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Australia’s teen social media ban is a flop. But there’s no joy in ‘I told you so’ (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 3 points 7 months ago (7 children)

That's a bit like saying 'there is a problem with smack/nicotine/alcohol addiction, but the solution is not restriction, it's education'. You can educate all you want, but very clever people make a lot of money by saying 'fuck your education'.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (6 children)

    Restriction is fine if it's a workable solution, but this one is not and anyone with half a brain could see that from its very first announcement.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    But the idea that we just need education is ridiculous. It's the exact defence that the social media platforms espous, because they know it's bullshit and ineffective.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (4 children)

    What's your solution then? Great Chinese internet filter and banning VPNs?

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Dunno, I'm not the one paid to come up with solutions. But, at the very least efforts like this teach kids that there is a problem. Like, yeah, we can easily circumvent the measures, but the gov still thinks it necessary to implement them.

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  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Lol almost like education is the solution. Great work!

    Efforts like this teach kids the law is the problem and teaches them to learn how to circumvent it, and in the mean time it also acts as a tracking tool for everyone else in Australia.

    Its problems are numerous, benefits inconsequential and easily replicated through other means, and in your own words the only current solution is to teach kids there's a problem.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Right. But have you ever actually interact with a) children or b) addicts?. Both groups well known for being totally reasonable and receptive to logical arguments! Trying to persuade them that the thing they love is actually causing them harm is nigh on impossible. 'I'm not concerned about her welfare, I'm just being mean'. 'other kids may get addicted, but I'm fine, totally in control'. 'if it was bad there would be laws' Etc etc.

    I'm not Australian, but I can at least referenced the attempt, and the court case in LA when telling the kid to put the tablet down. I'm not saying the law is the end of the matter, but just saying educate your kids is also far from the end, and is the line the social media companies emphasis because it moves the blame from them to parents

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  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago

    I'm not saying "just educate your kids". I'm saying instead of our government putting their effort into a pointless and likely quite harmful law, they should have looked into developing a useful education program for both parents and children that looks to raise the bar of how our population interacts with social media. Its not a short term solution but it is most certainly an effective long term solution. The current ban isn't even a good short term solution. It does nothing but 1) teach kids that our laws are dumb and should be bypassed, 2) disconnect disadvantaged and isolated kids from their support networks and 3) invade the privacy of all Australians.

    Arguably banning the current social media business models altogether for everyone would be a better solution but that has similar issues to the current under 16s ban. How do even enforce it without also banning VPNs?

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