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Millions of kids and teens in Australia, They just lost access to social media. right, because Australia is now implementing a world first ban on social media for people under the age of 16. and so under the law, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Kick and threads. They’re all expected to have taken steps to deactivate underage profiles, as well as prevent those users from signing up for new accounts. right, If someone creates a new platform that could be added to the list in the future, and those that don’t comply, they risk fines of up to almost $50 million. and actually, on that note, X is the only company on the list that, as of recording, hasn’t publicly confirmed they would comply with the ban. and so, you know, we’re gonna have to see what happens with Musk and them. But even for the companies that do comply, there is still a very real question of how effective will this actually be? I mean, we’re already seeing reports that some people under the age of 16, they’ve been able to get past facial recognition scans that are meant to keep them off platform. and You’re even seeing things like one parent telling the Guardian that their 15 year old daughter, she was very distressed because all her 14 to 15 year old friends have been age verified as 18 by Snapchat. and then you had another parent saying he’d actually shown his child how to get around age restrictions using VPNs and other methods. though I will say parents like that seem to be in the minority, at least in Australia, with polls showing that around two thirds of Australian voters supported the ban. but also if you look at the people affected most by the ban, that paints a different picture. right, one survey of kids between the ages of nine and 16, they found that over half thought that the ban was not a good idea. and that is three quarters of them said they intended on continuing to use social media. and seemingly they didn’t just mean finding workarounds or using VPNs. I mean, you had two 15 year olds bringing a legal challenge against the ban to the country’s highest court. and so, of course, we’re gonna have to see what happens with that. But, you know, in the meantime, you with the country’s prime minister writing an opinion piece this weekend. saying, “from the beginning we acknowledge this process won’t be 100% perfect, but the message this law sends will be 100% clear.” And then adding, “the fact that teenagers occasionally find a way to have a drink doesn’t diminish the value of having a clear national standard.”
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Produced by: Cory Ray, Philip DeFranco
Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry
Art Department: William Crespo
Writing/Research: Jared Paolino, Philip DeFranco
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