Dozens Are Losing Access As Australia Begins Social Media Ban On Children & Teens

[TaylorSwift 162,471]

@Rat Boy

[Morphine Prince 109,683]

13 minutes ago, PartySick said:

There is something that can be done tbh. Tell parents to be parents  

Back in the day when kids were poking their eyes out playing stick ball the government didn't ban sticks, parents just told their kids to stop being stupid. That's literally the answer  

Unfortunately, parents nowadays can’t be bothered so someone has to do it. 

[Bronco 25,130]

9 minutes ago, PartySick said:

There is something that can be done tbh. Tell parents to be parents  

Back in the day when kids were poking their eyes out playing stick ball the government didn't ban sticks, parents just told their kids to stop being stupid. That's literally the answer  

Yeah that's a terrible example and it speaks to your ignorance of tech - which suggests you'd not be able to correctly or safely parent a child through the digital age. 

A stick is a stick. It's really simple to say, be careful with that stick. We all understand what a stick is, the dangers of the stick are easily demonstrated and easy to explain. There's no disagreements about what constitutes a stick. The stick cannot evolve. What you know to be a stick today, is a stick tomorrow. 
 

13 minutes ago, PartySick said:

So there should be an education campaign. Add digital safety courses to core education in schools, make it mandatory, and keep it well funded and updated as things evolve.

 

Have you ever worked in a training field? Have you ever tried to explain ICT basics to an adult? If you had, you'd understand that it's not a matter of funding. There are not enough resources to make it a possibility. 

Digital products can update weekly. As the tech industry continues its adoption and integration of agile development, updates to the digital tools we use daily can update daily. 

We as a global society lack any regimented or well established digitial literacy program. There are millions of people with an expanding digital literacy gap that would take years to fill through formal full time education. 

It is literally impossible to upskill society to the point there is an up to date understanding of the technology underpinning society. 

And to be quite honest - if society as a whole was up to date and truly understood the cyber infrastructure of this planet. There'd be riots in the street and a complete breakdown in societal order. 

I laugh at people like you crying about digital ID and facial scans. Everyone's personal information is out there. The internet went without regulation for so long, and the priority has been profit for so long that no one has personal information anymore. 

If you've signed up to this forum, if you've signed up to any social media site, if you have any microsoft/google/apple product - your personal data has been compiled and sold to the highest bidder. 
Every single database you can think of and have interacted with has been hacked, its data has been scraped and it is available on the dark web.
Facial recognition software is already viable and usable globally. Because every single person has a photograph of their face out there with their name attached to it. 

This is what I mean about people being decades behind in knowledge from where digital technology is now. Because the debates about digital technology being had by society are lagging behind by at least 10 years. And people like you go "well just teach people". Where do you start? Most people barely know how to use basic technology that we've been using since Internet 1.0. We're at internet 3.0. 
There are millions of people in every single country that don't even know the basics like what "WWW" means. 

[River 127,502]

29 minutes ago, PartySick said:

There is something that can be done tbh. Tell parents to be parents  

Back in the day when kids were poking their eyes out playing stick ball the government didn't ban sticks, parents just told their kids to stop being stupid. That's literally the answer  

So there should be an education campaign. Add digital safety courses to core education in schools, make it mandatory, and keep it well funded and updated as things evolve.

I just don't know how many times society can learn the same lesson over and over again. Prohibition has never worked, doesn't work now, and will never work.

 

it's all nice on paper but far from reality.

We're not  parents, so it's easy to say and point fingers and judge..

But at the same time, if we think small, we are mods of a PG13 forum and we clearly see how difficult it is to prevent these teenagers from getting any explicit content, so imagine how tough it is for a parent to even realize that there is an explicit content in a Gaga forum and we have a lot, we're contribute it one way or another.

We literally had a pedophile here lurking and it took us a while to even know the full picture and he came back here last month for a few day until I caught him... 

It's a complicated matter and I don't even think that this law is gonna help, VPN is a thing... when boomers dealing with technology, they are not thinking through all the loopholes.

 

My nephew is playing roblox because all his class is playing it, it's messing their minds and making them more competitive and violent, but preventing it from him alone would make him isolated from the rest of his friends.. so what can my sister do in this case? she's trying to keep an eye, but she and her husband has a job and 2 other kids to take care of..

It's not that parents don't want to parent.. they don't have time...

[bpmMonkey 7,730]

51 minutes ago, PartySick said:

 

So there should be an education campaign. Add digital safety courses to core education in schools, make it mandatory, and keep it well funded and updated as things evolve.

I just don't know how many times society can learn the same lesson over and over again. Prohibition has never worked, doesn't work now, and will never work.

I mean, the measures you're proposing sound great for Narnia and maybe Atlantis, but in the real world there is no funding for an education campaign and there are the largest companies in the world building their entire business model on harming and abusing children, actively lobbying against safety. 
 

The prohibition argument also doesn't work since we're talking about minors under the age of 16, not working adults in the 1920s who wanna have a drink after a 16hrs day at the factory. 

[Meruk Holland 2,358]

41 minutes ago, PartySick said:

There is something that can be done tbh. Tell parents to be parents  

Back in the day when kids were poking their eyes out playing stick ball the government didn't ban sticks, parents just told their kids to stop being stupid. That's literally the answer  

So there should be an education campaign. Add digital safety courses to core education in schools, make it mandatory, and keep it well funded and updated as things evolve.

I just don't know how many times society can learn the same lesson over and over again. Prohibition has never worked, doesn't work now, and will never work.

I can agree with the sentiment that if parents were just vigilant and educated enough, this wouldn't be a problem (or at least less of a problem). And I do think there does need to be a level of education instilled everyone about the technology we interact with. 

The problem is that, uh, people are f*ckin' stupid. Or willfully ignorant. Or exhausted. Or inexperienced. They have children before they're ready, be it financially or psychologically or physically. Hell, there are parents that are fully aware of how damaging social media can be for children, and still choose not to change their children's device usage. 

The government needs to step in not only to ensure the safety of it's citizens. And I appreciate that the Australian Government is putting the responsibility onto the social media companies to keep kids off the platforms. Now, as for how they're doing it. Er...I'm not saying your smart devices aren't already scanning your face and your data and your IDs without you knowing about it. Buuuuut. Still not great

[Economy 52,861]

So I do believe social media needs to be restricted cuz tbh it has so much brain rot and bad influences...

 

However 16 seems a little harsh to me. Id have done it 13 or 14 based on the world we live in

 

But i support the idea. Ppl are becoming entitled brats cuz it not to mention kids are too easily maliable by politically polarized messaging that their brains whose reasononing abilities are still developing may be permanently warped

 

On second thought I dunno. Maybe 16 is justifiable (tho i get it may be tough and harsh)

[Ilia Malinin 2,880]

i get this to a certain degree.  there's not really any space online for kids to go anymore, so they go to social media that adults use.  what i hate is social media trying to "babyproof" their sh*t.  it's not my f*cking job to parent your kids.

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 32,017]

14 years old would be reasonable. But 16? 
That said, too much security is better than not enough I guess.

But I think teenagers basically have the same risks as adults. Actually, they have less risks than elderly people.

Edited December 9, 2025 by AVeryGagaHolyDick

[PartySick 172,545]

1 hour ago, River said:

 

it's all nice on paper but far from reality.

We're not  parents, so it's easy to say and point fingers and judge..

But at the same time, if we think small, we are mods of a PG13 forum and we clearly see how difficult it is to prevent these teenagers from getting any explicit content, so imagine how tough it is for a parent to even realize that there is an explicit content in a Gaga forum and we have a lot, we're contribute it one way or another.

We literally had a pedophile here lurking and it took us a while to even know the full picture and he came back here last month for a few day until I caught him... 

It's a complicated matter and I don't even think that this law is gonna help, VPN is a thing... when boomers dealing with technology, they are not thinking through all the loopholes.

 

My nephew is playing roblox because all his class is playing it, it's messing their minds and making them more competitive and violent, but preventing it from him alone would make him isolated from the rest of his friends.. so what can my sister do in this case? she's trying to keep an eye, but she and her husband has a job and 2 other kids to take care of..

It's not that parents don't want to parent.. they don't have time...

 

1 hour ago, bpmMonkey said:

I mean, the measures you're proposing sound great for Narnia and maybe Atlantis, but in the real world there is no funding for an education campaign and there are the largest companies in the world building their entire business model on harming and abusing children, actively lobbying against safety. 
 

The prohibition argument also doesn't work since we're talking about minors under the age of 16, not working adults in the 1920s who wanna have a drink after a 16hrs day at the factory. 

 

1 hour ago, Meruk Holland said:

I can agree with the sentiment that if parents were just vigilant and educated enough, this wouldn't be a problem (or at least less of a problem). And I do think there does need to be a level of education instilled everyone about the technology we interact with. 

The problem is that, uh, people are f*ckin' stupid. Or willfully ignorant. Or exhausted. Or inexperienced. They have children before they're ready, be it financially or psychologically or physically. Hell, there are parents that are fully aware of how damaging social media can be for children, and still choose not to change their children's device usage. 

The government needs to step in not only to ensure the safety of it's citizens. And I appreciate that the Australian Government is putting the responsibility onto the social media companies to keep kids off the platforms. Now, as for how they're doing it. Er...I'm not saying your smart devices aren't already scanning your face and your data and your IDs without you knowing about it. Buuuuut. Still not great

When kids are getting preyed on by pedos in the niche corners of the internet they've been forced into by legislation like this and the unwillingness for parents to be responsible for their own children y'all know where to point the blame  

[PartySick 172,545]

1 hour ago, Bronco said:

Yeah that's a terrible example and it speaks to your ignorance of tech - which suggests you'd not be able to correctly or safely parent a child through the digital age. 

A stick is a stick. It's really simple to say, be careful with that stick. We all understand what a stick is, the dangers of the stick are easily demonstrated and easy to explain. There's no disagreements about what constitutes a stick. The stick cannot evolve. What you know to be a stick today, is a stick tomorrow. 
 

Have you ever worked in a training field? Have you ever tried to explain ICT basics to an adult? If you had, you'd understand that it's not a matter of funding. There are not enough resources to make it a possibility. 

Digital products can update weekly. As the tech industry continues its adoption and integration of agile development, updates to the digital tools we use daily can update daily. 

We as a global society lack any regimented or well established digitial literacy program. There are millions of people with an expanding digital literacy gap that would take years to fill through formal full time education. 

It is literally impossible to upskill society to the point there is an up to date understanding of the technology underpinning society. 

And to be quite honest - if society as a whole was up to date and truly understood the cyber infrastructure of this planet. There'd be riots in the street and a complete breakdown in societal order. 

I laugh at people like you crying about digital ID and facial scans. Everyone's personal information is out there. The internet went without regulation for so long, and the priority has been profit for so long that no one has personal information anymore. 

If you've signed up to this forum, if you've signed up to any social media site, if you have any microsoft/google/apple product - your personal data has been compiled and sold to the highest bidder. 
Every single database you can think of and have interacted with has been hacked, its data has been scraped and it is available on the dark web.
Facial recognition software is already viable and usable globally. Because every single person has a photograph of their face out there with their name attached to it. 

This is what I mean about people being decades behind in knowledge from where digital technology is now. Because the debates about digital technology being had by society are lagging behind by at least 10 years. And people like you go "well just teach people". Where do you start? Most people barely know how to use basic technology that we've been using since Internet 1.0. We're at internet 3.0. 
There are millions of people in every single country that don't even know the basics like what "WWW" means. 

So insulting and for what tbh

Teach parents to close their kids' laptops. Problem solved. Don't force me to surrender even more of my info just 'cause others can't control their spawn.

[phantasmas 12,372]

The better solution was to ban children altogether but that's just my onion 

 

[Ladle Ghoulash 53,130]

7 hours ago, PartySick said:

So insulting and for what tbh

Teach parents to close their kids' laptops. Problem solved. Don't force me to surrender even more of my info just 'cause others can't control their spawn.

Was lowkey kind of shocked to see how many people in this thread were gleefully cheering on government overreach 🫠

[Ladle Ghoulash 53,130]

7 hours ago, PartySick said:

 

 

When kids are getting preyed on by pedos in the niche corners of the internet they've been forced into by legislation like this and the unwillingness for parents to be responsible for their own children y'all know where to point the blame  

Not to mention that the pretext of “child safety” has already been used as justification for all kinds of censorship + surveillance countless times. People do really be falling for propaganda, huh.

Edited December 10, 2025 by Ladle Ghoulash

[OMF 3,662]

“Dozens”? lol surely bit more than that across the country