In a world first, Australia’s controversial ban on under-16s’ use of social media came into effect a few days ago. It means that Australians under 16 will not be able to sign up to social media, and their existing profiles will be deactivated. The following platforms are included in the ban:
- Snapchat
- Threads
- TikTok
- X
- YouTube
- Kick
- Twitch
I seriously question the inclusion of YouTube in this list, which, in my opinion, is NOT social media as I understand it, especially since Roblox, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Discord are excluded, with no mention of Tumblr, which is free and easy with its content.
Out of the above social media platforms, I’ve only signed up to and used half of them, either on my phone, PC, or both. With the exception of YouTube, it always ends up as a scrolling exercise to nowhere, glancing at one forgettable post after another. But then I’m no longer under 16 and therefore don’t believe everything I see on the net. Since hard-resetting my phone, I no longer have any social media apps installed, which is a conscious decision I took to ‘parent’ my very self, which begs the question – what about parents’ responsibility? Should the nanny state be dictating how parents bring up their children? Back in my day, it was very naughty to acquire a top-shelf girlie mag and scamper away to the bike sheds to share the delights with my mates, which illustrates that children will always find a way. Furthermore, I was brought up in a strict military family and respected my parents’ ways, up to a point. But then, we only had comics in those days.
How Will It Be Enforced?
According to reports, the Australian government is putting the onus on the social media platforms to take the necessary steps, such as age verification, with fines of millions of dollars for non-compliance. Again, what about the parents? This also reminds me of the UK OSA (Online Safety Act), which hasn’t gone nearly as far as Australia, with the flipside being the exponential rise in VPN downloads. Will that happen in Australia?
The Scourge Of Social Media
Social media is a two-edged sword in my opinion. On the one hand, it allows influencers to make a living from their sponsored posts, friends and family to keep in touch, and much more. On the other hand, it has been responsible for suicides, bullying, mountains of misinformation, and the delusion of many kids needing to change their lives to emulate the very influencers they adore. But it goes even further and ingratiates itself into the fabric of our hitherto conversational, eye-to-eye family get-togethers, which nowadays can end up as 10 people sitting around a table with each person, except me, staring at their mobile phone and/or sharing brain-rot videos. I should add that there are no under-16s in our family here, which illustrates just how much of a scourge social media really is. The youngsters in the extended family simply cannot exist without scrolling through Instagram et al, and that now extends to the grown-ups, sadly.
Will This Be A Whack-a-mole Situation?
When TikTok went dark some time ago in the USA, kids migrated to Rednote and Lemon8, an Instagram clone, so will the same happen in Australia? As I see it, the genie is already out of the bottle, and the Australian government has a herculean task on its hands in enforcing this law because copycat apps will inevitably pop up to attract the youngsters. Let’s not forget that when something is banned, it’s even more attractive, like a banned book, for example – Spycatcher and Lady Chatterley’s Lover spring to mind.
Admirable though it is, I’m just glad that I’m not the minister responsible for ramming this particular genie back into the bottle.
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During the first week of the ban hundreds of under 16 teenagers sent Prime Minister Albanese sarcastic greeting messages on X, Facebook, and Instagram.
Technology: politicians vs teenagers… can only be one outcome really. 🙂