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Comment by endgame | Hacker News Reader

Of course they aren't. If they were actually helping kids, they would be going after algorithmic feeds in general and the most predatory platforms like Roblox (especially given its recent scandals), doing something about kids being exposed to gambling advertising, etc.

The bill was put up for public comment for less than one business day before being rammed through Parliament. Australia is just sending out one of the horsemen of the infocalypse so that other countries have an excuse to follow suit. Like how our "Assistance And Access" Act was a test run of the UK's "snooper's charter".

This law will just lead to:

1. kids pretending to be adults so they sneak through these filters

2. platforms winding back their (meagre) child safety efforts since "children are banned anyway"

3. everyone being forced to prove their age via e.g. uploading ID (which will inevitably get leaked)

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>going after algorithmic feeds

This is such an older person take. Users really like Algorithmic feeds and see the removal of such a feature to be platform destroying. Cronological feeds are still easy to game and abuse.

>predatory platforms like Roblox

What makes roblox a predatory platform and what would you change to make it not a predatory platform? To me Roblox is a predatory platform because of the age group of people not because of the platform design.

> kids pretending to be adults so they sneak through these filters

The real question is: how hard does it make it for them to pretend to be adults? We just need it to be hard enough that most kids won't do it.

> platforms winding back their (meagre) child safety efforts since "children are banned anyway"

If the law forces the platforms to properly ban children, I don't see how they can do that. If you're thinking that the platforms will just say "it's illegal for children to join, so we don't have to do anything because they shouldn't come in the first place", then I don't think the law is made like this.

> everyone being forced to prove their age via e.g. uploading ID (which will inevitably get leaked)

Some countries have been working on privacy-preserving age verification. I find it's a lot better than uploading an ID.

> We just need it to be hard enough that most kids won't do it.

Silly though that sounds, it might work. Because it's social pressure from other kids to be online that drives many kids into being constantly on Instagram and Snapchat. If you're not online, you don't know what's going on. The big social networks monetize FOMO.

If a sizable fraction of kids aren't on social media, that's not where it's happening any more. The pressure goes away. Or goes elsewhere.

Validating your comment.

Freakonomics did a podcast about what you are describing.

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/are-you-caught-in-a-social-...

Kids pretending to be adults know they are doing something wrong. They are likely to practice acting like adults, don't pressure each other to join, and are harder for predators to find.

> algorithmic feeds in general

Do you only use /new of HN...?

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