#ausgov

Read that again.

White sharks are washing up dead in South Australia.

This is because the temperature of the ocean has risen, causing an algae bloom to over take the water, smothering their gills and suffocating them.

The temperature has risen.

This algae bloom has caused an ecological catastrophe. It’s a dead zone for all gilled life forms. When it dies it will smoother the aquatic life.

It puts the government and corporations in charge of what is “safe” for kids, potentially allowing for censorship from people who, frankly, shouldn’t put themselves in charge of other people’s kids. Parenting is not the job of the government. It’s the job of the parents. If the parent can’t put the effort in to restrict what the kids are ingesting on social media, maybe the parent shouldn’t have let the kid on social media in the first place.

If the government really cared about the kids, they would actually help them. They’d provide programs to benefit students struggling in school, families in poverty, single or unemployed parents, and children in indigenous communities who (in case you didnt know) are more likely to experience all the things I just listed. They’d put more funding towards schools in general, but especially kids in low income areas. If they thought social media was damaging to kids mental health, then they should mandate for the corporations to add the ability for parental controls, not ban it from view from anyone who is smart enough to not give out their government information to corporations that are historically known for data leaking and brokerage. It should be the parent’s responsibility to protect their kids, not the government’s.

This will also affect anyone with facial differences, such as disabilities or severe scarring. Facial recognition literally doesn’t recognise them as human. So they’re cut off from social media, which for a lot of people acts as a news source, a point of connection both locally and internationally, and a creative outlet. Theres also a very good chance that whatever AI they’re using won’t be able to recognise non-white features, because let’s be so fucking real for a second? We don’t know how this tech works. As far as we know, it’s been trained on the faces of random people, most of whom will probably be white because racism is fucked like that.

it's paraded as a way of protecting the youth from social media but remember, this would potentially put under-16s who are on social media in a dangerous place. say, if such a bill was passed and an under-16 finds themself on social media and does end up in a dangerous space, it could be used to silence them from predators with a potential reason being "you weren't supposed to be on social media in the first place". even without direct threats, australian youth might feel scared to come out regarding online predators because of this law and it will only harm people in the long run. edit to add: this is already the case for 13/14 year olds on the internet, but this ban could exacerbate this greatly.

this also is detrimental in the long run because when those who live their youth during the ban begin using social media, they will be more vulnerable to harmful online content and harassment. it's setting a generation of young adults up for failure.

as said earlier, it's potential to be unconstitutional should be noted. while freedom of expression is not explicitly protected in by the australian constitution, the implied freedom to political communication is. this means that, while the australian government does not explicitly protect the individuals, it restricts laws from impinging free speech and communication regarding the government and politics. this ban would, in its nature, restrict political conversations for under-16s by removing a platform for them to receive information. this would result in under-16s who have a limited knowledge of aussie politics, who have the right to vote in only two years, which, as said, sets up a generation of youths up for failure. and it's clear that children do have a place in politics, as evidenced by greta thunberg and the many others. however, the IFPC is not absolute, it is implied. there's much more to be said on this point specifically, so i'd recommend checking this article to learn more about how the social media ban is potentially unconstitutional.

more to add: this ban is also hugely vague and it's unclear how the government actually plans to implement this (passports? driver's license? other personal docs?) and there's nothing good that can come from a vague ban.

what the aussie government needs to focus on for aussie youth is online education. so many young australians do not receive adequate online education that is relevant to the social media they use. this is the case because social media is ever-evolving, and providing education that teachers the youth how to spot predators is difficult, but banning social media is a horrible way to target this.

Link to a petition in my pinned post. Sign if you are Australian

Also spread word abt it please and thank you :3

Fuck the OSA (Online safety amendment) and fuck the esafety commissioner and double fuck all this censorship bs we have to put up with every time some idiots decide they own what we say

Anyway, this might be goodbye, and I will update if it is not.