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Australia's Teen Social Media Ban Beginning

edited December 4 in Off-Topic
From the BBC: "Younger Australian teenagers on Instagram, Facebook and Threads are being told their accounts will be shut down ahead of the country's social media ban for under-16s. Meta, which owns the three brands, said it had begun notifying users it believes to be between 13 and 15 years old by text, email and in-app messages that their accounts would start being deactivated from 4 December. The ban ... affects a number of platforms which also include TikTok, YouTube, X and Reddit."

As Reported by ABC (with analysis)

From The Guardian

Comments

  • Can you ban kids from social media? Australia is about to, but some teens are a step ahead

    Following are excerpts from a current report at Yahoo.com:
    It took 13-year-old Isobel less than five minutes to outsmart Australia's "world-leading" social media ban for children.

    A notification from Snapchat, one of the ten platforms affected, had lit up her screen, warning she'd be booted off when the law kicked in this week – if she couldn't prove she was over 16.

    "I got a photo of my mum, and I stuck it in front of the camera and it just let me through. It said thanks for verifying your age," Isobel claims. "I've heard someone used Beyoncé's face," she adds.
  • edited December 7
    Australian teens could probably utilize VPN servers located in other countries as a "work-around."

  • according to the Atlantic :
    - australia had 0 faith in self-policing (per years of lies) and intend a full login ban
    - american insiders are advising oz on the many ways kids will attempt to bypass, and will subject media to fines if violated
    - lessons learned from china's ban on excessive kid gaming

    regarding vpn, if netflix can crackdown, the tech obviously exists.
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