AI6YR Benš¤Ø
Seriously? I don't think you can put that genie back in the bottle...
BBC: Under-16s to be banned from TikTok, YouTube and other social media by next spring, Starmer says
Michael BuschI continue to wonder where the push for these blanket bans on social media, cell phones, etc. are coming from.
Since they manifestly do not help anyone.
Justin Macleod@michael_w_busch @ai6yr the desire for mass surveilence. Such a ban cannot be implemented without mass age verification.
The version here in Minnesota would involve "age estimation" done explicitly by surveilling everyone online.
I am just wondering if this is Facebook / Google / etc. pushing for bans that enable them to do more of the surveillance capitalism they already do to avoid actual effective regulation.
Or if there is some other motivation.
`Da Elf@michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr Facebook / Google / etc Love this shit. They can do it in-house and at scale.
Everyone else is going to use third parties:
1. Who will store that data...
2. They WILL get breached (they Always do).
3. They WILL track which sites you auth against.
4. They WILL sell that information.
This isn't speculation, it's simply inevitable.
It was quite disappointing to witness Minnesota state legislators who should know better promoting "age estimation" because sites won't be making copies of everyone's IDs, when the legislators could have simply opposed mass surveillance instead.
Charlie Stross@michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr AIUI Meta is lobbying *hard* for age verification to be mandated at every level and farmed out to the OS provider. Otherwise they'd be required to moderate their user contributed content, which annoys the shouty neo-nazis who generate the most advertising click-throughs. (They're not yet ready to switch to 100% AI-generated slop content, which would save on the moderation.)
Diane@cstross @michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr
I stumbled on a plausible argument that News corp is a big reason for pushing to ban teens from social media to get them back on traditional media.
https://www.techpolicy.press/youve-been-murdoched-australias-teen-ban-offers-a-warning-for-europe/
Having Australia and the UK be the first to go hard for teen bans is certainly consistent with it being due to news corp lobbying
Matt Panaro@alienghic perhaps they're still pissed off their MySpace acquisition failed to pan out šļø
Bern@alienghic @cstross @michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr Living in Australia, it was blatantly obvious that the ban was being pushed hardest by Murdoch-owned outlets, Murdoch-influenced outlets, and Murchoch-owned politicians - er, sorry, "politicians to whom very rich people sometimes make donations..."
Supermoosie@Bern @alienghic @cstross @michael_w_busch @JustinMac84
They held a carefully stage managed summit which avoided any alternative views.
Then later used that summit as justification for the laws.
All the time Murdoch press, finch advertising and the "non profit" pushed it as the only solution.
Alternative views were drowned out or ignored.
Pushed through without understanding how, why kids use social media. How it would effect kids. Hanging out to dry the lonely, rural, those with family overseas, those with disabilities that get bullied in real life, but have online friends who don't care what they look like.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/11/21/teen-social-media-ban-jonathan-haidt-peter-malinauskas/
Offbeatmammal@alienghic @cstross @michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr perhaps they need to ban old people from watching/reading News Corp slop?
You might like this commentary on the teen social media moral panic introduced by a bit of elder TV satire.
https://zephoria.substack.com/p/protect-elders-ban-television
Protect Elders! Ban Television!!
Television is a serious problem! We must stop elders from watching TV for their own safety!Using a bit of satire, I dive into the current conversation about protecting children from social media "for their mental health." The tl;dr of this story: New regulations are fundamentally about exerting control over young people. They will do the opposite of helping them. #socialmedia #mentalhealth #safety #children
@alienghic @cstross @michael_w_busch @JustinMac84
The Australian u16 ban was also pushed by an advertising company and 32 global brands.
Finch Advertising agency, The radio personality on NOVA FM, owned by Murdoch were part of the "non profit" pushing it.
Did not care about kids, just wanted them back watching tv and radio, so they could consume advertising they controled.
They also owned AI age verification software to sell.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/09/36-months-teen-social-media-ban-big-tech-brands/
Amgine@alienghic @cstross @michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr
Add #Canada to your list of commonwealth nations being targeted, though, and the theory is no longer quite so persuasive.
If I recall correctly, in Australia and the USA the big lobbyist hires were by surveillance tech (e.g. Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Palantir, everything Musky) - a veritable K-bomb in Washington D.C. - and by <reads notes> PACs backing Trump & the Republican party including religious-oriented.
@Amgine @cstross @michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr
Yeah the various far right rich people factions hang out in the same group chats.
Like I believe part of the push for AI is coming from the fossil fuel industry looking to keep demand up. So you get things like the Saudi's investing in AI.
Nazo@michael_w_busch @JustinMac84 @ai6yr Meta in particular was actually quite literally behind most of the push towards all this. And I'm pretty sure you're not only right, but that it actually goes further. Most small-time sites (especially non-profit things that don't ask for money) can't afford to pay the one or two data brokers that will be used for processing IDs and such. They'll just have to go down. This sets Meta and their co-conspirators up to be the sole gateways of the Internet...
I fished up one plausible explanation searching for billionaire social media ban. Eventually that led to Murdoch social media ban and this plausible looking article
https://www.techpolicy.press/youve-been-murdoched-australias-teen-ban-offers-a-warning-for-europe/
It argues that Murdoch is trying force people away from social media and back to traditional media.
me_valentijn@ai6yr
It's never too early to learn about state censorship and VPNs š
It's never too early to learn about state censorship and VPNs š
Third spruce tree on the leftLike everyone else round here I know these bans are useless and impossible to implement practically.
I am however overjoyed that this will bring forth a new young generation of kids who know more than any of us about digital privacy and block/ban circumvention strategies.
Time to go find some island micronation with its own TLD and no DRM/security enforcement agreements and start setting up VPN exit nodes.
@me_valentijn @ai6yr They're coming for VPNs. What then? Genuine and serious question. My government wants to impose age verification and surveilence on everything.
Myotis 
@ai6yr canada is trying to do this too i heard
Franky, I think itās the billionaires and trillionaire who should be banned.
And as shitty as this isā¦the kids are gonna get on anyway. I grew up as the Internet became mainstream. Schools tried to block ānon educationalā sites. Our high school gave up because the tech peeps couldnāt keep up with the firewall hacking from the students. After a few months of those added controls; they got tired of paying for all the overtime just to have it broken the next morning before homeroom was over. š¤
FeloniousPunk@ai6yr Iām guessing Starmer has stock in VPN companies
Mother Bones
T. J. Bombadil@_L1vY_ ThĪ©Ī©Ī©Ī©Ī©Ī©Ī© That seems low ;-)
Becca
The Doctor@_L1vY_ @[email protected] I should hope they're evading it!
Darwin WoodkaHoe else will we train the next generation of hackers?
@darwinwoodka @ai6yr *Wipes Coffee off screen*
Stuart Longland (VK4MSL)
Fardels BearEven now, I occasionally get asked to verify my age on Youtube. The last time was a trailer for a film. Since I dumped my google account a while ago, that's obviously not possible, and I would refuse anyway on general principles. So if this goes through it's goodbye Youtube.
Faraiwe