Australia is the first nation to ban social media for under-16s
globalvoices.org
On Wednesday, the lower house of the Australian parliament voted to pass legislation to ban social media for children under 16 years, and the Senate passed the bill on Friday.

Landmark legislation sees the Australian government committed to the novel step of child protection by banning social media for under sixteens.

  • transhetwarrior (he/him)English
    21·
    2 hours ago

    So where exactly are kids supposed to go? People will go on about “they should just go outside” but kids have literally had the cops called on them for the crime of walking around their own neighborhood “unsupervised”. I’ve seen calls to ban kids from all sorts of places - planes, theme parks, restaurants, libraries. I’ve seen these “mosquito” things put up to drive kids away from public places. Kids are spending all their time on social media because they have nowhere else to go.

    • EsmereldaFritzmonster@lemmings.worldEnglish
      4·
      31 minutes ago

      I think this perspective (that teens have nothing else in their lives other than social media) is harmful. I don’t understand why they’re not able to do the same things teens did before social media…

      Police being called on harmless teenagers by the same busybodies over and over again kind of sorts itself out after awhile.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        17 minutes ago

        This is the travel range for kids in the UK by generation. Such a map would be far worse in the US or Australia

      • transhetwarrior (he/him)English
        1·
        17 minutes ago

        They can’t do the same things teenagers did before because the world has been growing more and more hostile to teenagers. More places have banned kids. We have these mosquito things making noises to drive teenagers away. It’s become more difficult to get around without a car. Parents have become more helicoptery, not letting their kids out of the house. And “sorts itself out”? Here’s what happens. Some asshole calls the cops on teenagers just hanging out. The cops, with nothing better to do than harass innocent people, show up and chase them away. Now those teenagers don’t feel safe going back there, because they don’t wanna get cops coming after them. Or maybe the cops don’t stop at chasing the kids off! Maybe they get arrested for “loitering” or some nonsense. Maybe they get accused of dealing drugs because teenagers hanging around is strange and suspicious, and the cops love to frame innocent people. Cops getting called isn’t some silly and frivilous thing.