+ games that their parents bought for them. How would passing such a law prevent anything?

[@CPorter]

@Reelix exactly, I wouldn't be surprised if they had the audacity to enforce it though. There are so many people under the age of 17 there that have next to nothing else in their life, I couldn't imagine making it illegal for them to just access the few communities that they can to feel less alone in the world. All these laws are made by people who either are incapable of understanding what that's like, or they refuse to see it as valid.

[@DieselDrinker801]

We wouldn't need laws if parents actually did something

[@BuIldogProd]

I’m actually an Aussie teen and I’m 100% for this ban. It’s not a secret that social media is harmful to children and literally ruins childhoods by showing kids harmful content and getting them addicted to their phones. An unhealthy addiction. Parents can’t parent anymore because they’re being forced into allowing it to happen so their kids don’t miss out. If parents can’t teach properly, this is where the government must step in. I lost a mate I knew about a year ago because of harmful online content. I hope nobody else has to lose their kids or friends

[@aleanddragonITA]

Then i hope you will not regret this later

[@Yuicloud]

Banning teens from social media feels extreme. Instead, platforms could offer stricter privacy settings, AI moderation, and tools for parental oversight like activity. summaries or filters. Combine this with digital literacy education and safer, teen-focused spaces to balance safety and freedom responsibly.

[@tux_the_astronaut]

Agree. Freedom comes at the cost of being a bite more dangerous but if done responsibly is better than having some arbiter be the overseer and decision maker of everything and hoping they have our best intentions in mind

[@a_plastic_bag]

Hit the nail on the head there.

[@ticktockbam]

"Platforms could offer stricter privacy settings" most already do, that's not the problem. Parent's don't use them, because they either don't know they exist, because those features are too unconventional, because they're lazy, because they don't even bother, because they don't even care. Any of those could be the reason. This measure will work wonders with most children, but adults will be negatively impacted due to their social media anonymity being erased.

[@ClellBiggs]

VPN usage in Aussiland probably just went up 1000%.

[@KillianTwew]

Its sad that we keep letting this happen. Adult websites or not. Regulation is a slippery slope

[@tylermacdonald8924]

They definitely should be banned. I completely support the concerns that they have, but the Australian government can be quite heavy handed.