Australia proposes to ban children under 16 years old from using social media \ stacker news ~alter

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Australia proposes to ban children under 16 years old from using social media www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUNDWsR2-Oc

683 sats \ 19 comments \ @ek 30 Nov alter_native

The ban proposal is not very new news, but this video from ColdFusion about it is new.

I see the Australian government stepping in as a response to yet another failure by parents to raise their children appropriately in today's world. However, I understand that keeping up with all the challenges of technology today is not easy.

I’m curious how parents on Stacker News handle this with their children. At what age do you think it’s appropriate for them to start using a smartphone or social media?

Some ~meta commentary:

I wanted to post this in ~culture, but I think 600 sats is not fair (anymore). I’d rather support @DesertDave since he’s more active on Stacker News and, in my opinion, brings more unique value to it. Sorry, @davidw, but I just wanted to share my honest opinion about some unreasonably high territory fees, and this felt like a good opportunity to do so. You’re not the only one to whom I’d apply this reasoning (@benwehrman 👀). I’m starting to see ~alter_native as a good territory to protest against high territory fees.

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86 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 1 Dec

I think it’s hard to curb kids’ use of the Internet generally. My country’s Learning Management System is accessible on mobile phone, and some children like to complete their online assignments on their phones. Not every family has the capacity to purchase an iPad. Of course, once the kids finish their homework (haphazardly), they will play their games and doomscroll and generally waste their time on social media haha.

I think it starts with the parents leading an online-free existence. Read in front of the kids, exercise (I think @gnilma is doing a great job with his kids) and refrain from being so reliant on social media. I have stopped using my phone in front of my kids during meal times. If I want to get my SN fix, I will hide in the washroom (literally where I’m typing this right now).

62 sats \ 2 replies \ @gnilma 1 Dec

I made it very clear to my kids at a very young age that their home is a dictatorship, not a democracy. I try to be a dictator with the wellbeing of my family and the wellbeing of my children as priorities. When it comes to social media, my rule is no social media until they become adults. And being an adult or not is not deemed by a certain age, by judged by me. In other words, if I think they are mature enough for social media, I will allow it. I'll be the judge if they're an adult or not, not their age. I also made it clear, if they want to escape this dictatorship, all they need to do is move out of this house and live on their own independently. But as long as they live under my roof, as long as they depend on me, I have agency over them, and I get to control what they can and cannot do.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 1 Dec

I like your attitude, and I agree with it. I tell my kids, if you don't like it, you're free to leave the home.

As to social media, I think a government ban is just overkill, and pretty much unenforceable. Parents need to stop thinking that the government can raise their kids. Yes it is hard raising kids but only you can do it. and you CAN do it.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @gnilma 1 Dec

Agreed. The government has no place in raising kids. That is parents' responsibility and privilege.

54 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 30 Nov

I think that kids will find a way around it anyway. I'd like my kids to have strong relationships IRL. They need to learn self discipline and there's no reason that this skill starts in adulthood.

Learning about mindfulness would be a great tool to learn through experience how you get sucked into the social media black hole.

43 sats \ 0 replies \ @User21000000 1 Dec

I think kids should not be on social earlier then they are mature enough to handle it .

Kids can be savage and the bullying is and can be brutal. There was a kid in Aus that committed suicide after something was sent viral around the school of them on social.

And the amount of soft porn and other stuff that’s all over this stuff currently

I myself let them use streaming and YouTube and YouTube kids

I have a no YouTube shorts on my older kid 11 but you tube is fine

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @OgFOMK 1 Dec

Government has no business raising your children. But what might happen is that parents of wayward children get fined or put in jail. This is also nanny state nonsense.

This might also be a foot in the door for digital identification and a license to use the internet.

53 sats \ 3 replies \ @Coinsreporter 30 Nov

I was posting "The Daily Zap" and suddenly one day I saw the fees shot up to 250 sats (as I remember) from 100. I made alternative the home for this post and till now I've posted 72 editions of it.

@DesertDave and ~alter_native both are just awesome. I even suggested that he may raise fees upto 100 is reasonable as well.

41 sats \ 2 replies \ @ek OP 30 Nov

Yeah 100 sats would still be reasonable but 44 sats has something unique to it like @DesertDave's contributions 👀

I think we should just appreciate him more instead of telling him what he should do with his territory. I think he's handling it well on his own already.

54 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 1 Dec

Thank you all for your kind words. I like fees at 44 for now. I don't see raising them past 100 anytime in the near future. I feel really good about what ~alter_native is growing into. 🙏

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 1 Dec

Yeah, @DesertDave has done a very good job while grooming and nurturing ~alter_native. I never meant to tell him anything on what to do but it was back in time when the fee for posting on ~alter_native was even lower than 10 Sats. He also made a post for suggestion so that suggestion actually went there. I'm a super fan of ~alter_native (philosophy) and personally I won't mind be it 44 or 88 or 66, upto 100 is reasonable.

I wanna post a lot in ~health and ~culture but I don't only because the posting fees are high there.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @IamSINGLE 1 Dec

I'm sure children (especially older than 10 or 11) will find a way to be there. These kinda bans have never worked even when parents imposed them. If kids can bypass rules set by parents, they can surely bypass imposed by fucking governments.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @xz 1 Dec

Is parenting decentralized governance of children? I'm not a parent, but the notion just sprang to my mind.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @zapsammy 1 Dec

#527852

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ZezzebbulTheMysterious 1 Dec

It was never about the kids. This was always a back door play to force mandatory KYC on all social media. The creepy Australian government desperately wants to deanonymize the internet.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuspotirko 1 Dec

Sidenote about the thumbnail:

Has anyone else noticed a big uptick in using digital filters to emulate analog film grain?

I like analog photography a lot ... but why is that now?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 1 Dec

Interesting times. How can they really enforce this? Especially with nostr.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 1 Dec

Has no one thought of this angle: how do you tell a 16-year-old and under from those over the cut off? This means that there has to be some way to identify everybody using the internet, so they can separate the younguns from the other users. It means a universal identification for everyone that is online. The only way to avoid it is to not be online. In other words, they have snuck in universal digital ID for the poor Ozzies!! See what happens when you give up your guns!! I just wonder when the slaughter begins, although, I understand that almost 100% of the people were dragooned into forcibly uptaking the jab (that may do the depop thing it was designed for very well). I don’t think that this has much to do with for the children at all. Maybe nothing to do with for the children and everything to do with the motherWEFers totalitarianism.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark 1 Dec

Now they just need to do 16+