With the ban going into effect, I thought it might be helpful to allow people to share their experiences about the Australian teen social media ban and how it has affected them.
Note: For the Aussie Zone lemmy requirements, see here. Please use that thread for an Aussie Zone specific discussions or questions.
Good luck, everyone!
It’s so frustrating seeing the government fiddling in the margins to grab headlines rather than, doing something constructive. This is going to devolve into a game of whack-a-mole trying to make it look like it is achieving something other than what it is (normalising the idea of having to dox yourself to access the internet). Meanwhile I have just lost all the passive ability to monitor what my teens watch on YouTube, and the easy ability to check in on their conversations on Snapchat. They have thrown my kids out into the wild west of barely moderated YouTube and dubious chat apps.
If they had implemented strong laws around algorithmic outputs, human moderation, and online harassment then we would have been applauding them for holding the social media companies to account. Instead what they have done is laid another part of the foundation of a surveillance state.
In essence the governments desire to be seen to be doing something is dovetailing neatly with the shit heads that want everything we do online to be monitored, recorded and as a byproduct more heavily monetised.
Also since they are doing this to protect the children, is there a number of children they are willing to sacrifice to achieve their goals. How many marginalised kids have to self harm before they start to ask the question “Are we the baddies?” We already know that social media has had Perverse Incentives at play that have shaped it, so while it sounds hyperbolic I don’t imagine it’s beyond the pale that the LGBTQI+ kid who lives in a rural area with 0 local support is going to be affected by their online support networks disappearing. The kid suffering from domestic violence suddenly becomes voiceless and can’t work out who they trust enough to reach out to. The bullying goes to the all new special app all the kids on the playground are using that is hosted out of another country that doesn’t give a shit about Australian laws and becomes impossible to take down as we have just taught our kids to work around the tissue paper blocks the government keeps relying on.
On top of all this, we don’t have comprehensive data privacy laws, and while the government says it will levy massive fines against companies that don’t take reasonable steps to secure our data, the reality is that they will not, and if they tried to what’s to stop the companies deciding that Australia is not an economically sound country to operate in and just up stumps and leave rather than paying the $85,000,000 fine?
This is all just the surface level thoughts I have of this debacle.
I mean this completely sincerely. Take this entire comment and send it in a letter (a physical letter) to your MP. Especially if they’re Labor or one of the independents who voted for the bill. (Those who voted against it, like the Greens and most independents, are already on board with you, and the LNP are just beyond saving. But enough pressure might be able to convince Labor to do better.) And encourage all the parents you know to do similar.
Comment, respectfully, on their Facebook. Make sure everyone knows that even if the goals behind this might be good, the thing they’ve actually delivered is not.
My MP started off giving this topic a simple once over and agreed with it. Then listened to a bunch of constituents, experts and just the rhetoric from other politicians. He has since changed his stance on it. Also he happens to be an Independent.
Strange how much of the inequity in our current system is related to people who are motivated to vote along party lines instead of listening to the people who put them in their position isn’t it?