because more and more evidence is showing that social media is cancer, it’s a bit like asking why in the 90’s there was suddenly a rush towards outlawing smoking
Comment on How Australia's social media ban threatens free expression
minorkeys@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Why is every country suddenly putting age verification for the internet? Europe, US, Canada, Australia, Germany, I think. Why? Why now? Wtf are they expecting that this is suddenly a damned priority?
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 1 week ago
minorkeys@lemmy.world 1 week ago
So ban social media. Why is age proof the barrier rather than better parental controls? Age verification comes with identification tracking liabilities across the internet. Fuck this dystopian hellscape that is forming.
hanrahan@piefed.social 6 days ago
Why is age proof the barrier rather than better parental controls?
Same reason it is with drinking, voting, smoking.
I’m.all for banning socail media but the shit storm of trying would be an impossible fight.
My undeestanding for Aus was this was the catalyst
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-25/united-nations-general-assembly-social-media-ban/105814246
Emma Mason, whose 15-year-old daughter Tilly died by suicide after being bullied on social media, spoke powerfully at the event,
minorkeys@lemmy.world 6 days ago
We stop kids from doing all kinds of things. Just because some prove difficult doesn’t make this impossible. We can code software to make the bottles not open but we can for any app on a digital device, especially smart phones.
The_Decryptor@aussie.zone 6 days ago
Same reason we still haven’t banned smoking or gambling, once you’re an adult you’re on your own.
Unless it’s drugs of course, can’t have them.
SarahFromOz@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Depends what you believe. The more cynical believe it is about connecting real identities with online comments.
The more generous believe it’s about safety.
I think this is absolutely the wrong way to go about things though.
minorkeys@lemmy.world 6 days ago
What do the realists, believe?
SarahFromOz@lemmy.world 5 days ago
That once again politicians just don’t know what they are doing but need to at least pretend they are doing something good. This is probably fairly close to the truth.
Turdburglar has the right idea too, that it’s about selling age verification as another service. Sounds about right. They would charge for air and the government would let them as long as they kicked back a percentage.
turdburglar@piefed.social 5 days ago
that they are creating another middleman for collecting money from the population at large as is seen in the health insurance industry in the us.
buy your online age verification from us and get free cloud storage for a year…
Tenderizer@aussie.zone 4 days ago
Apparently there was some academic research making the rounds a few years back about this (and legislation moves slow). Of course, the law is still written by tech-illiterates.
ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The slow collapse will start to quicken within the next 5 years.
TheLunatickle@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
Could be due to the rapid rise of authoritarianism, or how it’s become clear that foreign actors can exert massive unchecked influence via social media.
Don’t know, it can be hard to see the truth past all the cries of “Protect the Children!”