From Australia to Europe, countries move to curb children's social media access

In Australia, back in 2021, we had a senior politician run out of politics because a relatively small-time YouTuber just wouldn't shut up about his connections to organised crime. And friendlyjordies house was eventually firebombed by the organised criminals too, so that was interesting.

Now obviously one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch [0] but it always struck me as the sort of thing that would ruffle feathers in parliament. I'm not surprised to see our regulations described as among the world's toughest and I doubt it is going to stop here, there is a very motivated faction who want to be able to shut troublemakers up.

[0] Barilaro was only the deputy premier of New South Wales at the time, not anything important. Ow my sarcasm gland is strained now.

A ban is a good idea, but not by eroding the privacy of every adult, for all of the reasons stated elsewhere.

I think most people agree that social media is toxic, not just for children, but adults too.

What I don't understand is why parents don't take responsibility for reducing the contact with such harmful products.

Even growing up in the 70's, most children didn't smoke or drink alcohol, not because they didn't have access to it, but because of the wrath of their parents.

Where's the regulation of addictive dark patterns that hook kids and adults alike? Most jurisdictions regulate gambling to reduce societal harm. Social media is little different; it just has an advertising middle man.

All of that in a very organic, and not at all coordinated way.

_Social media company execs_ also want to curb their children's social media access.

I would expect more outrage but it seems people are burned out/don’t care?

They move towards having every adult "show their id" when doing stuff online.

This could have easily been solved by parental controls and banning advertising towards children (or ban advertising all together for underage accounts, everywhere... by a new phone, set that it's a phone for an underage person, add a guardian who can unlock stuff if needed, and no ads anywhere are allowed).

But nope, instead we get face scans and digital IDs.

The most important question here is not whether social media access should be banned to children. The question is whether everyone's rights should be stripped in an effort to enforce such a ban. I find this whole globally coordinated endeavor to be outrageous in its illiberality, and manipulative in its appeal to protecting children to justify these encroachments on people's rights.