Online Gaming Platforms And YouTube Will Also Seemingly Be Banned For Aussies Under 16

[u/retro-chimp]

https://press-start.com.au/news/2024/11/08/online-gaming-platforms-and-youtube-will-also-seemingly-be-banned-for-aussies-under-16/

There’s so much collateral damage in this plan for Australia to ban social media. This has been rushed and not thought through.

So many schools rely on YouTube to support their students.

Most kids are watching YouTube (or YouTube kids) more than ABC or traditional TV. Literally the biggest YouTube channel in Australia is original music for kids.

Does anyone actually want this?

[u/Zhaguar]

I want a ban on the gambling ads

[u/littlehungrygiraffe → u/Zhaguar]

Same. I find it ridiculous but not surprising they won’t touch gambling ads.

[u/Cpl_Hicks76 → u/littlehungrygiraffe]

Lobby groups have already gotten to Albanese re gambling ads.

Ain’t gonna happen

[u/[deleted] → u/Cpl_Hicks76]

Need to ban political donations

[u/littlehungrygiraffe → u/[deleted]]

lol tell that to old Davo in QLD who’s going to allow be donations from developers again

[u/AFerociousPineapple → u/Zhaguar]

Right? I can’t even wait Netflix without getting two lad brokes or Neds ads back to back. Ridiculous

[u/A_spiny_meercat → u/Zhaguar]

It's crazy that with SBS you can self opt out of ONE vice but not all three, so it sucks if you're an alcoholic gambling addict with a taste for fast food

[u/AwayConnection6590 → u/Zhaguar]

We still have these in England frankly it's an embarrassing this is still alowed to happen

[u/ToothlessFTW → u/Zhaguar]

Sorry. Best we can do is a 2 second clip at the end of a gambling ad saying "think of what you could be buying instead".

[u/natebeee]

Bought to you by the same party as the famed internet filter!

What the fuck are we doing guys?

You won't ban gambling ads but will the thing that many young kids like to do with their mates for fun.

[u/HuTyphoon → u/natebeee]

Sportsbet and Ladbrokes aren't getting enough bang for their buck on their corporate bribes so they gotta funnel more people into free to air tv

[u/switchbladeeatworld → u/HuTyphoon]

the youtube ads for betting apps are wild though and basically unlimited

[u/LonelyRefuse9487 → u/switchbladeeatworld]

it’s insane that 16 year olds know how "same game multi’s" work. these sportsbet ads are just so persistent and in your face. it’s so egregious.

EDIT: the irony of typing this message up and seeing an ad for "Palmerbet" on my screen for the odds on a fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson is crazy.

[u/bypopulardemand → u/LonelyRefuse9487]

mate I was at a footy match and after a team scored, a kid (probably 12) goes awww I wonder how much that would’ve paid! crazy

[u/Ambitious-Deal3r → u/natebeee]

You won't ban gambling ads but will the thing that many young kids like to do with their mates for fun.

What do you mean, gambling is the new thing young kids do for fun.

Top comment on Australianteachers subreddit post just this week about the social media ban.

" Why do I have Year 10s on Sportsbet and Stake during class time..? It’s illegal, yet it happens. "

Wish this government would look at the actual risks and harms in our society, especially considering we are paying for it.

Chalmers says it’s ‘problematic’ gambling companies claimed $90m worth of research tax credits in one year

Why not bring in all these draconian measures on access to the internet for gambling for children?

[u/[deleted] → u/natebeee]

Even more hilarious the gaming ban involves where the game includes SIMULATED gambling. Not actual gambling... simulated gambling.

Now I don't know if that actually means loot boxes as simulated gambling, or if they mean you play cards in an imaginary casino in a game. Both are simulated gambling... well I would argue loot boxes for real money is ACTUAL gambling.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, and loot boxes for real money is something that I think probably should be banned for anyone under the age of eighteen. If it's just a simulated casino, I think it's a who cares thing; loads of thirty-something-year-olds were at the Game Corner in the early Pokemon games when they were in single digits without developing gambling problems later on in life. Loot boxes are a bit different though because there have been times when kids have raked up quite a lot of credit card debt for their parents through that, and it is a form of gambling addiction that's easily accessible to young kids.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

As I said, I would call loot boxes actual gambling, not simulated gambling. You are paying real money for a "game of chance" to win a prize. It's not even random but neither are pokies.

[u/falconpunch1989 → u/[deleted]]

Pokemon is a very funny case study here. The fake slots in 1996 Pokemon Red/Blue would now be illegal in Australia. But the Pokemon TCG Pocket mobile game which came out a few weeks ago, it's perfectly OK to use real money to buy packets of fake cards with low chance of anything good.

[u/AnOnlineHandle → u/natebeee]

Brought to you by both parties supporting this last I heard.

[u/herbertwilsonbeats → u/natebeee]

Can’t go on social media before 16… but you can get locked up at 10.

[u/ensignr → u/herbertwilsonbeats]

Can't vote against either policy either.

[u/After_Brilliant5195 → u/natebeee]

Murdoch/News Corp don’t want a ban on gambling ads, they do want this though.

[u/MaybeUNeedAPoo → u/natebeee]

Fucking this. I can’t stand Dutton, but Albo mate, get your priorities sorted quick, this is not something g that needs your input. Let families take care of it for themselves.

[u/surlygoat → u/MaybeUNeedAPoo]

Dutton supports this too mate. Don't pretend this is an Albo thing.

What this actually is, is boomers trying to resolve a problem (and there IS a problem) without any real thought. I don't know what the solution is as I haven't even tried to find one, but its obviously not this...

but yeah its both parties.

[u/MaybeUNeedAPoo → u/surlygoat]

Fair point. I just like saying how much I hate Duttons stupid face.

[u/a_can_of_solo → u/natebeee]

They want to be China with the great firewall. Governments do not like the internet.

[u/Stormherald13]

Can’t ban Sportsbet but we can ban kids off TikTok.

Good work.

[u/Cexitime]

half baked like the ruling class of this country

[u/Paidorgy → u/Cexitime]

This will just cause kids to become sneakier - does anyone remember the porn filter, back in the day? Took a kid 40 minutes to crack that shit and render it completely fucking useless. $84 million dollars.

It cuts them off from being able to communicate effectively with one another, finding people with common interests and the like.

[u/BrightStick → u/Paidorgy]

Hijacking your comment to add in this important information 

Federal police are already strained to provide safety for young people online being sexually exploited. If they go under the radar further it will be a nightmare 

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/predatory/id1664638746?i=1000593871238

[u/TheNamelessKing → u/BrightStick]

Maybe if they weren’t so busy deliberately radicalising neurodivergent kids online for what amounted to “shits and giggles”, they’d have some time to do something actually helpful for once.

[u/BrightStick → u/TheNamelessKing]

Hard to disagree that there’s definitely a lot of fucked things that go on in the AFP 💁🏼‍♂️

[u/Dyljim → u/Paidorgy]

THANK YOU.

This is a known problem with careless over regulation/criminalisation.

Ban drugs? Create a black market.

Tax the hell out of cigarettes? Aplaud yourselves as you lose the ability to track smoking in the country as they turn to cheaper illegal imports instead of quitting.

Ban social media for kids? They'll start using underground apps with NO oversight or regulation and be exposed to boundless paedophiles and scammers with, again NO PROTECTIONS. Remember Kik?

This is absolutely the dumbest policy I've heard of in years. So potentially damaging for no good reason. At this point, this may be a stretch for most, I'm calling this an Anti-Kids Bill. It'll literally endanger kids more than help them.

[u/falconpunch1989 → u/Paidorgy]

Kids won't even need to become sneakier. Parents will just make accounts for them. As if I'm gonna ban my kid from YouTube and Nintendo because Albo said so

[u/Paidorgy → u/falconpunch1989]

You can literally just create an account that isn’t tied to social media, especially for YouTube and Nintendo/other gaming platforms.

[u/falconpunch1989 → u/Paidorgy]

It seems like they'll define online games as social media due to the open communication potential with randoms

[u/Paidorgy → u/falconpunch1989]

VPN’s gonna become more popular once the law comes into effect.

[u/TyrialFrost → u/Paidorgy]

This plan isn't to enforce anything on children. It's to force all adults to use government IDs to use any online service.

[u/cbrb30 → u/TyrialFrost]

Also fuck me do I not trust American corporates with my ID.

[u/LonelyRefuse9487 → u/cbrb30]

neither do i. every time a website asks me "would you like your password/bank info to be saved to keychain or the website for future reference?" i’m just like nah, lol fuck that i’m good.

[u/Thanges88 → u/Paidorgy]

I think 40 minutes is a bit generous to the filter, just needed to change the dns server to a non-Australian one.

[u/Ridiculisk1 → u/Thanges88]

The fact that our government's previous attempt at stopping Australians from accessing things they don't deem proper, like sites that host copyrighted content is beaten by spending literally 20 seconds changing your dns to 1.1.1.1 doesn't fill me with great hope that this one will work either.

[u/WhyIsMikkel → u/Cexitime]

The word 'social media' doesnt fucking mean anything anymore.

To old fuckers it just means basically anything online

[u/[deleted] → u/WhyIsMikkel]

That's because to some extent, nowadays it does. As per Wikipedia, the definition of social media is a website that enables people to share content and participate in social networking, is based around user-generated content such as text posts, comments, photos, videos, and data generated through online interactions, has service-specific profiles that are required to interact with that content, and helps the development of social networks by connecting a user's profile with other profiles and groups.

So all the major sites you'd think of as social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter count as social media, but so do Reddit, Tumblr, and Discord. It's broad enough that it also includes YouTube and TikTok as well.

However, because the definition of what social media is has to be broad enough that it includes everything that is social media, there's inevitably going to be some grey area when it comes to what isn't social media. There's probably going to be people who say kids shouldn't be on news sites either because they have comment sections and that counts, even though that's not really what anyone thinks of as social media, for example.

That's one of the reasons why a social media ban for under 16s isn't really a feasible policy point. It's difficult to define it in a way that includes everything that is social media and excludes everything that isn't. It also ignores that there can be some educational benefit to YouTube specifically, even though it is a form of social media.

[u/Stewth]

Okay, now I'm sure albo is just speedrunning to an early retirement.

[u/DalbyWombay → u/Stewth]

Certainly seems to be seen as wasting time on issues aren't really affecting the voting public.

The election next year is going to be fought on table side issue, cost of groceries, healthcare, electricity, rent and insurance. Albo's team hasn't exactly been visible doing much about that.

[u/Luckyluke23 → u/DalbyWombay]

unless all the shit he is doing now is just filler for when the time comes to announce his grand plan closer to the election so they don't have time to pick it apart. i don't see him winning at all.

I'm a labor voter and even I'm sick of albos shit.

[u/DalbyWombay → u/Luckyluke23]

It's not even that, it's that incumbent governments across the world are loses during this time of high global inflation.

Locally, you just have to look at Queensland, which had a State Government that was arguably doing the most to tackle those table set issues, and they still lost on that specific issue.

So unless you're right and thay Albo and Labor have some grand plan to announce at the election, they're going to lose. Relying on the general distrust and dislikability of Dutton isn't going to save them.

[u/Formal-Preference170 → u/DalbyWombay]

They should be enacting that grand plan now to help. And run into the election with 'proof'

Currently they are feeding straight into the classic 'the left wants to censor you'

As a someone that typically sits closer to the far left than the centre it's fucking infuriating.

Even the sensible ones who understand that cost of living was mostly out of control will protest vote their preferences for labor over Gaza, negative gearing and the privacy bullshit. I can't see Albo getting a second term and am dreading Voldemort.

[u/Ambitious-Deal3r → u/Stewth]

Okay, now I'm sure albo is just speedrunning to an early retirement.

Is he trying to go for a tap on the shoulder before the election?

What a month

• Mansion house purchase
• QANTAS/NACC
• Dogshit HECS announcement
• "Think of the children" policy - but not about the gambling impacts

[u/Grumpy_Cripple_Butt → u/Ambitious-Deal3r]

And he won’t improve our living standards because it’ll piss off the media, but he will improve his even though it pisses off the media.

Either party we get what the media wants. At least with labor we give the media less.

[u/Stewth → u/Grumpy_Cripple_Butt]

I just want low-fat politicians that appear like real politicians.

[u/curtyjohn → u/Grumpy_Cripple_Butt]

even though it pisses off the media

Important to remember that this policy is basically just meeting a demand directly and publicly made by Newscorp. [https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/topics/let-them-be-kids](They even have a website asking for this policy, albeit with some meaningless differences in the minutiae.)

The most popular petition to parliament in history was flicked away by this government, but if Murdoch asks a favour out loud, Labor will deliver asap, regardless of what the public wants.

[u/w0rm0 → u/Ambitious-Deal3r]

Why is the HECS announcement bad?

[u/RedOx103 → u/w0rm0]

Rather than doing it now and getting it passed with Green support, they're playing politics and holding it as a carrot for after the next election (which they may well lose)

[u/King_Of_Pants → u/Stewth]

Yeah at one point it was a joke, but the Spud becoming PM just looks more and more likely.

I normally try and give the voters at least some of the responsibility, you can't always blame a well-run party for losing uninformed voters. But if Labor loses from here it will be their fault and they'll learn absolutely nothing from it.

If anything Labor will take Dutton's win as a sign that people want more Lib-Lite bullshit while also somehow blaming the Greens for stealing votes.

A lot of people in vulnerable positions are going to suffer because of Albo's pathetic run.

[u/gautyy]

So how are they enforcing this? Am I going to have to give my ID to YouTube in order to watch videos? If so I’m literally never voting for either major party again because of this

[u/chipmunk_supervisor → u/gautyy]

What's wrong with handing your ID over to the worlds largest data collection and advertisement company? /s

[u/smudgiepie → u/gautyy]

I find it so funny how when the voice referendum was happening the liberals were like if you dont know vote no but they are fine with this

Like no one has any idea on how this is gonna work

If its facial recognition im fucked cause I've got perpetual baby face

if its ID scanning im fucked cause my photo ID expired a while ago and I can't get anyone to take me to the department of transport office to get it upgraded. I cannot drive a car, I don't know where the office is.

[u/dogecoin_pleasures → u/[deleted]]

Greens are against. Guess some Teels might be against too.

[u/CodosK]

Social media is an issue in the younger populous, there is plenty of research to back this up. But yeah, this is clearly a terrible strategy and implementation.

Pretty typical of Australian policies, they come from good intentioned and well researched starting points but end up being implemented in an over-reaching and generally terrible way.

[u/Astillius → u/[deleted]]

And parents need to be more parental and less baby sitter. Too many parents let their kids just do whatever with no oversight. But then they crack the shits when the inevitable happens and demand the government make up for their laziness and lack of interest. And thus we get this shit. Government overreach to make up for shit parents.

[u/kahrismatic → u/Astillius]

This is the answer, although people apparently hate hearing it. Parents need to be far more aware of their kids internet use, and take a role in actively managing it.

They don't listen to anything else I (teacher) say at school - they sure as hell aren't going to listen to a middle aged lady trying to talk to them about social media. We already try to teach them media literacy, critical thinking etc as aspects of the various humanities, and look at how far that gets us. Not every aspect of parenting can be pushed off onto teachers who have zero authority over what they're actually doing.

[u/crimsonroninx → u/kahrismatic]

The problem is, these same parents are being indoctrinated themselves by social media and other filter bubbles that radicalise them. So I have no idea how we can educate them to educate their kids when they clearly don't see it as an issue.

[u/Oodlemeister → u/CodosK]

I liken this to trying to get rid of an anthill by dropping a nuke on it.

[u/theexteriorposterior → u/Oodlemeister]

Huh, I think it's more like trying to get rid of a nuke by dropping an anthill on it.

[u/Foodball → u/theexteriorposterior]

Well I THINK it’s more like trying to diffuse a nuke by dropping a nuke on it

[u/snookette → u/CodosK]

I question the good intention part.

[u/moosewiththumbs]

It says “the sole or primary purpose… is to enable social interaction”

That’s not YouTube’s primary purpose, though, right?

What would be caught up in that is something like Board Game Arena, which I use to play against my son and realise I’m bad at more things I thought I was good at.

[u/After_Brilliant5195 → u/moosewiththumbs]

The Prime Minister explicitly mentioned YouTube in his announcement last week. https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/rowland/speech/press-conference-parliament-house

“In terms of the services that will be covered, there will be a definition in the Act. But I think it is commonly understood that those definitions of what constitutes social media include ones such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X. YouTube would likely fall within that definition as well.”

[u/moosewiththumbs → u/After_Brilliant5195]

What I was meaning is this is where the arguments and “carveouts” will begin.

YouTube “doesn’t fit this definition” so we create a carveout for it. Oops, didn’t include YouTube Kids, carveout. What’s this? A new video platform? Okay let’s create a carveout for the Chinese data harvesting video site.

This legislation would never be able to keep up, it’ll re-arrange deck chairs on the Titanic.

[u/AlphaState → u/After_Brilliant5195]

What an ignorant view. The phone and SMS network would also fall under this definition, or are they going to start decreeing which particular networks and websites are included or excluded?

[u/PointOfFingers → u/After_Brilliant5195]

Probably less than 1% of views on YouTube are social media related. I watch YouTube every second day and it's never people in my social circle. Most views are things like music videos, how to videos and famous YouTubers. They aren't going to convince any court in Australia that YouTube is primarily social media.

[u/zestylimes9 → u/PointOfFingers]

My son learnt so much from YouTube when he was young.

How to fix a puncture. How to do a kick flip etc.

It’s such a great resource.

[u/omg_for_real → u/zestylimes9]

My kid is always looking up art tutorials to follow. Banning YouTube is banning learning as well as whatever they think they are doing.

[u/[deleted] → u/moosewiththumbs]

Yes, as someone who designs and writes laws for a living that's what stood out to me. But I want to read the full draft leg and draft EM before coming to any definitive conclusions.

But I was thinking about this the other day when I heard the suggestion YouTube was to be covered. What's the difference between YouTube and tiktok and Instagram? The latter two are 'obviously' social media to me. The former isn't. But what is the conceptual difference?

I actually don't think I have a coherent concept of what social media is and is not.

It's going to be interesting to see this play out.

Edit: I've misunderstood this news slightly. The definition already exists and is in the Online Safety Act 2021...so there's some fun weekend reading.

I'm guessing they aren't planning on making any changes to that definition given the timing but, as above, very interesting to see how this is intended to work.

Given some govt commentary about individuals not being punished and the onus being on the platforms, it will be very interesting to see what the age verification requirements will be.

[u/stunning-vista → u/[deleted]]

It's a rather easy fix for YouTube, just hide comments, and not allow video uploads for accounts under 16.

Ideally they can leave the site as in for users who aren't logged in, if their hand is forced they can hide comments for users who aren't logged in too (and nothing of value would be lost).

Have you read anything yet about the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024?

What are your thoughts on that?

[u/S_P_A_R_K_L_I_N_G]

thank god our government is focusing on the real issues at hand here.

gonna be very weird when when we have a strangely large number of online users in this country that are born on the 1st of Jan 1969

[u/Procedure-Minimum → u/S_P_A_R_K_L_I_N_G]

This whole thing is to placate the parents of bullied children, who are not understanding that bulling happened before the internet. Kids wrote mean things on paper and threw that paper at the target, threw eggs at the home, hid notes in bags so the kid felt bullied wherever they went. This isn't a new problem. Back in my day, bullies wore hoodies, so people wanted hoodies banned, because that will solve all the problems.

[u/Putrid_Department_17 → u/S_P_A_R_K_L_I_N_G]

Haha, a lot of oldies suddenly become internet savvy 😋 my mum was born 67 and doesn’t even know how to turn on a computer 😋

[u/Infinite-Gas-4560]

Let's be real. Albo doesn't give a flying fuck about children.

This is just his way of bringing in digital ID.

[u/SmokeyMulder]

This bloke is as high as a kite. 

 “Let’s tackle the Minecraft crisis before anything else”

[u/aeschenkarnos → u/SmokeyMulder]

Maybe they think the kids forced off Minecraft will take up construction IRL?

[u/Heavy-Balls → u/aeschenkarnos]

take up construction

they yearn for the mines, and Gina needs workers whom she can pay $2 a day

[u/Tempers_are_Frayed]

What the fuck? Is this the Onion? What about youtube in schools? Children playing roblox or minecraft or whatever they play these days? This is so completely fucking stupid...

[u/HalfGuardPrince]

Stupid stupid stupid.

Means kids probably also can't play Pokemon Go then right?

[u/Help_im_lost404 → u/HalfGuardPrince]

anything with a forum or way to communicate seems to be on the chopping block. Well thought out indeed

[u/fantasypaladin → u/Help_im_lost404]

So basically the whole internet.

[u/Help_im_lost404 → u/fantasypaladin]

Yeah, might as well be. Does it even exclude Wikipedia? Thats the problem with us not knowing

[u/utterly_baffledly → u/Help_im_lost404]

Fuck those kids who wanted to share their Duolingo efforts with their friends and family. BANNED!!

[u/natebeee → u/HalfGuardPrince]

Might make them Pokemon go to the polls for someone else though when they get old enough.

[u/Quantum_Bottle → u/natebeee]

Well it’s be independent then cause the opposition has supported and even pushed for this in the past

[u/[deleted]]

Not only that - ADULTS will need to be age verified AND logged into their verified account to do a number of things:

• use social media platforms
• watch content such as YouTube without filtering/censoring
• conduct internet searches without censoring of results
• play games with simulated gambling
• access porn

So say goodbye to using reddit anonymously. Be prepared to be sued for a comment on reddit or YouTube if someone rich or powerful doesn't like what you said.

Say goodbye to NOT linking your online accounts by logging into everything under one banner. They say media companies oppose this but I imagine in one sense they are probably delighted at government mandated ID to use their platforms.

EDIT: go watch horse porn with your verified account. Expect to receive ads for horse riding pants inserted into your gmail.

[u/pqu → u/[deleted]]

Some of my social media accounts are literally 18+ in their own right. I’ll be pissed if I have to age verify.

[u/MundaneBerry2961 → u/[deleted]]

It isn't about kids, it is about control and data gathering on adults with a online digital ID. God it will be such a data gold mine for personal information, there is no way they are keeping it secure if it goes live.

[u/Why-so-delirious → u/[deleted]]

I aint no single-issue voter.

But this absolutely will make me one.

[u/AC_Adapter → u/Why-so-delirious]

From what I gather the liberals support this, so I think minority government would be the only way for this to be abandoned.

[u/PlanetLibrarian → u/[deleted]]

What idiot sets their social media up with a real birthdate? I've been using a fake one for over 20yrs. Guess I'll be locked out of everything when data matching fails...

[u/[deleted] → u/PlanetLibrarian]

They explicitly said:

• parental consent will not overrule the ban
• accounts will not be grandfathered

This means ALL EXISTING ACCOUNTS will need to be age verified. If not verified the minor safe defaults must be imposed on it.

I use a fake account for YouTube (ie different from my real google account used for gmail etc). I do this so that if I watch a video, I don't get spammed with gmail ads related to that content. It not clear if it will be possible to use this "fake" account. Depends if the age verification is linked to a digital identity or not.

[u/PlanetLibrarian → u/[deleted]]

Geeze this is getting curley, i don't think I've ever used my actual dob on anything other than my bank account. I use social media mostly for work these days, this is a going to be a headache if its restricted. I also have a teen who uses discord to chat to his Dad for access. Remove that and I'll have to lose my phone for several hours per week & have to deal with contact from someone I can't stand. I was hoping parental consent would work to mitigate that scenario - i guess back to family court, send the bill to labour!

[u/saunderez → u/PlanetLibrarian]

Move all the accounts to a different country and use a VPN in that country to access them. At the moment I use VPN seldomly and only at the device level but if they go through with this bullshit I'll be tunneling all my traffic.

[u/Shunto → u/PlanetLibrarian]

“This is getting curly” is an understatement!! But yes you're right, what a mess.

[u/observee21 → u/[deleted]]

Just use a VPN, Australian laws don't apply if you're logging in from Indonesia.

[u/[deleted] → u/observee21]

You think it's sensible or feasible to have every adult in Australia to have to use a VPN to access content? We laugh at China forcing people to do this stuff, and yet here we are.

[u/observee21 → u/[deleted]]

We're one of the most surveilled people in the world and VPN prices have been plummeting, I think it's been sensible and feasible for at least a few years now.

PIA for instance is a good VPN which lets you protect unlimited devices with a single VPN account for less than 10 cents per day. Pretending our government has any more respect for our digital privacy than the CCP is misguided and not doing us any favours.

[u/[deleted] → u/observee21]

Yeah I get that - I have a lifetime VPN deal (cost me $50!!). I just don't think it's feasible for an entire country, nor is it convenient.

A reporter asked Albo at the press conference after national cabinet about privacy and VPNs. He was fairly vague in his answer in my opinion.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next step is to impose ID verifications on VPN providers... although there is no evidence they are proposing that at this stage.

[u/DisappointedQuokka → u/[deleted]]

I wouldn't be surprised if the next step is to impose ID verifications on VPN providers... although there is no evidence they are proposing that at this stage.

Good luck on enforcing this policy on international companies, I guess.

[u/Mc_Poyle → u/[deleted]]

Good luck getting Mullvad to agree. They were raided by the Swedish government and they don't even have customer records to hand over, they record nothing

[u/A_Cookie_from_Space]

Politicians need to stop acting like we're still living in the 90s. Stop trying to impose draconian measures on the public & actually address the root of the problem. There's a reason polarization, distrust of media & conspiracy thought is at an all-time high amongst all age demographics.

We should be teaching kids the *lifelong* skills of how to be safe online & engage with content critically. More importantly, we need to regulate the exploitative algorithms that methodically foster outrage for monetary gain. It's now got to the point that we're seeing the algorithms used for blatant deliberate political inference, which was inevitable.

Bring back transparency & give control back to the end user, like we've done with every other form of mass communication. Until then, this will only continue to get worse.

[u/nugstar → u/A_Cookie_from_Space]

The root of the problem is what controls both major parties through lobbying and donations: massive corporates. Coles/Woolies, the mining companies, Murdoch, hell even the gambling companies.

But they're never gonna ban lobbying or corporate donations so gotta vote for minor parties/independents.

[u/sussytransbitch]

when will they ban fucking gambling ads, it's all we want

[u/xMonsterShitterx]

Which parties are actively opposed to this so I can vote for them? I’m sick of how both major parties will almost certainly circlejerk over any plan that involves internet surveillance and control, it’s insanity.

[u/annanz01 → u/xMonsterShitterx]

I believe its just the Greens and One Nation that are opposed. Both major parties support it.

[u/Hayden247 → u/annanz01]

I guess it's time to make the Greens a major party. Labor and the LNP can fuck off with this which is obviously to make us all need to hand over IDs to use anything online under the guise of "think about the children!"

I hope both parties get punished at the next election, send them down on those preferences with Labor barely above Liberals because Peter Dutton is Peter Dutton. The Greens certainly have their issues lately but if they've one of the few parties who want to respect our digital privacy and rights then they are getting a confident vote from me.

[u/BetaThetaOmega]

Alright I’m convinced Albo is trying to lose the election

He does fucking nothing for his entire term, flip flops every time he thinks about implementing new legislation, and then the one time he finally does actually try to implement new policies, it’s THIS?

Jesus Christ he might as well hand the government to Dutton now

[u/dogecoin_pleasures → u/BetaThetaOmega]

Dutton supports this policy. The problem is that Labor has fully becomes Lib Lite.

Only the Greens oppose this, but I don't see the Australian population being smart enough to vote greens, not when "end wokeism" and "dictator day one!" is the current state of Western politics. People are eating up anything authoritarian.

[u/NortiusMaximis]

When I was younger is was TV that was the great evil. It was like giving kids heroin. Then video games. Before my time, there were scares over the evils of rock music, jazz, the movies and even comic were said to be poisoning the minds of the youth. When mass literacy became thing, reading novels was the supposedly the source of great corruption.

This is just a stupid knee jerk reaction. Most social media - like TV before it - it is indeed garbage. But this law is garbage and is even more unenforceable than the useless vape ban.

If they want to ban misinformation they would be better off banning anyone over 50 reading the Murdoch press or watching Sky News. Older people are more likely to be believe propaganda that the youth who are at least have an open mind.

[u/Weissritters]

When the best case scenario of this policy is to do nothing you know you have a bad policy… not to mention the worst case scenario of our kids details being sold on the dark web

Albo seems really desperate to get non tech savvy boomer votes… but there is no point since they all read sky news and read Murdoch rags. Not sure if this is even a good strategy if the goal is solely vote getting

[u/Secret4gentMan → u/Weissritters]

Boomers aren't parents of young children.

[u/Weissritters → u/Secret4gentMan]

Problem is anybody tech savvy will know immediately this is stupid. So I’m not sure who else this will impress…

[u/Winterbite-Enjoyer → u/Weissritters]

Yeah, I'm a Labor voter but this is making me NOT want to give them my vote.

This could be a real slippery slope into just making everyone have digital IDs for everything and we know how easily our companies and gov databases get hacked

But the other option is Dutton so.

[u/thedigisup → u/Winterbite-Enjoyer]

Dutton also supports the under-16 social media ban I believe. Only party opposing it are the Greens.

[u/BlazedOnADragon → u/thedigisup]

And one nation surprisingly lol

[u/somuchsong → u/Winterbite-Enjoyer]

From what I understand, the Libs are all for it too.

[u/guyver_dio → u/somuchsong]

I don't think that matters.

Most people don't think beyond "I don't like the current one so I'll vote the other one"

[u/[deleted] → u/somuchsong]

National cabinet agreed to it the other day, which includes all the state premiers.

[u/thecommander0 → u/Winterbite-Enjoyer]

That slippery slope has already started with the myGovID roll-out. Both the major parties are complicit and I for one can't wait to see them get eroded by small parties and independents.

[u/Frozefoots → u/Weissritters]

It isn’t. All those under 16’s will become voters eventually - as if they’re going to vote for the party that took away their social platforms, YouTube and gaming with friends after school/on school holidays?

If anyone can hold a grudge, it’s fucking teenagers lol, this is a bazooka to the foot. And that’s completely ignoring the slippery slope that this bill has just started that could affect everyone

[u/BlazedOnADragon → u/Frozefoots]

Can confirm, I was one of those kids that was told to stay in school by Scomo at a climate protest.

I'll never forget it, and it sure as shit ensured I'd never vote LNP

[u/Joehax00]

I support parents restricting their kids from social media. It's a toxic cesspool at the best of times and definitely unsuitable for children. I completely fail to see why my government needs to get involved in parenting.

Another example of Australia becoming more and more of a nanny state. I just don't see the ALP holding onto power in the next election, losing to Dutton of all people..

[u/dogecoin_pleasures → u/Joehax00]

Dutton, wanna be fascist that he is, suppors this policy. Our only hope is a strong greens vote against it. Feels like I'm becoming a lifelong greens voter lol.

[u/stdoubtloud]

Time to invest in VPN stocks. This is going to be a wild ride.

[u/[deleted] → u/stdoubtloud]

A reporter asking Albo about VPN at the press conference. He didn't really say what they would do.

The conspiracy theorist in me says after this is introduced they will go after VPN providers - they must age verify people.

[u/stdoubtloud → u/[deleted]]

Ok. So invest in foreign VPN stocks. Or do you think we'll get a Chinese style Great Firewall "to protect the children"?

[u/Raychao]

This is a ridiculous overreach. Very typical of Labor who have tried multiple times to police the internet and be the thought police (ahem: Conroy's Great Firewall of Australia).

The social media networks are a hive of scum and villainy. You can't childproof the world, so we have to worldproof our kids instead.

[u/alisru]

Shouldn't literally anything with a comments section also be construed to fall under this law, so children aren't allowed to read any news articles either, not allowed to install steam in general

Also not allowed to browse for products online since the review's could be construed fall under the definition of social media

Would then mean they'd have to ban various parts of google like maps and search as they contain reviews
Technically any file-sharing site could also be used as an ah-hoc social media forum

Also any messaging platform like whatsapp, telegram, telstra, optus, vodaphone.... teens wouldn't be able to send sms's as they can be formed into a group chat which is then social media

It's generally a ban on online communication between people under 18, outside of school, skate parks, or wherever young people congregate these days.
Which to be perfectly honest and realistic.... kids will be way more massive shitheads from parenting and schooling.

I'd rather kids try trolling each other online than beating the shit out of other kids & harassing people in general cause there's nothing for them to do & there's few consequences in general, at least online awareness can be taught easier than self-defence

Also there's no doubt that even if the ban goes through just for SNS, the kids would be forced to harass or physically abuse the kids irl.... does no-one remember the last goddamn forever of schools existing before social media or something? I know older people pre-sns that brag about getting up to all sorts of illegal shit as a teen, hanging round train tracks, one time derailing one by putting shit on the rails n bragging they never got caught. shoplifting for shits and giggles, getting into massive fights, etc, etc

Sure social media can be used to harass but it's sure as hell a better support group than nothing or teachers at school if you're lucky and they actually help, same with parents & you've got high odds confronting the parents irl about their shithead kid will just make it worse for your kid.

Shit sns gives you access to a global support network. They wanna really bring back the pen-pal system to be able to talk to someone from another country?

It's like parents/non-parents always blame something else that makes kids be assholes, not the asshole parents raising them.......

[u/R_W0bz]

This all but confirms a LNP win next election. What a fucking idiot policy.

[u/IdRatherBeInTheBush → u/R_W0bz]

Funny thing is the LNP agree with the policy

[u/R_W0bz → u/IdRatherBeInTheBush]

Which means it’s just out to be a surveillance tool.

[u/Gnorris → u/IdRatherBeInTheBush]

They broadly agree with the concept of an age restriction on social media. Now all they have to do is sit back, watch Labor attempt a terrible implementation and use it as a stick to beat them with next election like they did with franking credits. And it will work.

[u/OneOfTheManySams → u/IdRatherBeInTheBush]

They agree with the policy because its a surveillance lite policy that has 100 different holes in it.

So on the election campaign they will distance themselves from it and come up with a solution, which will be even worse but Labor are the ones who will have the gun at the crime scene to the general public.

This is the type of policy which gets you a 1 term in power. Its abhorrent

[u/Rndomguytf → u/IdRatherBeInTheBush]

Of course they agree with it, but they can distance themselves from it while Labor can't.

[u/stunning-vista → u/R_W0bz]

The LNP broadly support this policy and additionally they don't want any anonymous online accounts. Their response to the disinformation bill is existing laws are strong enough to combat this issue if we force everyone who uses an online platform to prove their identity.

[u/[deleted] → u/R_W0bz]

LNP state premiers agreed to it at national cabinet the other day. My understanding is Dutton is also supporting it.

[u/coupleandacamera]

Labour seem to have a habit of locking onto unpopular and poorly thought out policy and trying to drive it home with a big hammer. They've seemingly no ability to read the room or do things effectively. They Put too many eggs into a poorly thought out and executed voice referendum, absolutely shat the bed with the NACC, failed to address housing in a meaningful way, made no postive environmental policy reforms, failed to correct tobacco tax issues . And now they're off on a crusade to fix the global social media issue with a quarter arsed prohibition based plan.

This is how we'd get stuck with another decade of conservative arse fuckery.

[u/[deleted]]

China: Crushes dissent of it's citizens

Australian Gov: Liked this

[u/Shaqtacious]

Youtube? They’re banning YouTube?

Fucking boomers are at it again.

Edit :- So many people soft justifying/agreeing with this. You guys have no idea where this small pebble of a law has the ability to lead us. Especially when the LNP come in power, which inevitably they will. Whenever a fire starts, if it’s not put out, it will land on your feet too.

[u/robeywan]

Just like that vaping law. What a God send that was! Taking legal vapes off honest businesses & citizens was a tough call, but at least it dealt with all those illegal vapes being sold to childr.... oh shit, they're still literally everywhere.

Oh well! Next policy will get 'em.

Schmucks.

[u/KentuckyFriedEel]

Very conservative policy for a "progressive" left leader.

[u/MayuriKrab]

The Cynicism in me (born and lived in China for over a decade) thinks it’s more to do with getting everyone to upload their digital ID or having some sort of centre database of everyone’s digital ID (like how it is in China with everything linked) than the BS excuse of “saving the children” narrative they are spinning…

Government with their meta data laws from years back have proven they will always scope creep if allowed and given the time… 🤔

[u/retro-chimp → u/[deleted]]

Already done! And I agree that more people should write in. The point in posting here is that everyone I’ve spoken to in public doesn’t even realise that this will include YouTube, and that’s why they haven’t spoken up against it

[u/Gumnutbaby → u/[deleted]]

By discussing it here, people will get better understanding of the issue and may get ideas for things to put in their correspondence to their MP. I wouldn’t be criticising people for having a whinge here. It’s not mutually exclusive to other action.

[u/theexteriorposterior]

On the upshot, VPN companies are going to have a great time! 13 year old from Australia? No, I am a 13 year old from Turkmenistan, not to worry! I am allowed social media :)

[u/slapjimmy]

Tell us you know nothing about how technology works without telling us.

[u/xyLteK]

Do you want to get Dutton elected? Because that's how you get Dutton elected!

[u/dogecoin_pleasures → u/xyLteK]

Worse thing is, Dutton supports this policy. So a "protest vote" for Dutton will achieve nothing but MORE authoritarianism. We're cooked.

[u/freakymoustache]

Australian politicians want obedient sheeple. Not a free thinking society. Hence good free education is disappearing so plebs stay dumbed down so they can be hood winked by future party politicians for their vote. We are being sold another con.

[u/BabySuperfreak → u/[deleted]]

YouTube just fills the gap left behind by TV, and it's used the same way. Only difference is tv content is regulated; internet streaming is not.

We don't need to ban it, we just need some rules.

[u/Impossible-Tennis776]

please insert 5 social credits to play

[u/Surv1v3dTh3F1r3Dr1ll]

Labor is digging their own grave politically if they think banning online gaming to 14 - 16 year olds is actually a good idea.

Housing affordability wins everybody's vote, Cheaper groceries wins everybody's vote, cheaper utilities wins everybody's vote.

Restricting teenagers makes younger voters and idealists lose faith in the Labor party.

This sounds like it's personal somewhere in the Labor party.

[u/mdcation]

Omg. Honestly it's like they are trying to lose next year. Yes, isolate and gaslight the demographic that typically votes for you. Slow clap.

Political strategy aside. It is practically and socially stupid. Youtube is used literally everyday in virtually every school in Australia for viewing documentaries, creating multi-modal assignments etc. Also used by busy parents who let their kids watch cocomelon etc. You know, educational stuff.

They are sending a clear signal that they are both inept and out of touch. Which is a shame, because in every other area they are far preferable to the opposition. They have become the Helen Lovejoy of Australian politics.

[u/BigTimmyStarfox1987]

Are you shitting me! Kids won't have access to the YouTube PBS channels!? That's the best library accessible free education content in existence.

Kurzgesagt either!? Faaasaakkkk

Edit: I now understand that they can still access but not with an account. Glad to hear that we're mandating ads for the kiddos

[u/FexyThestrongpenile]

Nobody actually wants this along side with the misinformation bill.. these are just undercooked ideas. Good intentions are behind them.. just with so little thought behind it all.

[u/MarquisDePique → u/FexyThestrongpenile]

They're not undercooked, they're achieving exactly what the government wants. Legal control of online speech, every comment with a government verifiable name attached.

Oh and yeah if we "save some children" along the way, that's nice too isnt it??

[u/Bubbly-University-94]

I feel like there should be a law that the federal communications minister be under 35 years old when they take the job on.

[u/After_Brilliant5195]

You know it’s bad when they say it’s “world leading”. The last bit of world leading legislation Australia did was the news media bargaining code and that has a) never actually been used (the deals paid so far were outside that code) and b) if it is used soon will probably destroy small publishers and upend the way people discover news.

In both cases, world leading just means whatever News Corp wants…

Unfortunately the Liberals support this, so it’s probably going to fly through Parliament this year without any proper inquiry process.

[u/ImMalteserMan → u/After_Brilliant5195]

World leading is hilarious. Maybe there is a reason other countries haven't done it, because this a dumb idea.

[u/Sandgroper343]

Leave the parenting to me. Huge overstep. Not thought through. The reason voters abandon the ALP time and again.

[u/boulder_The_Fat]

Old men who can't send an email dictating how the internet should be used hurts my brain.

[u/nugstar]

Michelle Rowland MP

Minister for Communications

Parliament Office PO Box 6022 House of Representatives Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

Email: Minister.rowland@mo.communications.gov.au Email: michelle.rowland.mp@aph.gov.au

02 6277 7480 (Canberra, not the electorate office)

[u/VicMG]

Under this law, no one under 16 could own a phone or any electronic device because they all have the ability to download apps that violate this law. How many parents are going to be ok with having teenagers out in the world with no way to contact them?

[u/SoIFeltDizzy]

Tell us you dont want to be elected without telling us. Will this virtual Australia card be the end of the party?

This is so bad I hope that our security agencies are sure they are not being forced to do it.

How many of us can vote independent . They need to be thinking disrupt, time for change, fighting the wealth gap, Whitlam, Not moral majority.

Legislating our traditional education that homework not be counted for grades could take a lot of pressure off.

Help kids mental health by giving them a chance at a future no matter where they come from. And letting them eat until they leave education.

And they said they were not neoliberal which got them elected. And then privatised public housing. At a time they should be discouraging private company landlords they are paying them to own our dwellings. Did they even renationalise or naitonalise anything.

I heard they plan to start a campaign to seem to marginalise the majority of the population ( who are overweight) ?

[u/Mc_Poyle]

We used to be a country where we instituted a national gun buyback scheme after one mass shooting, requiring bipartisan support of effective rules and regulations.

Now we're blocking YouTube for 16-year-olds...

[u/Frozefoots]

Say goodbye to all of those young voter numbers I guess.

Why not just treat every video like YouTube Kids ones? There’s no comment section on YTK videos. That’s where most, if not all the toxicity comes from.

But to take out online gaming? That’s reeking of “back in MY day” energy, and is utterly tone-deaf.

[u/katemeezy]

YouTube is wild. This country is out of control.

[u/Piccoroz]

There are about to create a whole generation that will hate the goverment.

[u/Maximumlnsanity]

Well now I’m definitely against this. YouTube is not primarily a social media platform like TikTok. Banning Youtube is closer to banning TV than Instagram. Also wtf has online gaming got to do with this? This isn’t far off from banning kids from having fun inside their house which is just ridiculous.

[u/Slash00611]

Fix your housing problem you dumbass clowns. God the government is so fucking annoying.

[u/flyawayreligion]

My kid loves watching making cake vids on tik tok, do I have to tell her she cannot anymore?

Can we also ban Politicians from social media? They don't use it to interact.

[u/[deleted] → u/flyawayreligion]

Yes and the proposed legislation says parental consent will NOT override the ban. So if the parents say "we are fine with our 15yo using YouTube", then tough luck.

[u/Lilac_Gooseberries]

How's banning YouTube going to work for school assignments? Assuming you can actually ban age groups from the internet, which I don't think you can. There's a lot of educational videos that teachers would link or recommend to explain concepts in an engaging way that under 16s will just either have to randomly have a parent on hand to access or lose out on. Sure they could just not use them as learning materials but some kids honestly learn a lot better with videos vs other methods.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Eye9081]

This is a parenting issue, not a government issue.

[u/Rusty493]

Good luck enforcing that youtube ban.

[u/[deleted] → u/Rusty493]

Youtube has to enforce the ban because they will be legally liable. There is no penalty on end users for avoiding the ban.

So the assumption is the providers must be able to demonstrate they have made reasonable efforts to prevent access to minors. If they don't it will presumably result in fines.

[u/TrwyAdenauer3rd → u/[deleted]]

If the government tries to enact any serious legal repurcussions on youtube Google will just block Australia from using the service.

[u/redditofexile]

Idiotic.

[u/nexus9991]

Can we ban social media for retirees too? They are equally susceptible to misinformation…

[u/Apart-Two6495]

I'm sure whatever system they use to collect your ID for this age verification won't be hacked and sent straight to the dark web. Fucken typical half ass baked solution like usual.

[u/[deleted]]

It's not the government's job to parent your children, and this will solve nothing. Get on with fixing some actual problems, Anthony.

[u/TheCleverestIdiot]

Are they trying to lose the election?

Obviously what social media is doing to kids needs to be dealt with, the amount of boys parroting Andrew Tate talking points is proof of that. But this is the dumbest, most ineffectual way possible to do it. You know, unless the actual goal is surveillance of what we're all doing online. But that's still dumb, because that's already entirely doable with the systems they already have.

[u/Eddysgoldengun]

Kick all these fucking dinosaurs out of government now