This is the script of my national radio report yesterday on the status
of the new Australian law attempting to ban children under
16-years-old from social media, and its implications for here in the
U.S. As always, there may have been minor wording variations from this
script as I presented this report live on air.
- - -
Indeed there's a lot of interest in how Australia's law to try keep
under 16-year-old children off social media platforms has been going.
And actually, it looks like it's been going absolutely great -- well,
that is, it's going great if you're someone under 16 who wants to
continue using social media!
Because, as expected, the kids have been running circles around the
adults when it comes to this, to a degree that might make your head
spin. There are so many ways that children under 16 are evading the
ban that it would be time consuming to even list them all here now.
Many kids are back on the platforms 24 hours or less after being
kicked off for being too young.
And of course, the government is saying that they expected this,
didn't expect it to be foolproof or 100% at the start blah blah blah.
But the reality to most observers of the law is that, like online age
verification schemes in general, the plan is unlikely to succeed at
its goals and in many cases, these schemes can do more harm than good.
How are Australian youths bypassing the restrictions? I'll mention a
few methods, and keep in mind that the Australian law doesn't penalize
social media users for getting passed the age blocks, it's the social
media platforms that are penalized. Also the Australian law makes NO
provision for parents to CHOOSE to let their children under 16 use the
social media platforms. You heard that right, the government is saying
that they know best how parents should raise their kids, and how the
parents feel about this just doesn't matter.
Many parents feel that under proper supervision various social media
has important educational and other benefits, and so many parents are
simply letting their children use their own adult accounts, or the
accounts of older siblings. Many under-16 children are using the
accounts of older friends. These are pretty obvious methods, and there
are many more ways too -- kids are smart about tech. Many are using
VPNs to appear to be outside Australia. Another popular technique is
to use facial makeup to appear older to age estimation systems, or to
use AI to create completely artificial adult appearing personas for
social media access. Social media accounts abound on a black market
for access. Kids are using communications on a variety of relatively
lesser known websites to trade tips and techniques on evading the
social media ban. One of the concerns about the ban is that it would
push children to search out other areas of the Internet that were not
controlled at all, with the prospect of being exposed to individuals
in potentially much more hazardous ways than on the mainstream social
media platforms.
And of course, since all actual adults have to go through these same
procedures to prove that they are adults, an array of privacy related
and hacking exposure concerns are quickly pulled into scope, which is
why so many adults object to using credit cards or government ID
credentials for age verification -- and leaks of such data used that
way have already occurred!
Even in China, with its vast government system for tracking and
controlling virtually all Internet usage, users find ways to evade the
controls, even at the risk of prison sentences for doing so.
While the motives of many politicians pushing age verification systems
are often laudable, the concept is widely viewed by experts as
fundamentally unworkable. And here in the U.S., where many states and
the federal government are pushing various social media age blocking
laws, some already in litigation, the added factor of the First
Amendment immediately comes into focus.
And let's face it, when you try to make something like this forbidden,
it often becomes all the more desirable, and ever more effort will be
expended to gain access to it.
We all want to protect the kids, but age gating schemes of these sorts
aren't the way. They encourage kids into workarounds and onto sites
that may actually expose them to far more risks, and generally present
a range of serious government tracking and other privacy hazards
affecting both children and adults. Yet another example of a
technology road to the proverbial hell that's paved with good
intentions. Not a solution, but rather a trap that we should
definitely avoid.
- - -
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Signal: By request on need to know basis
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
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