The Australian under 16 social media ban

Throwing up a quick post so we can discuss this in context. The bill has passed and will take effect in 12 months time.

From RNZ,

Children and teenagers will be banned from using social media from the end of next year after the Australian government’s world-first legislation passed the parliament with bipartisan support.

That means anyone under the age of 16 will be blocked from using platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, a move the government and the Coalition argue is necessary to protect their mental health and wellbeing.

…

Under the laws, which will not come into force for another 12 months, social media companies could be fined up to $50 million for failing to take “reasonable steps” to keep under 16s off their platforms.

There are no penalties for young people or parents who flout the rules.

Social media companies also won’t be able to force users to provide government identification, including the Digital ID, to assess their age.

“Messaging apps”, “online gaming services” and “services with the primary purpose of supporting the health and education of end-users” will not fall under the ban, as well as sites like YouTube that do not require users to log in to access the platform.

A few thoughts. One is that the legal obligation is being placed on social media companies. This is good, because it’s the social media giants that are intentionally using internet technology including algorithms to do some heavy duty manipulation of basically everyone on the internet, and this is especially problematic for people under 16 (for reasons I hope I don’t have to explain).

It also appears to not be an actual ban, because most social media allows pseudonymous accounts. So I see this as a step by regulators to tell the social media giants to pull their fucking heads in. Again, good.

However, trying to ban kids from stuff means they just find other ways. The problems with social media companies are that society lets the tech bros have lots of money and even more power with very little control. No sane society does that, and it’s pretty easy to make the case to take the toys from the boys rather than trying to protect kids and younger teens when they will access in other ways. Social media harms adults too, and the whole of society.

The Centre for Humane Technology, founded by people that used to work for the social media giants, have an overview of the the issues,

• Today’s youth face unprecedented physical, mental, and social challenges exacerbated by fast-changing tech.
• Technology is extracting our attention, weakening our memory, and driving addiction, loneliness, and depression.
• Synthetic media, misinformation, sensationalism, bad actors, and coordinated bots are destroying our information ecosystem.
• Maximizing engagement amplifies outrage, deepens divisions, and reduces empathy, which is eroding shared consensus.
• Our data is exploited by an industry that extracts our attention, shapes our thoughts and behaviors, and makes us vulnerable to risks – all for profit.

They also have a set of pathways to solutions here.

I haven’t seen the definition of social media in the Australian law, please post if you find it. I consider The Standard to be SM, but I doubt site like this would be included because we don’t require a login. Lprent will hopefully write something on this.

Finally, the great Ozzy Man weighs in, with a 14 min video laying out some of the issues from his point of view as a parent, aging millennial, and someone with a social media degree and livelihood. He has a brief explanation of how social media tipped over into evil.