this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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Australia has just passed a law that will ban kids from social media online. How exactly? Well, through the amazing power of… shoosh.

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[–] Salvo@aussie.zone 20 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

They have legally banned them but they have not practically blocked them. They will still have the same amount of access they had previously, until Internet adapts to the new laws, and considering how small Australia is on the world stage. Compared with the EU with GDPR and the US with the DMCA, no-one is going to give a shit about the new laws.

What does mean that any local Internet providers will be held accountable, which means that the government has successfully destroyed any remaining chance for Australia to have any local technology industry.

[–] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I was about to suggest that this should only apply to people hosting web services with a social aspects like comment threads or multiplayer games, but I wonder if the definition might be loose enough to be applied to an ISP, or even a parent who is providing access to an ISP.

[–] quokka1@mastodon.au 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

@Lodespawn @Salvo The definition is currently loose enough to apply to iMessage. That'll be a fun discussion with Apple's lawyers.
I'll likely be setting my kids and their mates up some sort of server overseas, maybe a Mastodon instance. I want them to learn to be social online, with some education and moderation.

[–] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah education is really where this effort should have gone, classic nanny state Australia. Sadly the law is coming from a generation who's formative years was moulded by social interactions that were limited to post, rotary telephones, newspapers and school yard whispers. All of those things existed when they were born and were replaced by social media post midlife crisis. They have no concept of how to deal with something like social media. All they see is their friends getting scammed online and their newspapers talking about online child pornography. You'd think they'd realise from cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and old timey porn magazines that outright banning it does almost nothing to stop teenagers accessing it.

"Hey here's an evolving disruptive technology that is becoming more integrated with our society than the newspaper or telephone ever could have dreamt. Quick let's ban our kids from it until they are effectively adults so they only have as much understanding of it as me and maybe end up doing something dangerous with it because they have to treat it like a taboo"

[–] Salvo@aussie.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

IANAL, do you think it could be stretched to include SMS, MMS or RCS ? That would make Telstra, Optus and Vodafone liable too.

[–] quokka1@mastodon.au 2 points 3 weeks ago

@Salvo Worth a read of their current def https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary/_Business/Bills/_Legislation/bd/bd2425/25bd39
But yeah, those would seem to come under "the sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between 2 or more end-users[2]

the service allows end-users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end-users

the service allows end-users to post material on the service

such other conditions (if any) as are set out in the legislative rules."

[–] JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

They haven't been banned yet.

The law doesn't come into effect until the end of next year after the govt determines how the ban will be enforced.