Summary
Australia has introduced a bill to ban social media access for children under 16, enforcing strict penalties of up to AU$50 million for non-compliance.
The law would require biometric or government ID for age verification and prohibits parental consent as an exemption.
While aiming to protect children from harmful content, critics argue it may drive teens to unregulated platforms.
Some services, like YouTube and WhatsApp, will be exempt for educational or messaging purposes.
The bill has bipartisan support but faces scrutiny from independents and child welfare advocates.
yeah but it’s australia. their under 16 is our under 91.
This bill is unlikely to pass.
But not impossible. Australia passes some dumb shit sometimes.
Remember when Turnbull said that the laws of mathematics are subject to the laws of Australia in regards to encryption?
Yeah we do some really dumb shit.
“The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia.”
Brother thinks he can force companies to break unbreakable encryption because the law says so lmfao
Good for Australia.
Do you think Lemmy will integrate biometric IDs for Australia?
This affects Adults too.
No, because a lot of people here care about digital sovereignty. Otherwise, we would still be on Facebook. So, if the main developers integrated that into the software, people would strip it out and fire the main software developer, or they would strip it out at every version that got released and then release it without it.
So it seems shortsighted celebrating what is a law to outlaw things like Lemmy.
I mean, they can’t enforce it because there are so many instances all over the world. They can’t possibly target every instance administrator.
I worry that this will also affect political awareness amongst teens in a way that encumbent parties and business will happily exploit for their own gain.
If it’s “successful”, expect to see similar legislation proposed throughout the world.
