Australia bans social media accounts for everyone under 16 years of age.

[JLW]

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian Parliament on Friday in a world-first law.

The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

The Senate passed the bill on Thursday 34 votes to 19. The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the legislation by 102 votes to 13.

The House on Friday endorsed opposition amendments made in the Senate, making the bill law.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the law supported parents concerned by online harms to their children.

“Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them,” Albanese told reporters.

Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s with world-first law

The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to $33 million for failures to prevent kids from holding accounts.

apnews.com

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I don't have a huge problem with this. Much of social media is a wasteland. The purpose of social media is to get you hooked and scrolling like a friggin zombie. On top of that they use your information for marketing purposes and to monitor your internet habits.

Given the abuse of social media it will be interesting to watch how this turns out. Will it be a forerunner of what is to come or will it fail because of the power of social media?

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

.

Good!

I actually think it should be 18 years. There is far too much content that is suitable for adults ONLY.


.

 

[DakotaKai_fan20]

.

Good!

I actually think it should be 18 years. There is far too much content that is suitable for adults ONLY.


.

I agree. Nobody should be on places like X, Facebook, or Discord while they are under 18.

 

[sparky]

so, how is age verified on the internets? ~S~

 

[Auld Phart]

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian Parliament on Friday in a world-first law.

The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

The Senate passed the bill on Thursday 34 votes to 19. The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the legislation by 102 votes to 13.

The House on Friday endorsed opposition amendments made in the Senate, making the bill law.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the law supported parents concerned by online harms to their children.

“Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them,” Albanese told reporters.

Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s with world-first law

The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to $33 million for failures to prevent kids from holding accounts.

apnews.com

************************************************************************************

I don't have a huge problem with this. Much of social media is a wasteland. The purpose of social media is to get you hooked and scrolling like a friggin zombie. On top of that they use your information for marketing purposes and to monitor your internet habits.

Given the abuse of social media it will be interesting to watch how this turns out. Will it be a forerunner of what is to come or will it fail because of the power of social media?

if only Wales would do that. we might not see Tommy for a couple of years.

 

[pknopp]

They will simply create their own, or find alternatives. Good luck going after sites that don't have an actual presence in Australia.

 

[shockedcanadian]

Not a bad idea. The better idea is the education of kids. These same kids will just play video games online and communicate that way, waste years of their lives in some cases.

Meh, freedom I guess. It has to be hell to parent today, and many of the parents themselves are extremely immature and emotional unstable to boot.

I just saw a 60 year old man in his scooter slam his basket and turn around because the line at the grocery store for lottery tickets was taking too long (I was not there for lottery tickets). It's an epidemic. People are stressed and don't have patience. Kids have it far worse.

 

[Votto]

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian Parliament on Friday in a world-first law.

The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

The Senate passed the bill on Thursday 34 votes to 19. The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the legislation by 102 votes to 13.

The House on Friday endorsed opposition amendments made in the Senate, making the bill law.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the law supported parents concerned by online harms to their children.

“Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them,” Albanese told reporters.

Australian Parliament bans social media for under-16s with world-first law

The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to $33 million for failures to prevent kids from holding accounts.

apnews.com

************************************************************************************

I don't have a huge problem with this. Much of social media is a wasteland. The purpose of social media is to get you hooked and scrolling like a friggin zombie. On top of that they use your information for marketing purposes and to monitor your internet habits.

Given the abuse of social media it will be interesting to watch how this turns out. Will it be a forerunner of what is to come or will it fail because of the power of social media?

Australia is one of the most authoritarian governments in the world who imposed some of the most draconian measures against Covid.

Not much good will come of this, and arguably people will lose more of their freedoms because of it.

 

[elektra]

I don't have a huge problem with this. Much of social media is a wasteland.

Censorship, book burning, all good things, says the democrat party

 

[Natural Citizen]

so, how is age verified on the internets? ~S~

Way to think things through all the way, sparky. Somebody's gotta...

 

[Darkwind]

so, how is age verified on the internets? ~S~

Good question. Looks like these platforms will have to figure it out.

 

[1srelluc]

Watch Musk just pull X from Australia altogether.

 

[ReinyDays]

"The government has already said the onus will be on the platforms, rather than on children or their parents, to ensure everyone meets the age limit."

Nothing will be done ... or Australia will have to put up a Chinese-style firewall ... the onus is on the parents ... I had my children's social media passwords or they didn't visit those social media sites ... in my home ... if they accessed these sites away from home, well, they were warned ... parenting is teaching your children to be safe in the Real World™ ... and hope they listen ... there's no software fix for that until the AI Revolution ...

 

[pknopp]

"The government has already said the onus will be on the platforms, rather than on children or their parents, to ensure everyone meets the age limit."

Nothing will be done ... or Australia will have to put up a Chinese-style firewall ... the onus is on the parents ... I had my children's social media passwords or they didn't visit those social media sites ... in my home ... if they accessed these sites away from home, well, they were warned ... parenting is teaching your children to be safe in the Real World™ ... and hope they listen ... there's no software fix for that until the AI Revolution ...

Yes, it is largely an unenforceable feel good law.

 

[whitehall]

What Americans need to understand and appreciate is that there is no "Bill of Rights" anywhere other than the U.S. There is no 1st Amendment right to free speech outside the U.S. and other countries can suppress freedoms at the stroke of a pen.

 

[ReinyDays]

Yes, it is largely an unenforceable feel good law.

Too bad ... it would be cheap to cut Aussies off, it's only as large as a medium sized city ... and if Aussies want a firewall, they'll have it easy ... maybe that's a good thing ... "Cooking with Bush Barbie" is bad for our mental health ...

 

[Andrew_Jackson_FTW]

Good question. Looks like these platforms will have to figure it out.

Well, I believe I caught it on a documentary on an Australian channel, which said they have some kind of a high tech approach to ensure that the law holds….

Face ID is involved I believe…. They have that anyway when it comes to using the iPhone.

I might not be getting the argument exactly right but there is some kind of a sophisticated method that Australia is engaging in to uphold the law.

 

[wamose]

A lot of countries have been crowing about doing things like this (tic toc) and now Australia puts their money where their mouth is. Good for them. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. Hopefully, it won't end up being Australia's prohibition.

 

[E. Pluribus]

If I was a kid in Australia, I would now be more eager than ever to see what the adults don't want me to see.

 

[Natural Citizen]

I turned my idiot box on earlier this morning and the Fox News talking head had some other talking head on and they were talking about this.

The Fox News talking head told the other talking head that she's all for it and that it's more convenient because now she can just say ''the government is the bad guy here, not me.''

The other talking head said I think the U.S. should follow suit.

They were all shits n giggles about adopting the policy.

Then I turned off my idiot box.

Going back to what sparky appropriately asked previously in the discussion, what they're effectively saying is that everyone must provide paperz pleez in order to create any so-called ''social media'' platform on the world wide web.

So, then, if you're, say 65, and don't have a so-called ''social media'' account, then you have to provide the platform your paperz pleez to prove you aren't a minor.

So that's effectively everyone who signs up for a ''social media'' account.

And that's not even considering all of the underlying factors with regard to ''verification'' policy, procedure and certainly any applicable ''third parties'' contracted by government or even by government itself.

Seems like they always use Australia as the stalking horse nation to try to implement this authoritarian skullduggery.

And it's always invoked in the name of being ''for the childrens,'' isn't it.