<
https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2024/not-just-kids--everyone-to-be-age-verified-for-social-.html>
"The federal government has confirmed its forthcoming youth social media ban
will require Australians of all ages to confirm their age when accessing social
media.
Last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese affirmed the government will be
ploughing ahead with its plans for a social media ban preventing
under-16-year-olds from accessing such platforms as Facebook, Instagram,
TikTok, X and video streaming platform YouTube.
The unprecedented ban has drawn swathes of criticism – not only for threatening
pivotal community and educational resources for youth social media users – but
also for the logistics of how it will be implemented.
During a Senate Committee hearing last week, Greens senator David Shoebridge
probed the means of delivery for an age-based social media ban – revealing the
technology currently trialled for the initiative would effectively require
users of all ages to run through an age assurance check.
When asked whether “everybody” will have to go through the age-checking process
as part of testing whether a user is aged 16-plus, James Chisholm – deputy
secretary of communications and media at the Department of Infrastructure,
Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (DITRDCA) – simply
replied “yes”.
“So, this isn't just about privacy or collecting data about kids,” said
Shoebridge.
“This is literally everybody accessing social media, that's how it has to work,
isn't it?”
“Yes,” replied Andrew Irwin, assistant secretary of online safety at DITRDCA.
Shoebridge then raised privacy and data protection implications for “literally
everybody accessing social media”, only to be rebuffed by a passing mention of
the government having commissioned “consumer research”."
Via Clarice Boomshakala Bouvier.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
