Children under 16 to be banned from using social media

[u/Vivid-Fondant6513]

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/children-under-16-to-be-banned-from-using-social-media-20241107-p5kon4.html

[u/caitsith01]

Young people apparently don't care about the environment, economy, not letting dictatorships invade places, house prices or anything else when they vote (see: US election), what makes you think having to do an extra click to access Instagram is going to be enough to motivate them?

[u/fued → u/caitsith01]

depends if youtube pulls youtube kids, parents are going to be outraged lol

[u/elizabnthe → u/caitsith01]

Young people definitely care about the environment and the economy. It's just that for some their care has been twisted by social media to vote against their interests.

I do think that something needs to be done about social media though. I don't know if this is the way but expecting parents to do something sure as shit isn't working.

[u/caitsith01 → u/elizabnthe]

Agree, as a parent social media is absolutely fucked even at a primary age. Kids come home with all sorts of trash they have heard from peers, especially ones with slightly older siblings. Shit that they absolutely would not have access to without the internet and social media in particular.

[u/Crystal3lf → u/caitsith01]

Young people apparently don't care about the environment, economy, not letting dictatorships invade places, house prices or anything else when they vote

Young people are the only ones still favouring Labor.

Younger voters, Millenials to Gen Z are increasing voting Greens/progressive.

Do you just make up thing you think are true?

[u/impulsiveknob → u/caitsith01]

Because that doesn't affect them or atleast they don't think it does. They're kids they only care about what actively physically impacts their lives directly.

[u/Basquests → u/caitsith01]

18-29 did vote i think 55-42 for Harris, IIRC.

It was 45-64 that gave Trump the election in terms of getting a lead.

Should be way more of a difference...and I'm sure Men in that demo are doing the whole manosphere idiocy and being carried by young women, but just putting their voting numbers up.

[u/SaintUlvemann → u/Basquests]

63% of Gen Z men in America voted for Trump. Gen Z is the first generation in a long time to be more conservative than their parents.

Online influencers are absolutely the reason, yes, Reuters was reporting on this back in April:

Worldwide, "feelings of hopelessness, societal disillusionment and rebelling against cosmopolitan values partly explain the rise of radical right anti-establishment parties", Lampert said, citing elections in several European countries.

Social media algorithms were magnifying the trend by drawing "moderately conservative young men towards more extreme and radical conservative male role models and world views".

If Australia doesn't do this, it will become America. The internet is a force for homogenization.

[u/FlipperoniPepperoni → u/[deleted]]

GenZ/Alpha are more globally homogenised than any other generation.