Australia debuts social media ban for children under 16

[bad guy]

With the amount of predators (and straight up p*dophiles) online this is very good news. There isn't any need for a child to be on social media. Plus back when social media was starting in the Myspace/Facebook days it was designed towards college aged/older teens anyway. Then again algorithm didn't exist back then either so the chances of actual psychological harm were much slimmer. I assume grooming was always an issue on early internet messaging, but the total access people have to children as well as the unlimited unfiltered content is not safe.

 

It's about time something so integral in our culture is getting some sort of safeguard. I do wonder how enforcing can be done without infringing on anyone's privacy rights because any leak of personal identification if they require ID could be a mess, but at least it's something.

[Marianah Adkins]

How will they enforce this though…

The idea of regulating social media has always been upheld as necessary, its the implementation thats the problem.

It would require cooperation of these tech giants and well……

[qegqeg]

So basically the onus is on the tech companies, as it should be 

[gab00]

2 hours ago, Almighty Gaga said:

"Social media platforms will have one year to figure out how to implement the ban before getting fined."

 

I support it, but coming up with a law without a plan to implement it, then dumping it as the platform's responsibility is crazy

Hmm

 

It's not.

 

I mean, You profit from it? Find a solution then. 

[gab00]

32 minutes ago, Marianah Adkins said:

How will they enforce this though…

The idea of regulating social media has always been upheld as necessary, its the implementation thats the problem.

It would require cooperation of these tech giants and well……

I guess social media will require some minimal KYC from its customers in Australia. 

 

Social media will comply because Australia is an important market. And australians will comply because who doesnt love spending time in tiktok and instagram 

[Mr. Blue_Shirt]

Nationwide ban on podcast mics next!

 

[willmcclure9]

2 hours ago, Capris Groove said:

Spare us the dramatics, queer people have existed for thousands of years before social media lol.

 

It's overall having a net negative impact, so this was the right choice.

You know nothing about me, how disgusting of you to call my suicidal thoughts as a 12-14 year old 'dramatic'  

 

OT: Social media was a lifeline for me to find other queer friends when I was younger. This will hurt queer teenagers. 

[Capris Groove]

1 hour ago, willmcclure9 said:

You know nothing about me, how disgusting of you to call my suicidal thoughts as a 12-14 year old 'dramatic'  

 

OT: Social media was a lifeline for me to find other queer friends when I was younger. This will hurt queer teenagers. 

Actually, adolescent suicide rates have sharply risen, especially amongst teenage girls, which has a direct correlation with the rise of social media. So has adolescent depression, anxiety, and self-harm.

 

So again, I contend that while social media has impacted some people positively, overall it has had a net negative impact on teenagers.

 

"At the start of the 2010s, rates of teenage mental illness took a sharp upward turn, and they have been rising ever since. Among US college students, diagnoses of depression and anxiety more than doubled between 2010 and 2018. More worrying still, in the decade to 2020 the number of emergency room visits for self-harm rose by 188% among teenage girls in the US and 48% among boys. The suicide rate for younger adolescents also increased, by 167% among girls and 91% among boys. A similar trend has been observed in the UK and many other western countries."

 

https://time.com/6968942/jonathan-haidt-2/

[Cain]

This is good

[Kern]

insane that people here are trying to defend social media

[P.O.P]

Bigots. Tiktok is literally for children above 13 anyway.

 

Parents need to learn how to monitor their children. NOBODY is responsible for your ugly ass offspring but YOU.

[Nightingale]

I guess it'll be like Facebook was back in the day where people just sign up claiming to be a younger age

[CherryBay]

you hide your apps anyway and lie your age 

[Punky Rooster]

Parents should also be banned for posting about or using their kids to gain followers, exploiting babies for views and likes etc.

[Suilen]

3 hours ago, willmcclure9 said:

You know nothing about me, how disgusting of you to call my suicidal thoughts as a 12-14 year old 'dramatic'  

 

OT: Social media was a lifeline for me to find other queer friends when I was younger. This will hurt queer teenagers. 

I get where you're coming from because I also can't imagine my teen years without social media but... it was 15 years ago, when they were in their infancy. These days, though? It's a different beast entirely, and I'd argue that queer teens are at a bigger risk of being exposed to bigotry and hate thanks to the algorithm. I'm not sure if the ban is the right answer, but aren't there still queer-straight alliances at schools and stuff like that? There are probably more opportunities for queer kids to socialize IRL than ever now.

[LittleCupid]

If this happened when I was a kid I would have been livid lol. I had no consistent real life friends in the rural Christian places we lived so I was always on YouTube (back when you could customize the profile and send messages) and Yahoo Answers talking to strangers about whatever interested me.

 

That being said, I also think the Internet is kinda terrible these days so maybe they are doing them a favor idk.

[Harrier]

I'm a teacher in Australia and the kids at my school are soooo against this  But I think it is a net positive overall, it won't stop most kids from accessing social media but it will probably reduce usage and that's a good thing. It's so damaging for them, especially tiktok.

[brraap]

Children 16 and under should have an internet ban. Too much sexual content on there they are unsupervised to. 

[willmcclure9]

1 hour ago, Suilen said:

I get where you're coming from because I also can't imagine my teen years without social media but... it was 15 years ago, when they were in their infancy. These days, though? It's a different beast entirely, and I'd argue that queer teens are at a bigger risk of being exposed to bigotry and hate thanks to the algorithm. I'm not sure if the ban is the right answer, but aren't there still queer-straight alliances at schools and stuff like that? There are probably more opportunities for queer kids to socialize IRL than ever now.

Good argument, I do agree with you mostly. Idk much about gay teens / kids these days, but I hope it's easier for them to find friends and engage in queer culture irl. 

[HealerKirby]

Will this make Discord/smaller-sized forum become more popular?  Kids will find a way to talk to each other anyway, but if somehow this policy pushes all the harmful ads far away from them, it could be a good thing 

[Cain]

I read a report this week that too much screen time is already making babies and children have problems. They get worse eyesight, their attention span is busted and their reading and writing skills are going down significantly. It's also damaging their social skills, some kids won't even look people in the eyes anymore when talking to them or being talked too, and it's bad for their fine motor skills

 

Growing up with smartphones is one big social experiment and no one knows what the effects will be yet, in a way Gen Z/Gen Alpha are the guinea pigs for that

[Europe]

9 hours ago, YellowRibbon said:

Ban Twitch and mark all videos by famous streamers on Youtube that include political propaganda as "not adequate for people younger than 16"

While it sounds nice, it won't have a societal effect. Old people fall for those conspiracy theories and radicalizing ideas just the same. 17-70 year olds will still be influenced by them even if they are not exposed to that content in the first years of their life.

[Anthinos]

What's the point? The children can simply give false data and it hardly solves any problems. This ban won't change the fact that social media is full of hate and fascism, that people are radicalized there, etc.

Homophobia, racism etc. does not only arise at a young age. Many people, even boomers, become radicalized on social media. The problem remains that this content is public at all. On X there is nazi propaganda, Russian/Chinese bots manipulating people etc. How about finally tackling these problems instead of letting it all go on under the guise of freedom of speech while it continues to divide our societies? I'm not against this ban, but in my opinion it is only combating the symptoms.

Edited November 29 by Anthinos

[Infatuation_Junkie]

Crikey!

[May]

10 hours ago, Cesar said:

 

girl don't knock it until youve played a round of total Roblox drama island . or built the best house in the neighbourhood on bloxburg !