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Comment by marcus_holmes | Hacker News Reader

This. This legislation has got nothing to do with moderation or "protecting children" - that's just the excuse that the government is using to push the legislation through. There are better ways of achieving that goal if that was the goal.

The actual goal is, as always, complete control over what Australians can see and do on the internet, and complete knowledge of what we see and do on the internet.

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Agreed but would also add the ability to prosecute anyone who writes something they don't like/agree with.

They can already do that, see e.g. what the UK is doing in response to tweets. You don't need identity verification to have an ISP tell you the person behind an IP.

IP addresses don't have anything like a 1:1 mapping to human beings and it's pretty trivial and inexpensive to get one from someone other than your ISP (e.g. use a VPN) if you have any concerns about that sort of thing.

Pfft. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display....

Read it. It is specifically targeting companies who currently run riot over young individual's digital identity, flog it off to marketers, and treat them as a product.

I point you to section 63C 1 in that document:

      (1)  For the purposes of this Act, age-restricted social media platform means:
               (a)  an electronic service that satisfies the following conditions:
                        (i)  the sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between 2 or more end-users;
                        (ii)  the service allows end-users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end-users;
                        (iii)  the service allows end-users to post material on the service;
                        (iv)  such other conditions (if any) as are set out in the legislative rules; or
               (b)  an electronic service specified in the legislative rules;

but does not include a service mentioned in subsection (6).

I see nothing in there that talks about young people, identities, flogging anything to marketers, or treating people as product.

I don't dispute that that happens. All I'm saying is that this act is not solving that problem, isn't intended to solve that problem, and is actually part of a larger push to censor the internet for Australians.

This act, as written, requires all interactive websites that are accessible to end-users in Australia to implement age restrictions. And in order to implement age restrictions they must remove anonymity. Which is the point.

i think governments are confused by the internet. on the one hand business uses it to save money and pay taxes. broligarch's get rich from it. yet it exposes the unwashed masses to all sorts of information that might otherwise face censorship. theres always sex and drugs you can use as a reason to clamp down on things. the tough thing for them will be how do you reign in the plebs while also allowing business and advertising to function unfettered... tough times ahead :p

p.s. i agree with your comment.

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