I dunno, I guess I need to just start asking my wife more logic error questions in general conversation. Or start testing the capabilities of my new cyborg partner, I’m keen to see what kind of performance improvements she might have, can she clean as she goes? How’s she do with general yard work? If I need a very large pile of dirt shifted do I need to rent a digger or is the answer now standing before me?

I don’t know how you solve problems, but I certainly don’t go all in on the first highly expensive dumb idea I have without researching the fuck out of it first. If our politicians are listening to anything the the social media companies are saying and not assuming everything they say is an attempt to make more money for themselves then we have much bigger problems, namely the suckers we have elected.

Refining this solution is a terrible idea. It flat out doesn’t work, its a non-starter. Prohibition has never worked effectively. The only path this leads to is pushing even more of Australian population’s personal data into honey pots and breaking our financial system.

How am I arguing on behalf of the technology? I want people to understand the technology so they know how to protect themselves effectively if they use it and so can make effective decisions on how their kids interact with it.

The technology sucks, but the technology is not going away and any fucking moron can bypass the age verification. If you think age verification is stopping teenagers from using tiktok then you’re an idiot. I’m arguing that the implemented solution is not in fact anything close to a solution, and that pulling this thread and trying to implement something in the same vein that would actually work is a terrible idea because it fucks the privacy of every Australian on the internet, even more so than the current solution.

You say that, but evidence shows its not a working solution. Its a piece of legislation that doesn’t actually achieve anything close to the desired outcome of stopping a significant number of people under 16 from accessing social media. Further than that, there isn’t an actual way to make this work without banning VPNs and implementing a Chinese style great internet filter.

Nicotine, Cannabis and alcohol are all banned in Australia for under 18s and you are kidding yourself if you think that has had any significant impact on stopping under 18s from getting their mits on them.

I’m not saying “just educate your kids”. I’m saying instead of our government putting their effort into a pointless and likely quite harmful law, they should have looked into developing a useful education program for both parents and children that looks to raise the bar of how our population interacts with social media. Its not a short term solution but it is most certainly an effective long term solution. The current ban isn’t even a good short term solution. It does nothing but 1) teach kids that our laws are dumb and should be bypassed, 2) disconnect disadvantaged and isolated kids from their support networks and 3) invade the privacy of all Australians.

Arguably banning the current social media business models altogether for everyone would be a better solution but that has similar issues to the current under 16s ban. How do even enforce it without also banning VPNs?

Lol almost like education is the solution. Great work!

Efforts like this teach kids the law is the problem and teaches them to learn how to circumvent it, and in the mean time it also acts as a tracking tool for everyone else in Australia.

Its problems are numerous, benefits inconsequential and easily replicated through other means, and in your own words the only current solution is to teach kids there’s a problem.

What’s your solution then? Great Chinese internet filter and banning VPNs?

Restriction is fine if it’s a workable solution, but this one is not and anyone with half a brain could see that from its very first announcement.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory.

We’re talking about Australian legislation not social media itself. The problem is real, the legislation is ineffective and poorly implemented. Calling the legislation evil is a stretch. Modern social media is most certainly evil.

I don’t agree that the legislators left the spirit of cooperation or respect for consent out because they are evil, I think they left them out because they are ignorant. I think they are inexperienced with both technology and social media and have failed to appropriately engage people that might have helped them come up with a functional solution rather than an ineffective brute force.

I do however agree with everything else you’ve said above.

No but you can educate their support networks and build other systems to help them work through their addiction.

The current solution just cuts those at risk kids off from all modern support networks.

Just having parental controls exist isn’t an effective solution. Well implemented education is required to ensure it is used effectively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor

There is a problem with social media addiction but the solution isn’t restricting teens from it. The solution, as with most things, is education. Educating the kids, educating their parents and making sure they both have the tools available to them to make smart decisions.

I don’t think they are evil. A bunch of people with good intentions who didn’t understand the problem are trying to solve it with a gut feeling rather than analysis and evidence. It’s really disappoi ting that they would waste so much of our time and money like this.

“I like the music people with souls make, but I’d like the lyrics to be more like the gaping black void that is my heart.”

I can’t wait till these companies start falling over so I can stop hearing about their ridiculous shit

I used to see this all the time in the UK outside high street fast food shops. Some idiot would just stop in the middle of the road, chuck their hazards on and piss off into KFC to gorge themselves on chicken for half an hour while traffic banedk up behind their car. British people love a queue though so I guess everyone was winning …