[Jem Smith]

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that in Australia children under 16 will be banned from all social media use. The government hasn't explained how they intend to enforce the ban, and frankly, I don't think they possibly can. It's well intentioned, but stupid. What do you think?

https://www.latintimes.com/australia-become-first-country-ban-kids-all-social-media-this-one-mums-dads-564990

[Netherrealmer]

So this senator's effort to speak Gen Alpha language failed, she is the most prominent person to fight against it.

[Angie10]

Oh wow, that's fantastic!! To be honest, this is the sort of thing you'd expect the US to take the lead on. So kudos to Australia, and let's hope many other countries follow suit until it becomes the norm.

[Netherrealmer]

Oh wow, that's fantastic!! To be honest, this is the sort of thing you'd expect the US to take the lead on. So kudos to Australia, and let's hope many other countries follow suit until it becomes the norm.

So many predators on the internet. To make it worst they talk like this:

[Jem Smith]

Oh wow, that's fantastic!! To be honest, this is the sort of thing you'd expect the US to take the lead on. So kudos to Australia, and let's hope many other countries follow suit until it becomes the norm.

I get that the intentions are good, but they haven't thought through how it could possibly work, so it's going to be a waste of time.
For starters, they haven't even defined what exactly they mean by 'social media'. What would be the point of banning children from things like instagram and Facebook if they can still talk to strangers online through games like Roblox and Minecraft? So do you ban online gaming for everyone under 16 too? Kind of extreme given that it's a huge social outlet for a lot of shy teens.

And how will they confirm people's age? Like, currently sites just ask for your date of birth, so you can just lie. If they introduce biometrics or something, it will make it annoying for everyone of all ages. Lots of people have good reason for wanting to be anonymous online (I'm thinking for example of women I know who have been stalked by violent exes) and won't appreciate having to use ID for everything. There's also a question of what would constitute valid ID. I've had problems in the past with places that would only accept a driver's licence, not a passport even though that's harder to fake, which doesn't make sense since you're just trying to prove your age.

So I'm concerned about how all this is supposed to work. I think probably it will be about as effective as age restrictions on movies, which is to say, not at all.

[Carson20t]

Okay, that is some news, I am looking forward to how they will roll this out and I understand that children are naive and may tend to do some crazy things that have led to moral degradation over the course of the years. I just hope we can find a better way of doing this.

[Jem Smith]

Okay, that is some news, I am looking forward to how they will roll this out and I understand that children are naive and may tend to do some crazy things that have led to moral degradation over the course of the years. I just hope we can find a better way of doing this.

I don't think it's so much about children doing crazy things as it is for protecting them from predators online.

[Carson20t]

Jen Smith

I don't think it's so much about children doing crazy things as it is for protecting them from predators online

That is true and that is why i said in most cases children should not be left unsupervised because they can be naive and let bad people take advantage of them.

[ptrikha21]

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that in Australia children under 16 will be banned from all social media.......
https://www.latintimes.com/australia-become-first-country-ban-kids-all-social-media-this-one-mums-dads-564990

Very difficult to be imposed. They should instead ask Social media to be active for just a few hours per day.
Or Limit Smartphone buying for 16 + years only.

[Jem Smith]

Jen Smith

I don't think it's so much about children doing crazy things as it is for protecting them from predators online

That is true and that is why i said in most cases children should not be left unsupervised because they can be naive and let bad people take advantage of them.

Jem, not Jen.

Yes, children should not have unsupervised internet access (though supervision could be things like blocking certain sites and using firewalls, which is what they do in schools here).

[Netherrealmer]

What do you think of the Skibidi Senator who tried to stop this

[cmoneyspinner]

You can make a law and say that you BAN children from social media. But what happens when they get on social media anyway. Will they put the parents in jail?

I get that they have good intentions. I just don't think it's a law that will be easy to enforce.

Because ... kids are ... kind of sneaky!

[Jem Smith]

You can make a law and say that you BAN children from social media. But what happens when they get on social media anyway. Will they put the parents in jail?

I get that they have good intentions. I just don't think it's a law that will be easy to enforce.

Because ... kids are ... kind of sneaky!

Exactly.

[Netherrealmer]

I was able to have a facebook account at age 12 by faking my age.

[cmoneyspinner]

I was able to have a facebook account at age 12 by faking my age.

When my daughter turned 21 years she announced that she had various accounts since she was 14 years old. In fact, she was running a business and selling her artwork. I was like Sergeant Schultz on Hogan's Heroes. I knew nothing!

I'm glad she was she was doing good stuff!

[Tendz]

Social media has become such an integral part of modern world that completely banning children from using it would be nearly impossible to regulate.

[Jem Smith]

Social media has become such an integral part of modern world that completely banning children from using it would be nearly impossible to regulate.

Yep. They haven't gone into detail about how they plan to do it yet, but I'm betting more people will be opposed to it once they realise that now everybody, not just young people, will now have to verify their age to use services.

This came about largely because of the media storm around a 12-year old girl who committed suicide after being bullied on social media. While that is tragic, I think this is the wrong idea. It's bullying that's the problem, not social media. I wish our government would fund schools to actually tackle bullying properly. It's no better now than it was when I was in school decades ago.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/strat ... 54e394e58e

[cmoneyspinner]

It's bullying that's the problem, not social media.

You just got a chorus of AMENs from my Amen corner.

[MysticMoons]

You can make a law and say that you BAN children from social media. But what happens when they get on social media anyway. Will they put the parents in jail?

I get that they have good intentions. I just don't think it's a law that will be easy to enforce.

Because ... kids are ... kind of sneaky!

yup even us in high school.. we knew how to use proxies...
and encryption to to blocked sites... go places undetected..

young people now.. now about VPN/./.. proxies.. TOR etc..
to get past any blocks.. hey if we did it in the 90s..
imagine now lol
also austrialia is a horrible country.... they had the worst and most tyrannical lockdown policies
.. so yeah screw them

[cmoneyspinner]

@MysticMoons - It's just my opinion. But I think a lot of parents just don't want to handle their responsibilities and want to blame someone else. When I was growing up people said the television was raising the kids because parents were lazy. Now social media is the replacement for television. In the end, it's still the parents who are not paying attention to their kids. Like I said, my opinion.