World-first social media ban on children in 'Land of Kangaroos' makes global headlines
www.abc.net.au
Australia's social media ban for children makes headlines around the world, including as far away as Russia, as articles question how it could work and whether similar laws would be introduced elsewhere.

Hi Lemmy.World Admins and Support Staff,

I like this place a lot and wanted to give you a heads up pollies down under passed some new laws.

The govt wants a ban on social media for everyone under 16. This week was the last sitting week of parliament and a few bills were passed by both houses and are set to become law. (See link).

I’m not after any immediate reaction or actions, but looking to bring it to your attention for you to discuss (edit:internally) how you would react. I haven’t seen the legislation and don’t know how this is meant to be mechanized and it seems pretty hard to do.

Some other tech giants have already made statements as this appears to be a worldwide first.

Edit: I might have a look at the laws text and put some details here as a comment

-AnAustralianPhotographer

  • TheEntity@lemmy.world
    16·
    30 days ago

    From the Lemmy.world terms of service:

    No one under 18 years of age or under the regulated minimum age defined by your local law (whichever is higher), is allowed to use or access the website.

    If someone lies to access the website, it’s on them.

    • Dave@lemmy.nz
      9·
      30 days ago

      I’d be pretty confident the Australian Government isn’t just gonna let Facebook update the Ts and Cs to say no one under 16 and call it a day. They are expected to actually try to enforce it.

      Lemmy can at least argue under 16s aren’t enticed to come here, no matter how much we offer free (as in speech, but also as in beer) stuff.

        • AnAustralianPhotographer@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          4·
          29 days ago

          The law specifically mentions government IDs in the legislation . If(edit:i’d) have to check, but Im confident they’re specifically excluded.

          • Dave@lemmy.nz
            1·
            29 days ago

            The article says they can’t require them, but can offer it as one option so long as there are others.

      • voracitude@lemmy.world
        3·
        29 days ago

        What “Lemmy” will be arguing this and where, please?

        If you have a company, that’s easy for a government to go after. Lemmy is software built and run for free by randoms on the internet. They might try to go after the devs if any of them reside in Australia, but they’d have a very hard time stopping it. We’ve seen that sort of effort fail before, when China and India tried to ban Bitcoin. We see it in North Korea even now, where people still access banned networks and content all the time.

    • droporain@lemmynsfw.com
      7·
      30 days ago

      I have a better idea, fine the god damn parents of the kids. I didn’t choose to inconvenience my life with your fucking nonsense.

    • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world
      21·
      30 days ago

      No it’s not. It’s in the service operator to verify. With the current writing every instance would need to verify age.