‘Major gaps’ in u16 social media enforcement: eSafety
The platform aren't doing enough to stop underaged social media use, the eSafety commissioner says
The eSafety Commission’s first report on the under-16s social media ban has found Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube have “major gaps” in their compliance with the law.
The eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant appeared on Nine’s Today this morning, where she expressed “significant concerns” regarding the current levels of compliance.
Since December 10, the law requires that Australians under 16 be denied access to social media platforms, including Tiktok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, Youtube, Reddit, Twitch, and Kick. The onus on policing the legislation lies with the platforms.
Any attempt to restrict digital content is doomed to fail. Kids will find a way, or they will move somewhere else. The answer to keeping kids safe is the same as it has been with every technological moral panic – parents need to do their best to be engaged, and guiding their children in how they engage with media.
The porn ban can be circumvented with the free VPN included in the Opera browser that is free to anyone, iPhone or Android. And that’s before the other alternative which will always be there – to simply google a site that doesn’t comply with the ban. If any of that sounds complicated to you – I promise it is child’s play.
> The answer to keeping kids safe is the same as it has been with every technological moral panic
… make parenting harder. Yeah, no wonder people keep having fewer children.
In reality, it doesn’t matter that much if *some* kids get around the ban. The fewer kids are on social media, the easier it is for *other* kids, especially those who don’t even want to be on social media, to stay off it.