Australia to Impose National Age Limits on Social Media Websites

11 points by frays 10 months ago | 23 comments
  • defrost 10 months ago
    An alternative Australian source and report: (ABC Australia)

    Social media ban for children to be introduced this year, but age limit undetermined

        Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to introduce a bill to ban children from social media this year.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-09/government-plans-soci...

    Some way to go, if at all. A Bill needs to be written, voted on, passed into Law and implemented .. all steps with hurdles.

    • big-green-man 10 months ago
      How does one prove their age? Perhaps dox themselves online?
      • RiOuseR 10 months ago
        [dead]
        • talldayo 10 months ago
          Note: this is definitely not a ploy by Rupert Murdoch to better control Australian media by preventing access to alternatives. Nope. Never seen anything like that happen before.
          • toomuchtodo 10 months ago
            Even if this is the case, social media has proven to be detrimental to both children and adults. Social media is not news media, and it’s entirely reasonable to constrain the social media industry having access to children (as society would for other harm). Almost 70% of Australians support such an age limit, per the Bloomberg piece.
            • maxwell 10 months ago
              You want to impose mandatory ID checks and end anonymous online activity to compensate for inadequate parenting?
              • TheAlchemist 10 months ago
                Inadequate parenting ?

                It's not always black and white. Pretty much every parent I know, is against their kid using phones at school. And yet, as most kids have phones already, they end up buying one for their kids too. I will inevitably do too. Of course you can take a hard stance and not doing it - but the social isolation your kid would risk, could end up worse.

                I'm getting increasingly disillusioned by the whole idea of 'freedom' on the internet. That worked well until big companies and states figured out how to take advantage of it - for profit & influence. And then invested billions with very specific objectives - how to make you addicted to it, and how to influence your thoughts.

                It's an unfair game.

                • jay_kyburz 10 months ago
                  You can be anonymous to the public, doesn't mean you have to be anonymous to the platform holder. Bad actors need to be held to account for harmful content.
                  • toomuchtodo 10 months ago
                    MyGovID. https://my.gov.au/en/about/help/digital-id

                    > myGovID is the Australian Government’s Digital ID app which allows you to prove who you are when accessing government online services. You can choose to connect your myGovID to your myGov account.

                    Because parents are not equipped to defend their children at scale from the threat actors mentioned. Again, high support of these measures from the public. You’re blaming parents for the digital equivalent of tobacco and alcohol. Victim blaming has no place here.

                  • jay_kyburz 10 months ago
                    At the very least, we should hold social media publishers to the same standard we do print media.

                    If you circulate and promote defamatory or harmful material, you should be held accountable.

                    No more free pass for social media.