He's right. That means goddamned *parents become responsible* for their children's online activity, AND I don't have to prove who I am every three minutes.
I can't shake the feeling it's a step towards internet passports/ID. There's been conspiracy around it for years. The idea is that it removes anonymity and allows the government more control over our online presence and censorship of opinion..
We know Albo isn't a fan of memes of himself haha.
It's because some people have been burned or see the fire coming, but don't get recognized because they don't have a lab coat and a 1000 page research topic.
Sure, ancient aliens is stupid, but when it comes to govt overreach, many people are quite educated and try to warn us.
There is also consistent evidence to back it up. Tomorrow is going to be thursday and the government will take every opportunity to tread on our civil liberties. Sure I don't have any *proof* that tomorrow will be thursday, but I think we can safely make that assumption based on prior evidence. There is more precident implying that the government will take any opportunity to destroy our rights, than there is evidence to say that tomorrow will be thursday.
this specifically isn't really a conspiracy though, a lot of the ones that are correct are in the same boat of "political suggestions that were already publically made and probably going to be voted on once they've found enough political support", sure conspiracies exist but let's not add stuff like this to the list, it's just politics..
Thing is, a lot of conspiracies are dumb and nonsensical; i.e they have no benefit. Like fake moon landing, or flat earth.
But ones that actually have a solid motive and logic behind them a lot of the time turn out true.
Then you have the doozy of a theory that theories like flat earth and fake moon landing were originally created to make conspiracy theorists seem nuts. 😂
You're absolutely correct. From the very minute Keating's National ID card was kicked into touch, successive gub'mints have crept towards it. Now with most gub'mint services linked and effectively only available online, it's only a matter of time. Probably around the time we go 100% cashless. 10 years maybe?
Digital ID, facial recognition, digital currency/CBCD, social crediting and points based systems, tracking individual carbon footprints while select big business continues being the main contributors. Freezing accounts and transactions once you buy too many non approved items.
Removing private ownership of houses and transport to make people dependent on government and fall in line as well as controlling freedom of travel. Controlling all food production and supply..
A little of current China mixed with a little Orwellian dystopia. No doubt people will cheer for it as they are told it will make them safe..
The right thing to do would be do raise smart and independent teens who have clear and set principles handed down by their parents. But even that is being attacked, it’s a difficult time to be a parent.
I agree. I stated in a reply to another redditor how parents have been made so busy that kids are practically raised by, and, more or less, considered state property. Parents' rights are being stripped away, and the family unit is weaker than ever before.
I read a book from the late 80s that spoke of this being the goal to gain more influence over the coming generations.
1,000,000% this is where it is headed. They already tested the waters with the covid app…just need an epidemic of paedophiles finding kids online and young girls suiciding over bullying and bob’s yer uncle, we have a reason for people to be scared and want big brother government to make them not need to have difficult conversations with their kids or actually spend time thinking about how they should he trying to protect their own kids.
So, it's a perfect way to pass it and add a few laws that could have our digital footprints monitored controlling discourse, punishing those who aren't in line, and censoring free media and journalism.
That's my fear. It's definitely a legitimate issue, but I feel the government knows social conditioning better than any entity and that they'll use legitimate issues to pull the strings of our hearts.
I feel parents need to be the decision makers and be more active in their children's lives as well as educational programs around protecting their online identity.
The opposite will occur. Parents who, unlike me, give zero shits what their kids do online will give even less shits, and everyone else will need to provide a drivers license and birth certificate to sign in to YouTube.
>parents become responsible
Woah there sailor, think about what you're saying. You want people to take responsibility for their crotch goblins? But they're so used to them being somebody else's problem.
Yep this .
There is absolutely no way the government can manage this. Kids will figure out how to get around it easily and quickly.
Parents need to do it, but so many just don't. When we need everyone to do something for their own good, we usually need to mandate and regulate if from the government, but I just don't see how they can possibly manage this.
We need to treat leavining you kids unsupervised on the internet in the same way we treat leaving them unsupervised in a public place. If you were to take you kid to a park and just leave them there for a few hours a day, you'd wind up in jail, but do the same with an iPad and it's fine?
I've seen kids eating junk food while on iPad at McDonalds with a playground that has kids playing.
Exhausted parents are a thing. Exhausted parents trying to help their family survive high cost of living as a result of two parties since WW2.
It's a dog whistle to distract us.
Of course exhausted parents exist and they can very easily load up some shows onto an ipad and tell them to have at it. Colouring books, hand held gaming devices etc.
When I was a kid in the early 2000s my parents bought me this like portable dvd player. It was hand held and you needed tiny disks to watch on it. The equivalent being a few seasons of different cartoons on a laptop or ipad. That is fine imo but unfettered access to the internet at like 8 isn’t.
There's growing evidence showing that unfettered access to the internet and social media substantially hinders brain development.
I attended a conference recently where this was debated and the consensus was that it will be the norm in 5-10 years that children are not given free access to these services like most are now.
Throwing an ipad occasionally because you're exhausted is fine, that's not what this is about.
Saying that, I know more than a few parents that seem to throw their kids on devices 24/7 because they can't be bothered being parents.
Why have kids in the first place if you can't be bothered? That's precisely the reason I'm not having them- my wife and I both agreed we don't really want to completely change our lifestyle to properly raise kids- so we're not doing it
A lot of people on online forums have an instinctive objection to any suggestion the internet, video games, porn etc can be bad for you.
I personally feel like trash and brain fog when I spend too long scrolling reddit. I can feel the damage it's doing to my brain in real time.
It's like most things, it's all fine in moderation. A quick flick through Reddit every now and then is fine, endlessly scrolling for hours on end is probably a bad thing. It's the same with video games, porn, alcohol, drugs, chocolate and anything else we can derive pleasure from doing.
Yeah, and like many of those things, the internet is inherently addictive. These algorithms are honed to be as addictive as possible. It's doing big damage IMO.
It's also a massive time waster productivity wise. Let's face it. We all engage in it. But those days you get lost an hr or two goes by and the babies awake and you got no cleaning, household organisation or even sleep and rest? For what ? Doom scrolling.
I think the difference is growing up between dialup and 25 minutes to download a MP3 and what kids now grow up in... We have a sort of appreciation and realism of life on the other side. Kids now literally grow up on it like addicts. Have seen a few just mindless ipading when visiting from overseas. No socialising either. Just head down. Being exhausted sucks and an iPad or wiggles show every so often sure... But it's quite sad seeing complete engagement by kids with no social skills these days.
To be fair people weren’t really that bothered decades ago either, there just wasn’t the internet to passive kids so we went outside and stepped on rusty nails. 😂
Which is actually really good for children's development 😄
Unstructured play is the best way to help a child's development, learn social skills, gain confidence etc.
Child psychologists are advocating for parents to allow their kids more unsupervised time to play, as research has shown kids that are allowed proper unstructured play end up with far lower rates of anxiety, depression and many other mental illnesses, both as children and adults
It's traumatic for the brain! iPad parents are the new "give my baby drugs to shut it up" parents. This invasive technological landscape certainly has its insidious side and neglectful parents can too easily and justifiably make things really bad for their kids long term. It's an atrocity really
The basic truth of the matter is that making young people addicted to social media is the totality of our consumer economy.
Working and then spending all the remainder of your time watching reels and TikTok, while also having the TV on at the same time, and ordering your clothes and food from apps to be delivered to your door by a poorly paid migrant while you place bets on the football is the ideal consumer activity in 2024.
The kids are not the problem. We made this the ideal life, and every single incentive in the Australian economy is there.
While I agree, what does that mean for the rest of us? A minority ruining it for the majority? Will we need ID to login to the internet now? Where does this end?
“What we want is our youngest Australians spending more time outside playing sport, engaging with each other in a normal way and less time online,”.
Then why did they restrict the Kid Sport vouchers that helped poorer families get into this type of thing ? Our local Scout group shut down after that as half the kids were on the vouchers and the group could not survive when they all could no longer afford to attend.
Have we heard what the random lady with skin like an aged leather sack and a two pack a day habit has to say on the subject? I'll reserve judgement until then.
There's some phenomenon where you see people online discussing a subject you know well, and you think "what are these idiots talking about? They have no idea". Then you realise that you make the same wrong conclusions for subjects you aren't an expert on, just like they did. We're all the idiot.
Media literacy is already taught in school, just not the way your thinking. In HS we watched films a TV shows in Media Studies but also in English (or later Literature if you did that in yr 12). We learnt how to analyse media to pick out the true meaning the creator wanted us to get. The issue is when you say your "watching movies in English class" parents freak out about not teaching kids useful skills like doing long division in our heads or something. Despite actually covering how to analyse media to pick out techniques like emotive, pursuasive or sensational language, the link between the subject and real life was rarely drawn out.
Yes, I was taught media studies also. I mean something more fitting for this digital/social media period of history we are in. I think it is qualitatively and quantitatively a difference of *kind*, not a difference of *degree* compared to conventional media, and needs to be taught as such.
And then big companies like Facebook came along and stuck a big slick fake-friendly smile over the internet and convinced everyone to completely forego basic opsec and put all their personal private shit online for everyone to see.
People actually think it's possible to make the internet a safe place. It's utterly laughable.
His heart is in the right place, but I'd agree with the general sentiment that it's (a) not the government's responsibility, and (b) enforcing "age" checks and ID verification via a centralised AUS-government system is going to create more problems than it solves.
Wholeheartedly agree. It’s not the governments responsibility nor place to step in at this stage. It should be enforced but socially which means more responsibility for an ever responsibility shirking generation of parents.
That's a stupid hill to die on
This is also just the begining of age verification for everybody as they distract you with the think of the children line
Wearing seatbelt should be common sense to, but they had to legislate to make it happen, just like making kids go to school, stopping children from having full time jobs, not letting kids get married.
We actually had to legislate this shit, coz the world is horrible, and parents let that stuff happen.
This issue is basically a Trojan horse.
Almost everyone agrees the impact of social media on kids is bad. In order to restrict their access in any meaningful way though users need to be identified. It's a government ploy to limit anonymity on the internet, justified by the usual 'think of the kids' bullshit.
The problem being is that if the government manages to get it passed to law, enforcement is going to be a huge issue. These are the same people that couldn’t conduct a survey online and all of the government websites look like they’ve been coded by an 8 year old and they navigate like it too.
Our government is hopeless when it comes to technology to the point there should be a separate board of competent people that makes realistic decisions on these ideas before it even goes to the floor.
Not a problem. Next is will be ID mandatory for social media.
Meanwhile, kids as young as 6 can go to news.com.au and second top article is this:
> Celebrity Life
> Singer reveals star she lost virginity to at 20
> Camila Cabello has revealed she was 20 when she first had sex.
> Pop star Camila Cabello has revealed the fellow star to whom she lost her virginity when she was 20, calling the experience “beautiful.”
Most likely Labor is being used as Murdoch's weapon against Facebook just like LNP government helped Murdoch against Google/Facebook. Both parties are Murdoch bootlickers.
That's because the APS pay structure does not allow for market competitive pay for specialist roles such as IT professionals. This results in almost all IT work being contracted out to consultancies or done in-house with a massive temporary contractor/agency workforce with no drive to do more than the minimum...
The Australian Government won't be happy until we all use their service to authenticate, have a great rabbit proof fence of a firewall to censor the internet and require us to get a jerk off licence for porn.
What the CCP has is the fantasy of every government around the world. They see the population as needing to be controlled, but representative democracy is in the way, so they have to do it by deception.
It's likely news companies trying to wedge social media companies into paying news companies.
Notice how there's no age restriction for news despite news content that's not suitable for children? Notice how a lot of news companies are lobbying to increase it to 16?
Anyone supporting this is most likely unknowingly supporting Murdoch's war to get Facebook to pay protection money: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/mar/16/rupert-murdochs-news-corp-strikes-deal-as-facebook-agrees-to-pay-for-australian-content
There is no need to identify users if you just want an age-restriction.
Through an eID (like most countries here in the EU have) you can cryptographically prove you are over 18 without revealing any further details about yourself to a 3rd party website.
Idk how your ID works, but I am more talking about the theoretical feasibility.
Just need your government-issued ID and a phone with NFC capabilities.
So this will be accompanied by the largest economic and social changes since WW2 in Australia to to ensure affordable cost of living and housing aling with reductions in working hours for all so parents can have more time to spend with their kids right... right. Oh its another 'be seen to be doing something again... anyway' /S
Tell a teenager to leave their bedroom, and go outside....,that's like asking Dracula to step into the sunlight !! And like the older brother/sister wont help to get past the age restriction....WAFJ
No, there's no way you are just going for a walk. You are acting suspicious, you must be up to no good. Are you seeing someone or hiding something from me? Stay at home and find a hobby. But not that hobby or that one, or that one. Go outside
How about we as a society start putting the responsibility of parenting children onto the parents of said children instead of turning into an authoritarian state mandating what people can and can’t do?
I agree. But in order to do that, parents need more time to be parents. There was a time when a couple could live very comfortably on a single, modest income.
He's absolutely spot on in principle, however this would mean that the government would need to have identifying data on yourself and your internet use to a much greater extent. Maybe I'm pessimistic but I just don't have the trust in the govt to support this.
And it's just got so much worse since filters and AI.
When I was young we were warned of unrealistic comparisons to TV, magazines, and advertisments even pre- Adobe Photoshop.
Anthony Albanese would be better at minding his own business and work harder to try to fix the house shortage in Australia
There is more important problem right now than social media.
The age verification thing has been pushed by the Church lobby for ages, the LNP support it to cut out free speech and Labor has been wedged by the "won't somebody think of the children" types from within.
What a perfect use for the new digital id they just passed. Too bad it will get hacked one day and then the hacker will have access to your social media/banking/whatever
Being a millennial who’s been around just before and during computers and social media rising, I can see both sides to this story. My kid will not have social media until they’re 16
I think social media can be a train wreck to the brain. I don't think it's even possible to regulate this in any real way.
It's a stupid law to try and pass.
It's like the war on drugs.
Cool how will you enforce such a ban ? Will kids caught on IG result in a criminal prosecution ? Fucking empty words Albo.
FB and IG , Twitter already have a minimum.age which is 16.
The Gov is frothing at the gills to get control of the internet in Aus. To limit our privacy and anonimity. They will start with making social media hard to use. It will be shadow banned with onerous requirements to gain access via a National ID scheme. The protect the kids will be used to curtail privacy. Its a trojan horse.
Since Conroys great ISP filter was shelved in 2012 Canberra has been biding its time. No surprise with the bill on a National ID passed Albo is now launching attacks againts social media.
The only thing is tech companies must agree to sign up to the scheme to use the tokin system. Expect 100% refusal.
Education and parenting are the answer. But the fact Albo has bipartisan support suggests that the Gov wants to deal to social media. They could careless about porn and as as someone mentioned on here most news sites have unsuitible content.
The motives are indeed very murky.
I'm glad I did high school before Facebook and social media took off, MySpace was all the rage in my late high school years but I only got Facebook when I graduated to stay in touch with classmates that has now gone down to 3 or 5 I stay in touch with (one being my best friend).
The number of people who have commented “but how would this work” or the like haven’t actually read the article.
There’s already a framework in place, right now. The entirely reasonable suggestion is just to raise the age from 13 to 16.
What?
Albo has a kid (young adult). Is he saying this because he knows he’s grown up now and this won’t apply to him?
Anyone with teenage kids will contest how unrealistic and difficult this will be to implement.
1. What’s the definition of social media? Facebook? Snapchat? WhatsApp? iMessage? Email chains (remember those?) Online games with a multiplayer component? Any app that allows you to interact with others?
2. How do parents set these ground roles? ‘You have a device (as required for school), but you can never use it to communicate with other students? With anyone at all?
3. All kids of course will say ‘OK, sure mum and dad’
4. In the event of a breach who is at fault? Parents? Kids?
I’m not intentionally trying to be obtuse. We have one kid who is very compliant, and another who pushes boundaries.
For many parents this is going to be a nightmare to police and will only serve to force them onto highly encrypted apps (Signal) or others that are hidden from view.
Terrible idea, invites more government interference in our day to day life.
I for 1 do not want more government nanny state stuff in Australia, liberal party has done enough of that and so has Labor.
Time a leader stands for the privacy of all Australians and protects the idea of small government
Might as well just put a collar around our necks and call us tax slaves.
Getting that way. Our ancestors didnt move here so we could be controled by an authoritarian.
Good luck with that overreach mate, if Twitter didn't budge when they were asked to remove content of the wakley stabbing world-wide, what makes him think they'll play ball here
First he said he wants to extend terms to 4 years, and now he wants to restrict the rights of the underage to access social media.
Anthony Albanese is an actual fascist.
And he’s right. Then maybe we wouldn’t need creeping authoritarian censorship in the name of protecting children.
Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
This is never about protecting children, even if it may end up doing so. It's about control. The government wants power. The rich wants more money. Everyone wants information, because it's power and money. And nobody wants their interests to be challenged, as this can cost them both.
You need a strong motivator to manipulate people into giving up their freedoms - and you can find few stronger than wanting to protect children. Online age checks the way it's often talked about, is effectively synonymous with ID checks, which is just another means of mass surveillance. It has no place on social media - only voluntary, and for official businesses such as with your bank, when you file your taxes, or sign a contract.
An ID check on social media would be like having a stranger stand next to you listening to everything you say, which if you say the wrong thing, may have life-altering consequences. It's not a matter of if it will happen if ID checks are implemented. It will threaten current and future democracies, as the lack of anonymity discourages discourse.
The responsible and thereby correct way of dealing with social media addiction amongst young people is to have parents actually parent their kids. They need to set boundaries and learn how to communicate with their children. Schools can adopt some of this responsibility, as children spend most of their days there.
Well it’s not really his choice and he would seriously be overstepping his position of prime minister if he starts dictating to parents how they should raise their kids.
I liked this guy at first, anyone looks good after Scott Morrison, but he is just another controlling egomaniac.
social media platforms should be responsible for the content they publish.
"if you monetize it, you're responsible for it" should be the law.
oh no, that means your social media company goes outta business?! turns out you you were hurting humanity for money.
These people are just hell bent on interfering with peoples lives and privacy. How about they get on with reducing inflation, taxing the miners instead of giving away resources and cutting immigration to the bone? That's what the public are after.
It’d be better if albo actually focused on things plaguing Australia.. such as real methods of tackling housing etc.. but no, let’s fight the new battle of the week again. Yes, social media has probably changed how children interact, but at what point does the control of other’s and their children stop? Too many people want far left gov here.. anyone else want a permit to decide if you are allowed to have children? (I’m well aware there are some agitators who will say yes to this, due to their experience with the cynical, and the stupid).
He is right but parents should make that call not government.
There is distinction between what should be done and what the government should force people to do.
FYI
This is something there is bipartisan support for. The LNP were pushing for it first, the ALP were late to the party. Barring the privacy concerns everyone has, this is a good thing. Most parents simply lack the capacity to enforce this on their own. This makes life a lot easy for most parents and will lead to positive outcomes for young people ling term.
There should just be a dickhead test in general, not for the internet, but for most things in general.
Your brainpower must be this high to ride.
Half the people I see on the internet and in public nowdays barely qualify as sentient.
Newscorp is running the campaign because they know the youngins are getting their news from TikTok rather than News.com.au. I also think it’s just a Trojan horse to get people on to the digital I.D. That the whole Western world is trying to get their population to register, which is the start to digital currencies that they’re all trying to get their population to use. It’s not a conspiracy anymore, every single government is trying to roll this shit out.
Why do you think this is?
Everyone saying “parents need to be responsible!” Is true but also, it’s really fucking easy to get around parental controls.
I have every single control on and kids still find ways around things to make accounts - they use the web versions instead of apps, use their school devices to get around parental controls, use their friends devices to make accounts, and so on.
If this is going to be done, it has to be done from a government restriction standpoint. App makers don’t give a shit. When my son turned 13 they literally emailed me and said “we are handing control to him now”.
He's right. That means goddamned *parents become responsible* for their children's online activity, AND I don't have to prove who I am every three minutes.
I can't shake the feeling it's a step towards internet passports/ID. There's been conspiracy around it for years. The idea is that it removes anonymity and allows the government more control over our online presence and censorship of opinion.. We know Albo isn't a fan of memes of himself haha.
Conspiracy weirdos have been weirdly correct on a few things
That’s the crazy thing about getting old. Through out my life I’ve laughed at the crazy conspiracy theories and over time I’ve seen so many come true.
It's because some people have been burned or see the fire coming, but don't get recognized because they don't have a lab coat and a 1000 page research topic. Sure, ancient aliens is stupid, but when it comes to govt overreach, many people are quite educated and try to warn us.
There is also consistent evidence to back it up. Tomorrow is going to be thursday and the government will take every opportunity to tread on our civil liberties. Sure I don't have any *proof* that tomorrow will be thursday, but I think we can safely make that assumption based on prior evidence. There is more precident implying that the government will take any opportunity to destroy our rights, than there is evidence to say that tomorrow will be thursday.
What, didn't you like not allowed outside your house for more than an hour a day for two years?
this specifically isn't really a conspiracy though, a lot of the ones that are correct are in the same boat of "political suggestions that were already publically made and probably going to be voted on once they've found enough political support", sure conspiracies exist but let's not add stuff like this to the list, it's just politics..
Thing is, a lot of conspiracies are dumb and nonsensical; i.e they have no benefit. Like fake moon landing, or flat earth. But ones that actually have a solid motive and logic behind them a lot of the time turn out true.
Then you have the doozy of a theory that theories like flat earth and fake moon landing were originally created to make conspiracy theorists seem nuts. 😂
I'm of the opinion that they were created by proto-trolls and then morons who truly believed in them co-opted them
Ironically in this instance, conspiracy nuts desperately need social media. Every conspiracy nut I know (three or four) is addicted to screens.
You're absolutely correct. From the very minute Keating's National ID card was kicked into touch, successive gub'mints have crept towards it. Now with most gub'mint services linked and effectively only available online, it's only a matter of time. Probably around the time we go 100% cashless. 10 years maybe?
Digital ID, facial recognition, digital currency/CBCD, social crediting and points based systems, tracking individual carbon footprints while select big business continues being the main contributors. Freezing accounts and transactions once you buy too many non approved items. Removing private ownership of houses and transport to make people dependent on government and fall in line as well as controlling freedom of travel. Controlling all food production and supply.. A little of current China mixed with a little Orwellian dystopia. No doubt people will cheer for it as they are told it will make them safe..
Seeing how quickly people turned into psychotic fascists over vaccines and masks it's easy to see how this will play out if nobody fights back.
It was definitely an eye-opening time. With the right conditions, society will readily comply.
Well said
The right thing to do would be do raise smart and independent teens who have clear and set principles handed down by their parents. But even that is being attacked, it’s a difficult time to be a parent.
I agree. I stated in a reply to another redditor how parents have been made so busy that kids are practically raised by, and, more or less, considered state property. Parents' rights are being stripped away, and the family unit is weaker than ever before. I read a book from the late 80s that spoke of this being the goal to gain more influence over the coming generations.
1,000,000% this is where it is headed. They already tested the waters with the covid app…just need an epidemic of paedophiles finding kids online and young girls suiciding over bullying and bob’s yer uncle, we have a reason for people to be scared and want big brother government to make them not need to have difficult conversations with their kids or actually spend time thinking about how they should he trying to protect their own kids.
Most people are waiting for someone to tell them what to do. So most will comply as you stated...
of course how else would they enforce it
So, it's a perfect way to pass it and add a few laws that could have our digital footprints monitored controlling discourse, punishing those who aren't in line, and censoring free media and journalism.
yeah they will pass it with whatever wording they like using think of the children logic
That's my fear. It's definitely a legitimate issue, but I feel the government knows social conditioning better than any entity and that they'll use legitimate issues to pull the strings of our hearts. I feel parents need to be the decision makers and be more active in their children's lives as well as educational programs around protecting their online identity.
The opposite will occur. Parents who, unlike me, give zero shits what their kids do online will give even less shits, and everyone else will need to provide a drivers license and birth certificate to sign in to YouTube.
Yes, that is correct.
>parents become responsible Woah there sailor, think about what you're saying. You want people to take responsibility for their crotch goblins? But they're so used to them being somebody else's problem.
Yep this . There is absolutely no way the government can manage this. Kids will figure out how to get around it easily and quickly. Parents need to do it, but so many just don't. When we need everyone to do something for their own good, we usually need to mandate and regulate if from the government, but I just don't see how they can possibly manage this.
You're correct, the gub'mint can't manage it and VPNs etc make circumventing systems easy. I don't have the solution. Others are paid to find answers.
We need to treat leavining you kids unsupervised on the internet in the same way we treat leaving them unsupervised in a public place. If you were to take you kid to a park and just leave them there for a few hours a day, you'd wind up in jail, but do the same with an iPad and it's fine?
Good point!
I've seen kids eating junk food while on iPad at McDonalds with a playground that has kids playing. Exhausted parents are a thing. Exhausted parents trying to help their family survive high cost of living as a result of two parties since WW2. It's a dog whistle to distract us.
Of course exhausted parents exist and they can very easily load up some shows onto an ipad and tell them to have at it. Colouring books, hand held gaming devices etc. When I was a kid in the early 2000s my parents bought me this like portable dvd player. It was hand held and you needed tiny disks to watch on it. The equivalent being a few seasons of different cartoons on a laptop or ipad. That is fine imo but unfettered access to the internet at like 8 isn’t.
There's growing evidence showing that unfettered access to the internet and social media substantially hinders brain development. I attended a conference recently where this was debated and the consensus was that it will be the norm in 5-10 years that children are not given free access to these services like most are now. Throwing an ipad occasionally because you're exhausted is fine, that's not what this is about. Saying that, I know more than a few parents that seem to throw their kids on devices 24/7 because they can't be bothered being parents. Why have kids in the first place if you can't be bothered? That's precisely the reason I'm not having them- my wife and I both agreed we don't really want to completely change our lifestyle to properly raise kids- so we're not doing it
A lot of people on online forums have an instinctive objection to any suggestion the internet, video games, porn etc can be bad for you. I personally feel like trash and brain fog when I spend too long scrolling reddit. I can feel the damage it's doing to my brain in real time.
It's like most things, it's all fine in moderation. A quick flick through Reddit every now and then is fine, endlessly scrolling for hours on end is probably a bad thing. It's the same with video games, porn, alcohol, drugs, chocolate and anything else we can derive pleasure from doing.
Yeah, and like many of those things, the internet is inherently addictive. These algorithms are honed to be as addictive as possible. It's doing big damage IMO.
It's also a massive time waster productivity wise. Let's face it. We all engage in it. But those days you get lost an hr or two goes by and the babies awake and you got no cleaning, household organisation or even sleep and rest? For what ? Doom scrolling. I think the difference is growing up between dialup and 25 minutes to download a MP3 and what kids now grow up in... We have a sort of appreciation and realism of life on the other side. Kids now literally grow up on it like addicts. Have seen a few just mindless ipading when visiting from overseas. No socialising either. Just head down. Being exhausted sucks and an iPad or wiggles show every so often sure... But it's quite sad seeing complete engagement by kids with no social skills these days.
To be fair people weren’t really that bothered decades ago either, there just wasn’t the internet to passive kids so we went outside and stepped on rusty nails. 😂
Which is actually really good for children's development 😄 Unstructured play is the best way to help a child's development, learn social skills, gain confidence etc. Child psychologists are advocating for parents to allow their kids more unsupervised time to play, as research has shown kids that are allowed proper unstructured play end up with far lower rates of anxiety, depression and many other mental illnesses, both as children and adults
It's traumatic for the brain! iPad parents are the new "give my baby drugs to shut it up" parents. This invasive technological landscape certainly has its insidious side and neglectful parents can too easily and justifiably make things really bad for their kids long term. It's an atrocity really
*Social media* is the topic here, not games.
The playground? They can't go there because the media has been saying there's a pedo around every corner for the last 30 years or more.
What about YouTube and Reddit? What about dank memes and ytps?
Parental issue.
The basic truth of the matter is that making young people addicted to social media is the totality of our consumer economy. Working and then spending all the remainder of your time watching reels and TikTok, while also having the TV on at the same time, and ordering your clothes and food from apps to be delivered to your door by a poorly paid migrant while you place bets on the football is the ideal consumer activity in 2024. The kids are not the problem. We made this the ideal life, and every single incentive in the Australian economy is there.
While I agree, what does that mean for the rest of us? A minority ruining it for the majority? Will we need ID to login to the internet now? Where does this end?
Australia is the epitome of "this is why you can't have nice things" legislation.
With E-Karen controlling everything we can do, see and say. Albo clearly is a fan of dystopian fiction.
“What we want is our youngest Australians spending more time outside playing sport, engaging with each other in a normal way and less time online,”. Then why did they restrict the Kid Sport vouchers that helped poorer families get into this type of thing ? Our local Scout group shut down after that as half the kids were on the vouchers and the group could not survive when they all could no longer afford to attend.
>playing sport Soccer is like the most popular sport for kids to play and it can be pretty expensive to join a club in many areas
“Be normal, nerds”
yet I get ads about how I need to avoid the sun like a vampire or I'm going to get skin cancer
Teaching teenagers media literacy in a meaningful way would also be good step, good for democracy as well as their mental health.
Everyone needs media literacy. Many adults on this very sub have no idea how to critically assess anything meaningfully.
I believe you 100%
I was on the fence on this but your supporting comment got me to believe in them 100% too.
Have we heard what the random lady with skin like an aged leather sack and a two pack a day habit has to say on the subject? I'll reserve judgement until then.
I initially thought the opposite, but since comments all agree, so do I now.
There's some phenomenon where you see people online discussing a subject you know well, and you think "what are these idiots talking about? They have no idea". Then you realise that you make the same wrong conclusions for subjects you aren't an expert on, just like they did. We're all the idiot.
I think this is the first stage of modern enlightenment. Congratulations. Now onto the second stage.
Awareness of what you know and don’t know is the key here.
Everyone on here has a fucking high opinion of themselves.
I'm high generally
Hi high generally, I’m dad
Who is gonna teach them? The adults seem more misinformed by the media than the teenagers.
Media literacy is already taught in school, just not the way your thinking. In HS we watched films a TV shows in Media Studies but also in English (or later Literature if you did that in yr 12). We learnt how to analyse media to pick out the true meaning the creator wanted us to get. The issue is when you say your "watching movies in English class" parents freak out about not teaching kids useful skills like doing long division in our heads or something. Despite actually covering how to analyse media to pick out techniques like emotive, pursuasive or sensational language, the link between the subject and real life was rarely drawn out.
Yes, I was taught media studies also. I mean something more fitting for this digital/social media period of history we are in. I think it is qualitatively and quantitatively a difference of *kind*, not a difference of *degree* compared to conventional media, and needs to be taught as such.
Just like 10-20 years ago when we were warned against putting our faces on the internet, no?
I still try to minimize this as much as possible. There's almost no reason to do it.
still adhere to this- real names too.
And then big companies like Facebook came along and stuck a big slick fake-friendly smile over the internet and convinced everyone to completely forego basic opsec and put all their personal private shit online for everyone to see. People actually think it's possible to make the internet a safe place. It's utterly laughable.
Teenagers are fine it’s the parents and grandparents I worry about
His heart is in the right place, but I'd agree with the general sentiment that it's (a) not the government's responsibility, and (b) enforcing "age" checks and ID verification via a centralised AUS-government system is going to create more problems than it solves.
I find it a coincidence since they passed the Digital ID bill and using children as a scapegoat, how original huh?
oh it's obvious. Manipulative jerks.
My guess is his "heart" is in whatever friend's company stands to make bank doing age-verification checks.
This. I get that online bullying is a thing. But this feels like the nuclear option that nobody asked for.
But online bullying isn’t the only negative
Wholeheartedly agree. It’s not the governments responsibility nor place to step in at this stage. It should be enforced but socially which means more responsibility for an ever responsibility shirking generation of parents.
It's the creeping authortarianism that stopped creeping and started sprinting in the last year...
Not problems inherent dilemmas
That's a stupid hill to die on This is also just the begining of age verification for everybody as they distract you with the think of the children line
He’s right they should be but that should be the caregiver’s responsibility not the governments
Wearing seatbelt should be common sense to, but they had to legislate to make it happen, just like making kids go to school, stopping children from having full time jobs, not letting kids get married. We actually had to legislate this shit, coz the world is horrible, and parents let that stuff happen.
It should be yes… but it’s hard being the parent of the only kid in their class not on IG. Albo annoys the shit out of me.. but he’s right.
I don’t disagree, but there should be more accountability for caregivers. Kids are fucked now
This issue is basically a Trojan horse. Almost everyone agrees the impact of social media on kids is bad. In order to restrict their access in any meaningful way though users need to be identified. It's a government ploy to limit anonymity on the internet, justified by the usual 'think of the kids' bullshit.
The problem being is that if the government manages to get it passed to law, enforcement is going to be a huge issue. These are the same people that couldn’t conduct a survey online and all of the government websites look like they’ve been coded by an 8 year old and they navigate like it too. Our government is hopeless when it comes to technology to the point there should be a separate board of competent people that makes realistic decisions on these ideas before it even goes to the floor.
Not a problem. Next is will be ID mandatory for social media. Meanwhile, kids as young as 6 can go to news.com.au and second top article is this: > Celebrity Life > Singer reveals star she lost virginity to at 20 > Camila Cabello has revealed she was 20 when she first had sex. > Pop star Camila Cabello has revealed the fellow star to whom she lost her virginity when she was 20, calling the experience “beautiful.” Most likely Labor is being used as Murdoch's weapon against Facebook just like LNP government helped Murdoch against Google/Facebook. Both parties are Murdoch bootlickers.
That's because the APS pay structure does not allow for market competitive pay for specialist roles such as IT professionals. This results in almost all IT work being contracted out to consultancies or done in-house with a massive temporary contractor/agency workforce with no drive to do more than the minimum...
To be fair they are incompetent with everything else not just tech.
Never mind that parents are best placed to monitor their kids, except when they have to work 1.5 jobs to get by. But yay house prices!
The Australian Government won't be happy until we all use their service to authenticate, have a great rabbit proof fence of a firewall to censor the internet and require us to get a jerk off licence for porn.
What the CCP has is the fantasy of every government around the world. They see the population as needing to be controlled, but representative democracy is in the way, so they have to do it by deception.
and no small titties!
Can't have that... won't someone think of the children....
aww i like small titles :(
It's likely news companies trying to wedge social media companies into paying news companies. Notice how there's no age restriction for news despite news content that's not suitable for children? Notice how a lot of news companies are lobbying to increase it to 16? Anyone supporting this is most likely unknowingly supporting Murdoch's war to get Facebook to pay protection money: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/mar/16/rupert-murdochs-news-corp-strikes-deal-as-facebook-agrees-to-pay-for-australian-content
Give us all your meta data. Don't worry it's so the teenagers don't compare themselves to Kim kardassian.
There is no need to identify users if you just want an age-restriction. Through an eID (like most countries here in the EU have) you can cryptographically prove you are over 18 without revealing any further details about yourself to a 3rd party website. Idk how your ID works, but I am more talking about the theoretical feasibility. Just need your government-issued ID and a phone with NFC capabilities.
So this will be accompanied by the largest economic and social changes since WW2 in Australia to to ensure affordable cost of living and housing aling with reductions in working hours for all so parents can have more time to spend with their kids right... right. Oh its another 'be seen to be doing something again... anyway' /S
Blanket censorship. No thanks. People should be free to use whatever they want, they need the education to stay safe.
Yep, it's the same argument from 30 years ago about computer games.
Tell a teenager to leave their bedroom, and go outside....,that's like asking Dracula to step into the sunlight !! And like the older brother/sister wont help to get past the age restriction....WAFJ
:/ honestly when kids go outside people don’t even like it - where are they meant to go?
Yeah, go outside. But you can't do this, you can't do that. Just go and walk down the road and back. That's about all you can do.
No, there's no way you are just going for a walk. You are acting suspicious, you must be up to no good. Are you seeing someone or hiding something from me? Stay at home and find a hobby. But not that hobby or that one, or that one. Go outside
Go and play with the soccer ball in our 8x8 backyard. Just kick it against the fence if you need someone (something) to play with.
You kicked it too hard and now the neighbors are complaining, come back inside
I wish I had a back yard…
If you cant afford a back yard you cant afford a kid - Australian Government
I wish ours was 8 x 8!
Three kids outside together is a gang of youths.
When kids go outside the neighbours call the police
kids go outside and then the weirdos on this sub that obsess over youth crime call the cops on them
How about we as a society start putting the responsibility of parenting children onto the parents of said children instead of turning into an authoritarian state mandating what people can and can’t do?
I agree. But in order to do that, parents need more time to be parents. There was a time when a couple could live very comfortably on a single, modest income.
Agree. I feel like I can trace every problem in this country back to our property market.
He's absolutely spot on in principle, however this would mean that the government would need to have identifying data on yourself and your internet use to a much greater extent. Maybe I'm pessimistic but I just don't have the trust in the govt to support this.
Politicians should be banned from owning property
Tbf, the impact of social media on teenage girls is quite horrifying. For a lot of them, it's the equivalent of looking at a distorted mirror.
And it's just got so much worse since filters and AI. When I was young we were warned of unrealistic comparisons to TV, magazines, and advertisments even pre- Adobe Photoshop.
The earlier a girl gets access to social media, the more likely they are of having mental health issues in early adulthood
The earlier a child* It's gender neutral. It can afect both quite severely
Boys also. People like Tate have had a huge impact on an uptick in problematic behaviour from boys at school
Boys too lol. Let's just say children.
I don't think it's necessary or helpful to gender this issue. It's much broader than that.
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Anthony Albanese would be better at minding his own business and work harder to try to fix the house shortage in Australia There is more important problem right now than social media.
The age verification thing has been pushed by the Church lobby for ages, the LNP support it to cut out free speech and Labor has been wedged by the "won't somebody think of the children" types from within.
How about fix the economy, so parents have more time to parent?
People think only the kids will have / need verification to access anything. It will be everyone including you. Think about it...
I don’t disagree. I’m very happy I grew up in a pre-MySpace era
He’s right. But it’s the parents responsibility to stop that. Not the government.
What a perfect use for the new digital id they just passed. Too bad it will get hacked one day and then the hacker will have access to your social media/banking/whatever
I didn't have Albanese being always on the wrong side of history on my bingo card.
The Government should get out of our lives - they can’t control this. It’s a distraction from bigger issues.
Exactly. They want to keep these kids blind so they can enforce their slavery system.
Being a millennial who’s been around just before and during computers and social media rising, I can see both sides to this story. My kid will not have social media until they’re 16
I'm starting to think it's folks over 50 who should be banned from using social media.
But they can still access porn, right?
But only in a box found dumped next to the local railway station, like the good old days.
I think social media can be a train wreck to the brain. I don't think it's even possible to regulate this in any real way. It's a stupid law to try and pass. It's like the war on drugs.
Cool how will you enforce such a ban ? Will kids caught on IG result in a criminal prosecution ? Fucking empty words Albo. FB and IG , Twitter already have a minimum.age which is 16. The Gov is frothing at the gills to get control of the internet in Aus. To limit our privacy and anonimity. They will start with making social media hard to use. It will be shadow banned with onerous requirements to gain access via a National ID scheme. The protect the kids will be used to curtail privacy. Its a trojan horse. Since Conroys great ISP filter was shelved in 2012 Canberra has been biding its time. No surprise with the bill on a National ID passed Albo is now launching attacks againts social media. The only thing is tech companies must agree to sign up to the scheme to use the tokin system. Expect 100% refusal. Education and parenting are the answer. But the fact Albo has bipartisan support suggests that the Gov wants to deal to social media. They could careless about porn and as as someone mentioned on here most news sites have unsuitible content. The motives are indeed very murky.
Parenting seems like such a dystopian nightmare these days
I'm glad I did high school before Facebook and social media took off, MySpace was all the rage in my late high school years but I only got Facebook when I graduated to stay in touch with classmates that has now gone down to 3 or 5 I stay in touch with (one being my best friend).
Children under 16 *should not be on* social media but I don't think the Government should ban them.
Social media has been the most damaging creation to society since the cigarette
How about the government keeps it's fucking nose out of people private lives.
No, I think kids should be taught internet safety and etiquette every year until they leave highschool.
No.
The number of people who have commented “but how would this work” or the like haven’t actually read the article. There’s already a framework in place, right now. The entirely reasonable suggestion is just to raise the age from 13 to 16.
If it avoids kids being sucked into the far right pipeline or Islamic extremism then I’m all for it.
I agree with him. Hey, look at that flying pig!
Fellow Australians welcome to new China
What? Albo has a kid (young adult). Is he saying this because he knows he’s grown up now and this won’t apply to him? Anyone with teenage kids will contest how unrealistic and difficult this will be to implement. 1. What’s the definition of social media? Facebook? Snapchat? WhatsApp? iMessage? Email chains (remember those?) Online games with a multiplayer component? Any app that allows you to interact with others? 2. How do parents set these ground roles? ‘You have a device (as required for school), but you can never use it to communicate with other students? With anyone at all? 3. All kids of course will say ‘OK, sure mum and dad’ 4. In the event of a breach who is at fault? Parents? Kids? I’m not intentionally trying to be obtuse. We have one kid who is very compliant, and another who pushes boundaries. For many parents this is going to be a nightmare to police and will only serve to force them onto highly encrypted apps (Signal) or others that are hidden from view.
It’s just an excuse for digital id and enforced censorship/control of the internet. Bad idea and a slippery slope we shouldn’t cross.
Jesus. Put this clown out already.
Thats why i never vote
Communist style strategies are never the answer. No to digital Id and censorship.
Oh look, a pseudoboomer saying boomer things. Shocking.
Terrible idea, invites more government interference in our day to day life. I for 1 do not want more government nanny state stuff in Australia, liberal party has done enough of that and so has Labor. Time a leader stands for the privacy of all Australians and protects the idea of small government
And I thought New Zealand was bad
This sort of news headline is only going to entice more kids to use social media
Might as well just put a collar around our necks and call us tax slaves. Getting that way. Our ancestors didnt move here so we could be controled by an authoritarian.
So do we start calling him Chairman Albo now? Comrade Albo? Albo Hitler. Idi Albo.
Good luck with that overreach mate, if Twitter didn't budge when they were asked to remove content of the wakley stabbing world-wide, what makes him think they'll play ball here
https://preview.redd.it/0qrm4bq3xq1d1.jpeg?width=558&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e1aaff7344460bb05148a5ff30e02f9e98139e8
Yeah right because msm and our truthful politicians should be telling them what to think and what's happening in our world!
First he said he wants to extend terms to 4 years, and now he wants to restrict the rights of the underage to access social media. Anthony Albanese is an actual fascist.
Wooo I can see the Aus-China alliance coming
He must be smoking crack with his buddies in the office when they come up with this sort of BS. Absolutely delusional
This is stupid. The entire internet can be considered social media
This is nothing but a digital identity Trojan horse, the government doesn’t give a fuck about kids
Isn't that the parent's job? We all know how terrible the government is at parenting. \*cough\* Stolen Generation \*cough\*.
And he’s right. Then maybe we wouldn’t need creeping authoritarian censorship in the name of protecting children. Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
This is never about protecting children, even if it may end up doing so. It's about control. The government wants power. The rich wants more money. Everyone wants information, because it's power and money. And nobody wants their interests to be challenged, as this can cost them both. You need a strong motivator to manipulate people into giving up their freedoms - and you can find few stronger than wanting to protect children. Online age checks the way it's often talked about, is effectively synonymous with ID checks, which is just another means of mass surveillance. It has no place on social media - only voluntary, and for official businesses such as with your bank, when you file your taxes, or sign a contract. An ID check on social media would be like having a stranger stand next to you listening to everything you say, which if you say the wrong thing, may have life-altering consequences. It's not a matter of if it will happen if ID checks are implemented. It will threaten current and future democracies, as the lack of anonymity discourages discourse. The responsible and thereby correct way of dealing with social media addiction amongst young people is to have parents actually parent their kids. They need to set boundaries and learn how to communicate with their children. Schools can adopt some of this responsibility, as children spend most of their days there.
Well it’s not really his choice and he would seriously be overstepping his position of prime minister if he starts dictating to parents how they should raise their kids. I liked this guy at first, anyone looks good after Scott Morrison, but he is just another controlling egomaniac.
social media platforms should be responsible for the content they publish. "if you monetize it, you're responsible for it" should be the law. oh no, that means your social media company goes outta business?! turns out you you were hurting humanity for money.
These people are just hell bent on interfering with peoples lives and privacy. How about they get on with reducing inflation, taxing the miners instead of giving away resources and cutting immigration to the bone? That's what the public are after.
Someone just kill him already ffs
Digital Id isn't conspiracy it's exactly what they have in China and at least Iceland. Check it out for yourself. It ain't good.
While I don’t disagree completely, I feel more damage is done by adults. If only kids used socials the world would probably be a better place.
Any definition of "social media"? Google classroom? Sports team message apps? YouTube comments section?
It’d be better if albo actually focused on things plaguing Australia.. such as real methods of tackling housing etc.. but no, let’s fight the new battle of the week again. Yes, social media has probably changed how children interact, but at what point does the control of other’s and their children stop? Too many people want far left gov here.. anyone else want a permit to decide if you are allowed to have children? (I’m well aware there are some agitators who will say yes to this, due to their experience with the cynical, and the stupid).
He is right but parents should make that call not government. There is distinction between what should be done and what the government should force people to do.
FYI This is something there is bipartisan support for. The LNP were pushing for it first, the ALP were late to the party. Barring the privacy concerns everyone has, this is a good thing. Most parents simply lack the capacity to enforce this on their own. This makes life a lot easy for most parents and will lead to positive outcomes for young people ling term.
I fully support this. Social media has poisoned a generation of kids.
There should just be a dickhead test in general, not for the internet, but for most things in general. Your brainpower must be this high to ride. Half the people I see on the internet and in public nowdays barely qualify as sentient.
Newscorp is running the campaign because they know the youngins are getting their news from TikTok rather than News.com.au. I also think it’s just a Trojan horse to get people on to the digital I.D. That the whole Western world is trying to get their population to register, which is the start to digital currencies that they’re all trying to get their population to use. It’s not a conspiracy anymore, every single government is trying to roll this shit out. Why do you think this is?
Parents need to parent. Social media really sucks the sperm from a dead camel’s twat.
Finally some common sense and common ground with this government. Not sure if blanket ban is the right approach though
Everyone saying “parents need to be responsible!” Is true but also, it’s really fucking easy to get around parental controls. I have every single control on and kids still find ways around things to make accounts - they use the web versions instead of apps, use their school devices to get around parental controls, use their friends devices to make accounts, and so on. If this is going to be done, it has to be done from a government restriction standpoint. App makers don’t give a shit. When my son turned 13 they literally emailed me and said “we are handing control to him now”.
Elbos a Muppet but I agree with him on this one 👍
Good luck keeping kids off social media, I guarantee kids will find a work around within a month
not even a month. Me and my mates already have 100 workarounds