It was your very own words "a toxic environment that some adults are even (un?)able to cope with"
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How Apple is Helping Apps Comply With Australia's Social Media Ban for Kids
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There is a black market for anything that people can't buy freely. To avoid getting WAY off topic, I'll end by saying that I feel that any legislation to help reduce the toxic impact of social media harming teens is a win.
The only good thing about the black market for guns is that it allows for the criminals to shoot each other, which is fine HAHA.
No, just like laws that require children to go to school and not drink alcohol nor drive a car, parents don't have a choice, even though inevitably a few parents will disagree.
It's more about preventing authoritarian governments from retaliating. Authoritarian governments try to crack down on any platform that has encryption or anonymity. (FaceTime is a recent example)
Well... it actually is legal in several states for under-21s to drink with parental supervision.
Except that children can be home schooled , drink for religious reasons, drive a car in private property.
If that's the law then that's the law. That's fine 🤷♂️
But what do you mean under 21? High school? Elementary school? Toddlers?
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Ok you can have the last word. IMO, government should not substitute for parents. Examples of laws that do that: limit tv time, calories, piercings, etc.
It depends how it's executed. If it's executed in a way that ensures that data is protected, it's fine. If it's executed in a way that puts people's data at risk (Discord's botched attempt and subsequent data leak) it's not fine.
That's why I'm more comfortable with on-device checks that just tells apps "this phone's user is 16+" for example.
Sure, those are legal choices parents can make within the laws, but the point is they can't break the law (in answer to your previous post, which honestly I'm not sure what point you were arguing).
You absolutely nailed it with this comment. In recent years, Australian states have also started banning the use of smartphones at school. It had to happen because, as you pointed out, it wasn’t just the device addicts who were suffering—it was also the kids who were not on their devices who were getting excluded and bullied for being different. We had family members experiencing this.
You seem to love this analogy, but actually TV has tons of regulation that social media doesn't have including regulation on what TV ads can advertise and the kinds of things they can say, precisely to avoid the sorts of corrosive effects social media now has.
Also, the difference with TV is that the amount of TV we watch is a personal choice, with very little pressure brought on us to watch more. Sure, some shows are addictive, like soaps, but even so, a person's struggle with that addiction is very much their own. Like giving up alcohol among a social group of heavy drinkers, there's not a cost to succeeding. You come out of it as the sober, smart, and healthy one.
A person's dependance on social media, is very different, because social media has deliberately supplanted the natural urge to form social groups. Kids, in particular are ALL about social groups and social standing. It is the most important thing to kids to be able to socialise. When the social media vultures take over those social groups, it's extremely difficult for individual kids, or their parents, to break them out because socially, they will fail if they go it alone. It needs a community effort, with all the parents and kids working together which is virtually impossible these days, and few parental groups have ability to resist the billions pumped into algorithms and shenanigans to the thwart their parenting. People are deciding that they need to call on the ultimate community effort, the government, to step in and do something.
So then you are also for sacking the 21 years limit for alcohol? It's the bad parents obviously. Let twelve year olds drink alcohol if their parents allow it. If a kid is old enough to shoot an AK47 then it's old enough to dring vodka. Why is the government regulating it? Oh and how about those speed limits in your nanny state?
For those not in Australia….. The ban on social media is massively popular here with parents, given the cyber bullying, misinformation and predatory algorithms coupled with indifference from the social media platforms. IT’s what the people voted for.
Australia's new social media law goes into effect on December 10, 2025, and ahead of that date, Apple is sharing information on developer tools that are designed to help social media apps adhere to the law.
Children under the age of 16 will no longer be allowed to use Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube (except for YouTube Kids), Snapchat, X, Twitch, Threads, and Kick in Australia, and those apps have to take "reasonable steps" to remove underage users from their platforms starting Wednesday. Apps will also need to prevent new signups from users under the age of 16, and there is a one-year transition period before penalties will begin.
To assist developers, Apple provides the Declared Age Range API, which gives developers access to the age range of users. Other tools available include an option for an age suitability URL that provides more information on the app and its age-related content, app description pages that indicate age restrictions, and tools for setting higher minimum age ranges.
Platforms that don't deactivate accounts created by children will face serious fines. Australia may also add more apps to its banned list over time, depending on the apps that kids adopt after not being able to access their current favorites.
Australia is the first country to implement a total social media ban for children.
More information is available on Apple's developer website.
Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Article Link: How Apple is Helping Apps Comply With Australia's Social Media Ban for Kids
Steam is specifically listed as NOT being age limited. This hypothetical 14 year old’s games are safe.
Seems to be the [creepy] norm these days.
List the categories of people who don't deserve a voice. Make sure not to accidentally leave anyone out who might use it as a loophole later. And don't take too much of a "blanket approach" lest innocent (deserving of a voice) people will be negatively affected.
The threat is that they have to store this digital Id somewhere. Remember there are MILLIONS of malware attacks EVERY SINGLE DAY! There is only ONE way this is going to end: with MASS digital identity theft. And that is going to be total chaos.
And not the good kind of chaos.
And sure, social media is bad (for children). But banning them all is not the solution. It's a problem masked as a solution. And that problem is going to be very dangerous for everyone. Incluiding children.
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Biggest problem is we are loosing internet anonymity. Pal and tier is currently using AI to build a database of your identity and all your opinions on a range of subjects. This could be used by customs officials or ICE and will be available to a certain middle east power and Western governments who support them. Possibly you may not get a sought after job because of it.
This social media ban is a step to that as they are now leggaly required to identify and track you.
On top of that it wont work. The majority of kids here are sharing how to get around it.
This social media ban is a step to that as they are now leggaly required to identify and track you.
On top of that it wont work. The majority of kids here are sharing how to get around it.
I was listing a hypothetical example as they are adding more platforms to the list of covered apps.
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Color me skeptical. This will be expanded into a digital ID for Chinese-style social credit systems.
Some of us are old enough to remember a time when we lived just fine without social media in Australia. We were fine mate.
Or it could just be putting limits on social media that is harmful. Sure thats not as exciting as your theory, but a lot more gounded in reality nonetheless.
If you knew Australia's stats on gun crime, you would know you should never have gone there. You just made the argument for the social media ban.