Australia’s government wants to ban children under 16 from using social media in an effort to protect young people’s mental health.
The nation’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, called the move “world-leading,” adding that social media is causing children undue harm, forcing the government to step in to safeguard their well-being.
The legislation, set to take effect within a year, will force X/Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and any other social media site that pops up in the years to come to provide evidence that they are taking steps to block underaged users.
Parents won’t face penalties if their kids somehow find their way onto social media, and neither will the kids, but the social media companies themselves could face fines for noncompliance.
The Australian government says everything that makes up the very fabric of modern-day social media is destroying kids’ brains, from misinformation to cyberbullying—and they’re not wrong. Even a cursory Googling of how social media affects young minds brings up study after study after study after study all saying pretty much the same thing: this shit is really fucking up our children.
Opponents of the proposal argue the ban takes a chainsaw to a problem that needs a scalpel. Maybe a more nuanced approach is required, like implementing safety standards or digital literacy programs that help kids decipher what’s real and what’s fake online.
All good ideas too, but maybe those should have been implemented like 30 years ago, across the world, in every country, then maybe the Internet wouldn’t be the sad shell of its former self it is today. A corporate hellscape besieged by bots, AI, and the constant stream of vile cruelty that seems to be pushed by those who understand the power and reach of the Internet best.
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The post Australian Teens Could Soon Lose Access to Social Media appeared first on VICE.
