"The law does not specify which social media platforms will be banned. Instead, this decision is left to Australia’s communications minister who will work alongside the country’s internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, to enforce the rules. This gives government officials dangerous power to target services they do not like, all at a cost to both minor and adult internet users.
The legislation also does not specify what type of age verification technology will be necessary to implement the restrictions but prohibits using only government IDs for this purpose. This is a flawed attempt to protect privacy.
Since platforms will have to provide other means to verify their users’ ages other than by government ID, they will likely rely on unreliable tools like biometric scanners. The Australian government awarded the contract for testing age verification technology to a UK-based company, Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) who, according to the company website, “can test all kinds of age verification systems,” including “biometrics, database lookups, and artificial intelligence-based solutions.”"
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/12/australia-banning-kids-social-media-does-more-harm-good
#Australia #SocialMedia #AgeVerification #Surveillance #Privacy #DataProtection
This is one of those write-ups that gets pretty entertaining (and doesn’t change) if we add the sentence “But, of course, we all know we’re talking about TikTok.” between every other sentence:
“The law does not specify which social media platforms will be banned. But, of course, we all know we’re talking about TikTok. Instead, this decision is left to Australia’s communications minister who will work alongside the country’s internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, to enforce the rules. But, of course, we all know we’re talking about TikTok. This gives government officials dangerous power to target services they do not like, all at a cost to both minor and adult internet users. But, of course, we all know we’re talking about TikTok.”
You could do the same with Facebook or the site formally known as Twatter and the outcome is the same.
That is how laws are written. If the law says tick-tock then all the platform has to do is rebrand and they are no longer required to comply.
