News Corp’s papers today have a 12-page special on the social media ban for under-16s.
Gloat much? 
They may have won a battle but they won’t win the war.
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I’m not so sure about this - there seems to be growing interest from other jurisdictions in following suit, it may take some time though
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Because this easy political points. They won’t fix the really serious shit that this world has issues with.
Kids will find a way around this. The internet will see this censorship as road damage and find a way around it.
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The workarounds will start to dry up the more countries that come on board.
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Of course news corp papers have 12 page spread on it. They were one of the architects of the law. They have a vested interest in it.
You give them more credit than is due. They supported the plan but they were not the “architects of the law”.
I doubt it.
Everyone said piracy would slow down/stop with everyone starting their own streaming service…and look at what’s happening now.
The same will happen if more countries go for the political sugar hit. And it will only get worse. Digital IDs everyone?
The platforms and parents have failed kids.
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piracy is a whole different kettle of fish and is all most impossible to stop. The whole thing with this is no one really knows how it will go until you try and throw everything at it. It will either work or won’t. The fact is they can either sit back and do nothing or try something.
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The Australian Human Rights Commissioner summed up the issues with this beautifully back when it was first passed in Parliament. Disappointingly there seems to be very little investment in proactive skill and capacity building for young people and their parents as part of this.
Education is also key. Improving education around digital literacy and online safety in schools will equip young people with the tools they need to navigate social media responsibly. Our kids need to be supported to think critically about what they see online and how they engage with social media. Parents and teachers, too, need better resources to guide young people in this space.
If the Government goes ahead with a blanket ban, it threatens to harm the very people it seeks to protect. We will be raising a generation of children, who upon turning 16 will be introduced to the harms of social media without adequate education and critical thinking skills to protect themselves online. Properly considered social media reform that benefits and protects us all is essential. Prohibition is not the answer.
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Again, this is like saying alcohol restrictions won’t fix the real serious drug problems we have in this world.
Kids might still get their hands on alcohol but doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bother having laws which restrict it’s sale.
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As an educator, I am onboard with this idea although I can understand why kids will feel weary about this given that their lives are so heavily dependent on social media. Whilst social media isn’t nearly as bad as things like drugs or cigarettes or alcohol it’s not something that’s particularly helpful either and it’s also got tendencies to expose kids to harm and violence virtually, especially given kids of today have virtually no filters and go literally anywhere from gaming to porn sites.
Having said that, my concern is around patrolling. Unless if they limit the access of VPNs for kids and other shortcuts to these apps it’ll be bordering impossible to have complete control. And if they do breach it what are the consequences? A slap on the wrist or a lengthy jail sentence? (clearly not the latter but you get the point). Lots of uncertainties that we don’t know…
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Would had been a better idea to restrict the sale of smartphones to those over 18 at point of sale. Although a few people would disagree with me.
They would have been better off investing in education programs and getting the social media companies to improve their moderation policies and remove the harmful content and battle cyber bullying.
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No reason why you can’t do that as well.
Reddit sent this email this morning to everyone:
We’re writing to let you know that starting 10 December 2025, Australian law will require that redditors in Australia must be 16 or older to create and use Reddit accounts.
Users confirmed to be under 16 will have their accounts suspended under the new Australian minimum age law. While we disagree with the Government’s assessment of Reddit as being within the scope of the law, we need to take steps to comply. This means anyone in Australia with a Reddit account confirmed to be under 16 will be blocked from accessing their account or creating a new one. Note that as an open platform, Reddit is still available to browse without an account.
If you have questions, please visit Reddit Help. To request a copy of your Reddit account data, you can follow the instructions on this help center article or email redditdatarequests@reddit.com from the email address you used to verify your Reddit account. You can also learn more about Australia’s new social media minimum age ban here.
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I had that email as well. I guess it’s time for me to say goodbye to Reddit and I wish them good luck in the high court.
I’ve had nothing from Reddit yet (hurrah)
Unless they sent it to me as an error then I would say everyone would get it. Tbh though I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t meant to get it.