Privacy News Australia to Ban Social Media for Children Under Age 16

[enaph]

Content source

https://archive.is/WXXmj#selection-1637.0-1681.331

Children in Australia under the age of 16 will be banned from social media as part of a push to protect young people’s mental health, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, with firms involved required to enforce the new regulations or face potential fines.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Thursday, pledging to introduce legislation later this month. “The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access. The onus won’t be on parents or young people. There’ll be no penalties for users.”

The long-anticipated age limits for social media are part of a suite of measures from Albanese’s center-left Labor government to crack down on technology giants, which the prime minister blames for a surge in misinformation and mental health problems.
Australia has a history of taking on large technology companies that run social media sites, including a push in 2021 to make Facebookand Google pay for news content. More recently, the government took Elon Musk’s X Corp. to court over a failure to remove a video of a terrorist attack in Sydney.
Labor is also weighing new legislation to force social media sites to crack down on misinformation and disinformation on their platforms.
The government said it had consulted with social media companies on the age limits “through a variety of means.” However, officials did not specify which services the changes would apply to, whether they had received assurances that a ban could be put into effect or what the potential size of the penalties for companies could be.

 

[marg]

When the Government fears the people... Look Out.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

Good. Social media probably causes more harm then good and younger minds get influenced way too easily.

 

[Cleo]

This will be ineffective at protecting younger people as that is not its purpose. It is purely to smuggle significant government powers into operation. To quote a Grok prompt and answer:

What are the concerns about Australia's new proposed internet laws?
Answer
The concerns about Australia's new proposed internet laws, particularly those related to internet regulation and online content, include:

1. Freedom of Speech:
   • There's significant worry that these laws could infringe upon freedom of speech. Critics argue that the broad definitions of "misinformation" or "harmful content" might lead to censorship of legitimate debate, scientific dissent, or critical journalism. This could mean that any content authorities deem as misinformation could be censored, potentially stifling diverse opinions and free expression.
2. Overreach of Government Powers:
   • The legislation grants expansive powers to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), allowing them to demand content removal or even impose blocks on social media platforms. This has raised alarms about government overreach, with critics pointing out that these powers could be used to control public discourse or suppress dissenting voices under the guise of combating misinformation or harmful content.
3. Impact on Journalism and Content Creators:
   • There's concern over how these laws might affect journalists and content creators. For instance, the differentiation between "professional news content" (which is exempt) and other forms of content might lead to a chilling effect on independent journalism or content that challenges official narratives. This has been highlighted as potentially creating an uneven playing field.
4. Privacy Concerns:
   • The introduction of proactive content monitoring, especially in private communications, is viewed as a significant privacy violation. Technologies like digital "fingerprinting" for content detection could be misused or overly broad, capturing content that isn't harmful but is misinterpreted by automated systems.
5. Technological and Economic Impacts:
   • Critics argue that mandatory filtering or content removal could degrade internet performance, affect the quality of service for users, and place undue financial and operational burdens on smaller tech companies or ISPs. This might lead to a tech environment where only large entities with resources to comply with such regulations can thrive.
6. Digital ID and Surveillance:
   • There are discussions around implementing a Digital ID system, which some see as a step towards increased surveillance. This could potentially be linked with content regulation, where access to certain platforms or the internet itself might be tied to identity verification, raising significant privacy and freedom concerns.
7. International Precedent:
   • The global tech community has expressed worry that laws like these set a precedent that could influence internet governance worldwide, potentially encouraging other countries to adopt similar restrictive policies, which might not respect the internet's open and global nature.
8. Lack of Public Consultation:
   • The speed at which some of these laws have been pushed through with minimal public or expert consultation has been criticized, leaving stakeholders feeling that their voices are not adequately considered in the legislative process.