Social media companies slam Australia's under-16 ban

Big Brother Aussie style. China limits internet time for youths but does not ban it.

Japan should follow australian steps to right direction.Earlier-better.

Japan should follow australian steps to right direction.Earlier-better.

Against the constitution.

The ferocity of the objections by big tech shows just how much they depend on twisting the minds of young people to get them to spend money on things the tech industry promotes and how much they value the information they collect (steal) and sell to other firms through their web browsers and social media sites. They are a truly reprehensible and rapacious lot.

Against the constitution.

Why? Minors can be prohibited from any number of adult activities, drinking, smoking, gambling, owning firearms, getting married, etc. Why is banning them from using social media different or somehow "unconstitutional"?

Great idea, youth desperately need to be legally protected from these digital corp. monsters and their ecosystems busy exploiting them, bravo Australia!!!

If you can make advertising for cigarettes or porn illegal, lawyers can easily defend this public GREAT policy!

Are online games included?

Anycase I'd like to see how they'll prevent the target population from using non Australia based social media platforms instead

dobre vam zajebava

Today 12:23 pm JST

Japan should follow australian steps to right direction.Earlier-better.

What steps are those?

And why 16? Why not under 18?

Those blurting Cry Freedom have missed the underlying causes in the decision to make this legislation.

Is it over-stifling? Perhaps. Is it perfect? No. Are there problems? Yes.

But there is need for something to be seen to be done.

SMS is currently problematic for many children in Australia. Not withstanding the enormous positives such platforms can offer, 10,000s of kids are being harassed, maligned, bullied, condemned, scammed etc regularly.

Primary teachers often remark about how Monday mornings have become heated as students return to school after a weekend of messaging/posting.

Fake news/photos/stories about kids posted by other kids has become a real social problem.

Does it involve a majority? No - but it does involve large numbers representing a serious new threat to the right of all kids to be free of taunts, discrimination and bullying en masse.

Personally I think it will be difficult to totally enforce with many unanswered questions on implementation.

But the BIG plus is that it is being thrown into the open and actively discussed.

Making out it is not a problem and against the freedom of speech by the likes of Richy Musk et al , just aren't switched on to the realities of the damage unfolding.

Better to approach it now than wait 10 years more.

Oh, the irony! Big Tech, the self-proclaimed guardians of progress, whining about Oz daring to regulate their endless data-mining buffet of underage users.

And The Government, as usual, swoops in with its clumsy overreach to 'protect' kids, while ignoring the fact that tech giants have been exploiting them like tiny gold mines for years.

Here's a wild idea: maybe both Big Brother and Big Tech could take a step back, stop pretending they're the saviors of society, and let parents actually parent for a change. But no, they'd rather fight over who gets to control us next.

maybe both Big Brother and Big Tech could take a step back, stop pretending they're the saviors of society, and let parents actually parent for a change

Sounds so nice, so pat, so easy. Parents could do that now. There is nothing stopping them. But they don't. So in your view do nothing? Be very clear about this.

Sounds so nice, so pat, so easy. Parents could do that now. There is nothing stopping them. But they don't. So in your view do nothing? Be very clear about this.

Yeah mate, well obviously, the only solution is for the government and Big Tech to swoop in and micromanage everyone's lives. Newsflash: parents could do it now if Big Tech wasn't designing apps to be as addictive as possible, and if our government didn't treat every issue like a golden opportunity to expand its control.

Sure, I'll be clear about this: the last thing families need is some bureaucratic nanny state OR Silicon Valley deciding what's best for their kids. Do yourself a favour: how about you stop excusing their overreach and let parents actually be parents?

Big Tech is harming the mental health of these teens with constant images of their peers living a "perfect life" with a "perfect body" increasing depression cases and create environments for cyberbullying.

The ferocity of the objections by big tech shows just how much they depend on twisting the minds of young people to get them to spend money on things the tech industry promotes and how much they value the information they collect (steal) and sell to other firms through their web browsers and social media sites. They are a truly reprehensible and rapacious lot.

Absolutely spot on. They have zero conscience, are predatory by nature, the damage they are doing to young brains is undeniable and they will use whatever free speech argument that they can pick up and run with to deny them their profits. Let Australia lead the world on this one, we are not like Japan where we need to know the outcomes of everything before we even consider changing, nor are we quite at the stage where our society is completely controlled by and subservient to big tech, at least not yet.

We can think on our feet and adjust course as we go.

Save Our Kids Straya! SOKS ;P

What ever the law is, it will have the same effect as did underage drinking as in Australia.

wallaceToday  12:24 pm JST

Japan should follow australian steps to right direction.Earlier-better.

Against the constitution.

Dear wallace

I have checked japanese constitution you are referring to but there is no chapter about social media.I may be wrong or my English may be not as good as yours but...

I'm curios how they're actually going to verify the age of the users.

All the apps I've registered for have asked me for my birthdate or birth year but there has been no way for the apps to know if I'm lying or not.

In fact, a couple of apps I use, I have 1900 as my birth year.

curious

If social media companies took their responsibilities to their clients seriously and didn't just ride roughshod over the objections of pretty much everybody, this could have been avoided.

if nothing else, it might help their posture.... （＾＿－）

Yeah. it's great.

Instead of using monitored mass platforms, the kids will just start learning about shadow apps on the dark web. That'll be much safer!

I understand their wider reasons, but this is the wrong way to go about it. Banning things outright just doesn't work, as we see with drugs or alcohol/tobacco for underage people. Education and teaching young people how to avoid the negative online, or analyse it is much more effective. This is just laziness on the part of their government.

Children can and should have their own platforms, they can doo all the thing they wish without the threat of sex offenders, pedophiles, scammers, thugs, thieves and on and on.

This can done and I think it will happen.

two-handed issue.

on the one hand, anecdotal feelings and perceptions of social media apps harming children is outweighed by the other hand, where data and studies show kids with access to them are no more screwed up than those who have no access.

ironically, kids are more adept at recognizing misinformation than adults. they check the veracity of information more than adults do.

77% of adults who identify as “conservative” share misinformation based on the lead line or headline without reading the entire post or comment. 21% of those identifying as more progressive share misinformation similarly.

personally, i think the apps need to be classified independently. x is a now a sewer of lies, pornography, child sex links masquerading as muskism free speech. it should be banned for kids.

capturing the personal data of kids by the apps is more of a problem.

demonetizing content and banning ads in feeds of kids can reduce outlandish clickbait content.

and that is what this about, the content.

Good job, Australia,! Kids do not need the distraction and nonsense associated with those sites. A step in the right direction for a change

A lot of adults pose as children online and exchange naked photos with them. This is very common. I have heard of adults luring children to parks and then attacking them.

77% of adults who identify as “conservative” share misinformation based on the lead line or headline without reading the entire post or comment. 21% of those identifying as more progressive share misinformation similarly.

Oh, ok. And who exactly gets to define ‘misinformation’? Let me guess - Big Tech overlords and their globalist cronies who slap the 'misinformation' label on anything that challenges their narrative? Newsflash, hot off the presses: censoring inconvenient truths while propping up your preferred propaganda doesn't make your side smarter, and if you need a monopoly on the "truth" to win arguments, maybe those ideas aren't as bulletproof as you think.

Truth Social should be ban because of the Father of Lies

i suggest you search for yourself so the sources satisfy your criteria.

It's an ID grab, so the Aussie government will known exactly who you are online. Everyone will have to supply ID. All posts traceable. No more #MeToo. Not sure what they will do with tourists. Maybe nobody will be uploading their holiday photos from Australia any more.

It's going to make it easier for bullies to get away with stuff. Most of the evidence for that nowadays comes from social media posts.

Tech bros can go pound sand.