The Australian social media ban has started.
Well, sort of. It came in on Monday but begins officially on the 10th of December.
The worrying thing is one of the big proponents of the idea said she believed with all her heart that "we were saving a generation".
That is not true. Saving them from what? Themselves?
Theory vs reality is very powerfully at play in this move. We are dealing with too many intangibles.
Between Monday and this time next week, teens are busy finding new apps that aren't covered by the ban. Influencers are busy directing traffic to these new outlets in order to work around the rules.
The Government is smart to this and has announced a new series of apps that will be covered. So we are in a sort of whack-a-mole stage.
As far as I can work out a lot of pressure has been placed on the tech companies to make sure kids don鈥檛 lie.
How literally that works I have no idea.
Like alcohol, you will be asked what age you are.
Whether a tech company can be held liable for dishonesty, I suppose in some way, shape or form, will end up in court.
With face recognition user profiles can be used, I guess. But at some point, a market the size of Australia may end up being more trouble than it's worth.
It's far better to battle, as they do, with places like the EU where privacy and trading laws are constantly under review and fines are handed out on an almost continual basis.
Never forgetting of course, we are now dealing with businesses worth more than many countries and Governments.
However, on the flip side this could of course be the Trojan horse. Australia is at the forefront of a major global movement that is going to somehow shift the nature of technological interaction of an entire generation.
Studies may be launched. They'll look at things like if you were banned before you turned 16, when you got to the golden age did you go nuts? Remember repression is a problematic trait in a lot of social activity.
So we watch with interest. I don鈥檛 think it will lead to a lot. It has a touch of virtue signalling about it.
But theory in Australia is now reality. I bet a lot of parents wish them well.
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