Social media ban for children to be introduced in next 12 months

[Darryl]

Quote

The federal government could soon have the power to ban children from social media platforms, promising legislation to impose an age limit before the next election.

But the government will not reveal any age limit for social media until a trial of age-verification technology is complete.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-09/government-plans-social-media-porn-site-age-limit/104329920

[Jenflea]

I'm all for a ban on it for under 16's. How they'll manage it I don't know, a few of my friends have let their kids get it early by putting in a fake birthdate so there'll be ways around it I'm sure. 

[STBG 2]

It's too late.

[Kiwi Bicycle]

It's never too late to do something. Otherwise why bother trying to curb climate change? Or domestic violence? Or crime for that matter....

[Darryl]

I'm curious about the implementation plan.  If it involves methods like requiring users to submit official identification or using biometric data, who will be responsible for storing this information?  Will it be the social media companies, a third party, or a government agency that then issues some kind of identification token?

[MoukMouk]

I'm also curious about how they intend to actually enforce it. 

[Julie3Girls]

I get why they are doing it.  I’m just not exactly sure how they plan to do it?  Is it going to mean everyone is going to need to use more private, personal identifying details in order to access things? Data security being what it is, do people really want more specific identifying details being used to get into social media, do you trust them?

Maybe, making it a law rather than just a sign up requirement from the individual platforms, maybe it will make parents monitor it a bit more closely, and less likely to just let the kids go ahead and put in fake birth dates. But I think that would be a pretty small impact.

 

Edited September 9 by Julie3Girls

[STBG 2]

22 minutes ago, Kiwi Bicycle said:

It's never too late to do something. Otherwise why bother trying to curb climate change? Or domestic violence? Or crime for that matter....

We are talking about children who are addicted. Good luck with that.

[Kiwi Bicycle]

5 minutes ago, STBG 2 said:

We are talking about children who are addicted. Good luck with that.

So we give up on all addictions as well? Not all addictions are true addictions, some are habits. 

[STBG 2]

4 minutes ago, Kiwi Bicycle said:

So we give up on all addictions as well? Not all addictions are true addictions, some are habits. 

NO, that is not what I am saying.  

I know screen addiction may not be a medical diagnosis but if you ask the kids themselves they will often tell you they are.

The apps would have to be removed altogether for their ever to be a proper ban and as I said......good luck seeing that ever happen.

Adults have screwed this up big time. Kids are the collateral damage.

Edited September 10 by STBG 2

[Crombek]

In the last week my DS has been exposed to random accounts offering him cash for pics ('mum, thats just normal for snapchat!'), and threats to fight from people at school he barely even knows. 

So I'm all for a ban. Ban the apps altogether.

[Romeo Void]

I'm so glad, I'm worn out trying to convince my DH that so much technology is bad for our boy child. He's very evidence based and until there's screaming studies saying 'THIS IS BAD, HERE IS THE EVIDENCE' he will do nothing. 

[Julie3Girls]

3 minutes ago, STBG 2 said:

We are talking about children who are addicted. Good luck with that.

For kids who are already on social media, I think it would be nearly impossible to roll back.

Moving forward for the kids who don’t all have a phone in their hand, and aren’t already running their life through social media, then you have a better chance.

But fact is, social media is such a big thing. The kids talk to their friends, group chats. They listen to their music, find new music, follow their favourites and know when the concerts are coming. They follow their interests, sports, fandoms. They connect with other kids with similar interests/circumstances. They get their news there

So you block them from the current social media, I guarantee they will find another space. Do you just keep banning them?  Do you block them from the internet entirely? Do you bring in laws that ban them from having phones at all? Or iPads? Or computers?

I don’t actually disagree with trying to put restrictions in place. To be honest, I’d be happy if they were just able to enforce the 13 yr limit that most social media currently have a requirement. Horrifies me what some primary age children are accessing on their devices. 
But soooooo much of it comes down to a parenting issue. Especially simply time on tech.

 

[STBG 2]

1 minute ago, Julie3Girls said:

 

I don’t actually disagree with trying to put restrictions in place. To be honest, I’d be happy if they were just able to enforce the 13 yr limit that most social media currently have a requirement. Horrifies me what some primary age children are accessing on their devices. 
But soooooo much of it comes down to a parenting issue. Especially simply time on tech.

 

Yep. All my kids put a ban on devices for their eldest children until they turned 13 as it was a relatively new thing but they have a great deal of trouble following it through with subsequent children because it has become how they interact with friends and if they can't use their device they miss out and with that comes all sorts of social issues of a different variety.

I got angry at first but now I understand what a difficult position they've been put into as parents. There should have been a way to prevent it but once it's happened it is not easy to rein it back in.

I try to do my bit when they come to our home, we have rules about their use but they accept it as they know they are not here full time so at this point I do have 3 under 13's who always have their phones on them. They are banned from certain platforms but it is like an appendage.

[BoyMum2]

Isn’t this a bit like the smoking bans that some countries have proposed? They’re not intended to have much effect on current users but make it much harder for future generations to even get started? Yes, I know NZ has walked back on their smoking ban though I haven’t followed the story too well. But the idea is similar to this?

My kids are young still and many many years from using social media. I’ve been saying since they were born that I hope there’s some sort of widespread implosion of social media before they reach the age of using it. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will happen considering children are currently DYING due to social media and nothing’s changed

[Kiwi Bicycle]

29 minutes ago, BoyMum2 said:

Isn’t this a bit like the smoking bans that some countries have proposed? They’re not intended to have much effect on current users but make it much harder for future generations to even get started? Yes, I know NZ has walked back on their smoking ban though I haven’t followed the story too well. But the idea is similar to this?

 

You are right. The NZ walk back was due to a change of government back to National, and they are pro big business and so allowed big tobacco to push them to relax the changes. Not because they were not worthwhile ( and the majority of Maori health specialists were very upset about the back down) but because the government wanted their tax money...

[purplekitty]

This is what I expect governments to do,see a huge societal problem and do something about it.

Techbros have taken over the world and it's become a complete disaster with governments seemingly unable to keep up or reign them in.

They have no morals or standards to speak of.

I'm happy for any small step in the right direction.

How to make it work I don't know but let's try to do something.

 

My son was very much online ,he would have liked a neural link and that was long ago,I can't imagine what it would be like now.

It is ubiquitous and beyond a parental problem.

 

[Meepy]

I am unsure how effective it will be, however, I am all for disrupting the hold social media/technology has on our society.  Having seen students change from engaging, intelligent members of society to a bunch of tech addicted zombies that now cannot think for themselves because everything they need is delivered to them by touching a button, it needs to change.

The descent into idiocracy is almost complete.

[Crombek]

9 minutes ago, Meepy said:

I am unsure how effective it will be, however, I am all for disrupting the hold social media/technology has on our society.  Having seen students change from engaging, intelligent members of society to a bunch of tech addicted zombies that now cannot think for themselves because everything they need is delivered to them by touching a button, it needs to change.

The descent into idiocracy is almost complete.

The levels of anxiety that accompany things like 'leaving x on delivered' instead of responding instantly are insane. I was schooled the other day on how rude it is NOT to post stories during & immediately after catching up with friends. Apparently it's akin to saying you had an awful time. 

[MerryMadigralMadge]

1 hour ago, Crombek said:

The levels of anxiety that accompany things like 'leaving x on delivered' instead of responding instantly are insane. I was schooled the other day on how rude it is NOT to post stories during & immediately after catching up with friends. Apparently it's akin to saying you had an awful time. 

The notion that if someone doesn’t reply/acknowledge immediately doesn’t mean they don’t like you, it’s just that they’re busy or not attached to their phone….
 

I see it with my daughter - the phone moves around the house with her, she’s not necessarily using it, but the sense that she must respond immediately is there. 
 

We’ve had huge fights recently over my insistence that our daily dog walks, both of us leave our phones home. We don’t need to be with our phones every second. 

[pelagic]

I will not use the internet if I have to give someone my id details just to use it. I'm not sure what they're going to do about that (all the people who will just not use any platforms anymore). Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk do not need to know who I am. I would vote ALP out for this. Safety is always used as a way to control people. I'm sick of having freedoms impacted because people can't get a clue. 

Edited September 10 by pelagic

[Julie3Girls]

Ah, see, the girls are at the age where it is uncool to reply immediately, you don’t want people thinking you are sitting waiting on them to message you.

[Kiwi Bicycle]

4 minutes ago, pelagic said:

I will not use the internet if I have to give someone my id details just to use it. I'm not sure what they're going to do about that. 

But you already do to an extent. FB, Google account, GPay/ PayPal, any purchase you make, you are giving details/ logging in. Cookies remember your last visit and so on. Unless you are using incognito mode at all times...

[pelagic]

17 minutes ago, Kiwi Bicycle said:

But you already do to an extent. FB, Google account, GPay/ PayPal, any purchase you make, you are giving details/ logging in. Cookies remember your last visit and so on. Unless you are using incognito mode at all times...

I don't use my real details. I don't use Google pay or Apple Pay. I do use PayPal to pay for things, but not just to have a chat. I do use incognito mode a lot of the time, and VPNs. If Musk or anyone else enforced a paid social media account, I'd leave it.  Same with all the others. None of their business. You can absolutely bet that any system that enforced you verifying your age is going to have follow on consequences that are not desirable, on top of the fact that kids will still access porn anyway. 

What SHOULD happen is that parents should police their kids social media and internet use and actually get the tools to block/allow sites etc. Oh but it's too hard. Let's invade every single person's privacy because I can't be bothered, (but you know, because I can't be bothered to do this much its probably that the new regime won't be effective either as I still won't check what my kids are doing). Honestly, people who support this kind of thing deserve the world that is coming. 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/scientists-are-getting-eerily-good-at-using-wifi-to-see-people-through-walls-in-detail/#:~:text=Tech-,Scientists Are Getting Eerily Good at Using WiFi to 'See,People Through Walls in Detail&text=Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University,room%2C using only WiFi routers.

Edited September 10 by pelagic

[Kiwi Bicycle]

@pelagic unfortunately most parents are not tech savvy enough to use firewalls, blocking software etc.

My wifi is setup to industrial standard, but that's because my DH is in high level IT and we have an entire router box mounted near the roof of our garage with commercial grade routers etc in it and running commercial grade software. Plus we can afford that. I know my privilege in this but others have no idea or means to do so.