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This week's edition of The Fold discusses the Oz ban on (some) social media companies allowing under-16s to access their platforms;

https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/02-12-2025/the-fold-australias-big-tech-revolution-rolls-on

On one level, I'm playing the world's smallest violin for the DataFarming platforms targeted. I'm also relieved that the ban doesn't seem to apply to fediverse services, and other not-for-profit online services that clearly could be put in the "social media" bucket if the politicians were so inclined.

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#podcasts #TheSpinOff #TheFold

Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz replied · 7 days ago

OTOH this is bad lawmaking, for a whole range of reasons. It's unprincipled. It violates young people's inalienable human rights to express themselves and associate freely.

It singles out particular age groups and orgs for discriminatory treatment, instead of banning a clearly and narrowly-defined set of activities or business practices. With a clear justification explaining why banning them serves the public interest government more than leaving it to case-by-case choices by citizens.

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Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz replied · 7 days ago

It's easy to overlook just what a bad precedent this sets for future lawmaking, because in this case the targets are unmistakably Bad Actors. But this is precisely why we mustn't overlook it, because at a time when governments all over the world are clamping down on citizens' freedom to use the net, such precedents matter.

First they came for the DataFarmers
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a DataFarmer ...

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Strypey

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz replied · 7 days ago

Also, as a radical leftist I'm looking at a ticking time bomb. Ozzie under-16s are a huge market of potential advertisees. So sooner or later a consortium of affected platforms will convince a major opposition party to reverse the ban, in exchange for a blank check to help get them elected.

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