Albo sticks a "Ban"-daid on social media, but it's not a real solution
The Labor government's decision to push forward legislation banning kids under 16 from social media doesn't address the underlying problem.
What a week. I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling exhausted.
In addition to accidentally breaking my BTTR email (don't nonchalantly play around with your domain's DNS settings, kids!) and the US election (ugh!), this week Prime Minister Albanese decided that he would be the somebody thinking of the children.
The Federal Labor Government has pledged to legislate a blanket ban on social media accounts for children under the age of 16.
The reasons for the push to force change is pretty obvious: Social media is a trash fire. It's the burning corpse of human decency and self-respect. It is designed to be as addictive as possible and to keep people on the platform. It does this by actively rewarding engagement, which is most easily attained by fuelling hate and division.
This leads to an environment where more susceptible people – and particularly those aged 16 and under – are at risk of experiencing not just content and communication inappropriate for their age, but also harassment, bullying and assault.
So, I'm on board that something definitely needs to be done.
But, like so many political attempts to fix the problem, I'm pretty sure this attempt is destined to fail, while making things worse for the rest of us.
What is a social network?
Look, I get that Albanese has been hinting at doing this for a few months now so it's not like it's a big shock he officially announced the ban this week. But there are still so many unanswered questions about the whole thing.
The first big one is "what is social media?" What platforms will be impacted by this? Sure, Facebook and Instagram and TikTok (oh my!) will all be on notice, but what about Xbox Live? Will kids under 16 be able to play FC25 online with their mates?
What about an online forum like OzBargain? Will any website's comment section suddenly be required to have a proof of age requirement? How far does this rabbit hole go?
According to the ABC, the definition of a social media service, as per the Online Safety Act, will definitely include online games platforms and services like Discord.
Here's what it says:
An electronic service that satisfies the following conditions:
- The sole or primary purpose of the service is to enable online social interaction between two or more end users;
- The service allows end users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end users;
- The service allows end users to post material on the service.
By this definition, the rabbit hole is deep. Online forums and online gaming platforms definitely fit the bill.
But who knows if that's actually what will be captured at this point? We need clarity, because if it's not actually answered, it effectively pushes kids to find the places that offer social experiences online without the age requirement.
Not only does this circumvent the whole process, but you can guarantee that the places not included in the list aren't going to be looking out for your kids' wellbeing.
How will it be implemented?
The biggest question from everyone with any understanding of technology about this whole scenario is how it's going to work? How will kids prove to social media platforms they are as older than 16?
Face detection technology cannot reliably detect age. It can guess, certainly, but it can't be trusted for accuracy.
Which means for this to even have the slightest chance of working, it's going to have to mean using a form of official identification, like a student card, driver's licence or passport.
And if you pull on that thread just a little bit, it means that everybody, from a kid who just turned 16 to your 99 year Nanna, is going to heave to hand over legal personal information to some of the worst companies on the planet.
Think about it for a second – do you feel safe giving your personal identification information, like your passport number or driver's license, to the digital scam factory Meta? Or worse, Elon Musk's X?
I know I don't. I barely trust those businesses with my email address, and definitely not my phone number. Giving them my actual important personal information? No thank you.
It doesn't address the actual problem
When this all goes through, and your kid turns 16 and signs up to TikTok or YouTube, they are still going to be confronted with the worst of human nature and algorithms geared to push people to extremism.
Sure, they'll be a couple of years older, but will the experience be any different? The answer is no, because none of this actually addresses the underlying issue, which is that the algorithmic approach to social media is designed to profit from our suffering.
Real change – the kind that would actually protect not just kids but adults as well – would likely involve forcing social platforms to open up about their algorithms, or even offer the ability to customise and tweak it.
But that would involve a LOT of work, and I'm not even sure Australian legislation would be able to enforce it.
So in the meantime, maybe we should just ban social media platforms altogether? I know my life would benefit from less scrolling.
(I'm joking. About the banning, not about the less scrolling...)
At the very least, it would be better for the government to take a thoughtful and evidence-based approach to implementing any changes, instead of rushing at this blindly?
This week in tech
I've been thinking long and hard about what the future holds for BTTR, and one thing I'm certain of is that I don't have the capacity to cover news effectively.
From this week, I'll be doing less news coverage on BTTR itself, and instead linking to some of the best tech coverage of the week from other outlets in paid-subscriber section of the newsletter, with my thoughts on the news where appropriate. As always, let me know what you think.
Nick Broughall
Nick Broughall
Nick Broughall
This week's reviews
I'm still a bit overwhelmed with review product, but at least I'm plowing through the backlog this week.
Of course, it keeps growing. I unboxed the Oclean X Ultra S smart electric toothbrush and the new Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4.
@bttr_reviews Time to ramp up my teeth cleaning routine. Im unboxing the Oclean X Ultra S smart electric toothbrush for a review on BTTR.reviews. Stay tuned for my full impressions #unboxing #unboxingvideo #oclean #electrictoothbrush #tech #techtok
♬ original sound - bttr_reviews
@bttr_reviews I’m giving my home theatre a big boost today as i unbox the @Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4 for review. Very excited for this! #unboxing #unboxingvideo #sonos #sonosarcultra #speakers #soundbars #technology #reviews #techtok
♬ original sound - bttr_reviews
I also published a few full reviews on the site for your reading pleasure:
WIthings ScanWatch Nova
Nick Broughall
OPPO Reno12 5G
Nick Broughall
Ecovacs T30S Combo
Nick Broughall
Thanks for reading
The rest of this newsletter is for paid subscribers. It includes a collection of some of the key tech news stories of the week, mostly from my fellow Australian tech publications, but also some of the bigger stories from overseas.
Plus, I lament some more about AI's stupidity and preview some of next week's reviews.
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this week's newsletter, or even some input on what you'd like to see in next week's roundup.
Until next week
Nick @ BTTR
