76
Reddit files legal challenge against social media ban for under-16s
(www.abc.net.au)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2025
76 points (100.0% liked)
Australia
4675 readers
120 users here now
A place to discuss Australia and important Australian issues.
Before you post:
If you're posting anything related to:
- The Environment, post it to Aussie Environment
- Politics, post it to Australian Politics
- World News/Events, post it to World News
- A question to Australians (from outside) post it to Ask an Australian
If you're posting Australian News (not opinion or discussion pieces) post it to Australian News
Rules
This community is run under the rules of aussie.zone. In addition to those rules:
- When posting news articles use the source headline and place your commentary in a separate comment
Banner Photo
Congratulations to @Tau@aussie.zone who had the most upvoted submission to our banner photo competition
Recommended and Related Communities
Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:
- Australian News
- World News (from an Australian Perspective)
- Australian Politics
- Aussie Environment
- Ask an Australian
- AusFinance
- Pictures
- AusLegal
- Aussie Frugal Living
- Cars (Australia)
- Coffee
- Chat
- Aussie Zone Meta
- bapcsalesaustralia
- Food Australia
- Aussie Memes
Plus other communities for sport and major cities.
https://aussie.zone/communities
Moderation
Since Kbin doesn't show Lemmy Moderators, I'll list them here. Also note that Kbin does not distinguish moderator comments.
Additionally, we have our instance admins: @lodion@aussie.zone and @Nath@aussie.zone
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Australia is a nanny state censoring the internet.
Not really. The legislation is stupid but the big tech companies are predatory and needed to be regulated. As does the gambling industry. There is a long list of stuff Labor should be doing but mostly aren't because they are piss weak. They chose social media because it didn't upset any major supporters and it was judged to be popular with average voters.
It is just very poorly done. I have to go find a new music app now for the family as we can't all use Youtube Music Premium anymore so it is a waste of money. My kids youtube accounts were managed under family link and had comments disabled some content restrictions and no ads. The ads are as harmful as social media IMO - sexualising kids, creating insecurity over appearance, clothing, weight, pushing unhealthy food, gambling, divisive politics, consumerism.
I can use hacked youtube clients on some platforms but they are closed source from less trusted parties and could be a security risk. I can try and trick YT with vpns and a set of new accounts but thats going to be tricky. Making fake adult accounts is no good as I can't manage adult accounts under family link and apply the restrictions I want.
But reddit can fuck right off. Hope they get laughed out of court.
Very sensible take
Starting on Dec 27th Aussies will have to prove their age before using Google search. It's absurd.
I think it’s to sign in to google. But still that’s going to restrict access to information if you don’t verify.
Not reasonable :/
Only if they are signed into a Google account.
That’s a bit backwards. By that logic U16s could then just access whatever unrestricted if they don’t sign in?
Also can you still access the connected email or need to get a new one if you don’t verify? Dumb question but I’m not certain of how it all works
Age-restricted results will be blurred by default unless you are logged in and meet the minimum age requirement. Those sites that are age-restricted will also require age assurance (porn, for example).
I'm not sure how Google will choose to implement it. Maybe age assurance won't be required at all unless you try to disable the new restrictions. In the case of app stores, for example, no age assurance will be required unless you want to search for R18+ apps.
More information:
https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/esafety-publishes-guidance-ahead-of-new-codes-coming-into-force-to-protect-australian-kids-from-harmful-content
https://www.esafety.gov.au/industry/codes/faq-access-to-online-porn-and-other-adult-content
You could try https://alternativeto.net/software/quobuz/about/
100% y'all screech once they come for fed shit.
this law covers the fediverse. aussie.zone now has a verification process
i agree with the above commenter: something should be done, but this is the wrong way to do it… it creates problems and effectively solves none
real vibes of
- Malcom (cunt) Turnbull - our ex conservative PM
The middle ground would be making these companies comply with rules that stop them manipulating users, but we already know that these companies would rather cop the fine and do the bad things anyway.
Then increase the fines.
then they leave and the whole country is banned from reddit, nice!
Someone hasn't heard of virtual private networks (VPN)
@MoreZombies @Sunshine yes because you are righteous and good 😆
Hearing in that Australia can straight up not classify a game and therefore ban it is outrageous.
The Mortal Kombat 9 virtue signaling
from my pov if being a nanny state lets kids be more like kids and less like little phone addicts having their dopamines blown I don't mind it
there are other countries looking at doing the same
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAzFCwCkAgI
You can regulate big tech without banning support groups.
tbf i'd go even further, I'd ban over 65's as well 😶🌫️
I'd ban you, because you're silly.
tbf that wouldn't realllly impact me that much, it's just reddit and youtube that I use, and the social media 'ban' doesn't block you from accessing reddit or youtube, it's not like you get a big "BLOCKED! UR UNDER 16!" page come up, you just can't sign up for an account, so reddit and youtube still work I'd just not be able to see adult content on those sites
Uhh, this is Lemmy.
Reddit has support subreddits for people struggling with mental illness or minority struggles. These are issues kids face, and the government is denying their access, while giving big tech companies excuses to spy on adults.
can you access those subreddits without an account?
If by "access" you mean "talk to fellow survivors" and "ask for advice or support", no.
~~Parents should be doing a better job parenting, rather than relying on the state to do it for them.~~
Also, when has banning kids from doing something actually stopped them from doing it? Even "back in my day", using a proxy to bypass blocked sites was common knowledge amongst the smarter kids. The tech savvy kids would host their own proxies using a free web hosting service and PHProxy (or similar software). These days, it's much easier to use a VPN or proxy.
Parents can compete against teams of people whose goal is to make their platform as addictive as possible? Nah, it's a systemic problem and it won't be solved by some parents sometimes doing something of limited effectiveness. Nor will it be solved by blanket bans.
Ugh "parents should do better parenting" is such neo lib individualist bullshit
Maybe I shouldn't have included that in my comment, but my point about trying to ban kids from doing stuff being ineffective still stands.
I don't disagree, but this law could have been an opportunity to give parents better tools with which to parent.
It is far, far too difficult for any parent today to impose parental controls on their kids' devices. Parental controls are an afterthought, put in place barely enough to tick the box saying "we have parental controls", and not effectively doing much of anything. The law could have forced tech companies to do better and make it easy for parents to use effectively.
It’s hard already when parents are overburdened with trying to pay the bills.
so you're in favour of it then? less need for parents to worry about what misinformation and disinformation is being supplied by paid actors on facebook, win/win ?
No, having parents mailed social media dangers brochures instead would be a better idea.
What else should people be allowed to do to children just because the parents aren't "vigilant" enough?
Hey both of these are covered on the FAQ
It's not a technological block, the social media sites will rely on a variety of signals, for example if you sign up for a facebook account in USA, but take a selfie geolocating you in australia and image scan picks up that you might be under 16, you'll still get pinged for id check
They are targeting all under 16's, and this is mentioned as well, even if 10% of kids get around the ban somehow, the fact that 90% don't removes a huge part of the social in social network
The kids that get around the ban will spread that knowledge to others. That's what happened when I went to school, and I don't think it's any different today.
good luck to them