[Reason077]

My 15-year old niece who recently visited her cousins in Australia assured me that the recently enacted Aussie law did not affect her ability to access socials while in Australia, nor has it affected her U16 cousins, who still have their accounts. Apparently the age checking there only applies to newly created accounts.

[stephen_g]

It depended on how long the account had been active - one or two of my cousin's kids were pretty sad they lost access to some of their accounts but had new ones the same day with an older sibling or friend's face scan to bypass the age check.

Reportedly more than 3/4 of under-16s who were using social media before the ban still are.

[basisword]

>> Aussie law did not affect her ability to access socials while in Australia

I think that's expected.

>> Apparently the age checking there only applies to newly created accounts

Social media companies had to try and identify existing accounts owned by < 16 year olds and start removing them at the start of this year. I'd guess that process is slow and they don't do it unless they're certain. But if they stop new accounts effectively then within a few years the ban would be pretty effective.

[JumpCrisscross]

Is there a plan to start fining the social media companies themselves? Or raise their liability thresholds?

This is sort of like the illegal-immigration debate. If you’re serious about fixing it, go after employers. Same for underage social media users. If you want to actually solve it, you have to penalize the platforms.

[ian_holt]

<s there a plan to start fining the social media companies themselves? Or raise their liability thresholds?>

they will apparently be fined around AUD$50M if they fail to do due diligence (not sure how the legislation phrases. I am not sure if any social media company has at this stage. Unfortunately we have a dictator as a so-called e-safety commissioner backed up by an equally useless PM who seem to think all parents are unable to monitor themselves or their kids online behaviour

[pesus]

Seems like a drop in the bucket for these corporations. If anything, it'll just entrench the existing social media sites further and be another operating cost for them.

[foldr]

This is the plan in the UK, yes: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4500988470135094

[dyauspitr]

Maybe not immediately but over time it can be given some teeth.

[selcuka]

Over time those who are underage and have existing accounts will grow up.