Australia

I’m a disabled adult that lives in an unsafe area, relying a lot on the internet for entertainment, information, and a connection to the world. As well as life and work increasingly involving being online for most of us.

I also don’t fancy the risk of identity theft or being doxxed. And even if I wasn’t in a position to be chronically online, these measures set a concerning precedent for online privacy and control of information that is much larger than our individual screen time.

among my concerns is being able to delete my account if login gets blocked by an ID check

This morning I have opened: Lemmy (aussie.zone), Discord, WhatsApp, Bluesky, Messenger, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube.

None of them have asked me to verify my age, neither the ones that said they would nor the ones explicitly exempt nor the ones about which we know nothing.

My Facebook and Google accounts are probably old enough that they don't need to verify. All the other accounts are too young for that to work.

Bluesky asked me to enter my date of birth, but did not require anything to substantiate the date I entered.

I'm a Millennial, so my age isn't an issue. But I don't want to give anything identifying to any platform. (I like the approach aussie.zone is taking.) So I am relieved that thus far my accounts are unaffected.

But I'm also feeling a healthy dose of "where's the boogeyman we were promised?" and wondering when the shoe is going to drop.

It's so frustrating seeing the government fiddling in the margins to grab headlines rather than, doing something constructive. This is going to devolve into a game of whack-a-mole trying to make it look like it is achieving something other than what it is (normalising the idea of having to dox yourself to access the internet). Meanwhile I have just lost all the passive ability to monitor what my teens watch on YouTube, and the easy ability to check in on their conversations on Snapchat. They have thrown my kids out into the wild west of barely moderated YouTube and dubious chat apps.

If they had implemented strong laws around algorithmic outputs, human moderation, and online harassment then we would have been applauding them for holding the social media companies to account. Instead what they have done is laid another part of the foundation of a surveillance state.

In essence the governments desire to be seen to be doing something is dovetailing neatly with the shit heads that want everything we do online to be monitored, recorded and as a byproduct more heavily monetised.

Also since they are doing this to protect the children, is there a number of children they are willing to sacrifice to achieve their goals. How many marginalised kids have to self harm before they start to ask the question "Are we the baddies?" We already know that social media has had Perverse Incentives at play that have shaped it, so while it sounds hyperbolic I don't imagine it's beyond the pale that the LGBTQI+ kid who lives in a rural area with 0 local support is going to be affected by their online support networks disappearing. The kid suffering from domestic violence suddenly becomes voiceless and can't work out who they trust enough to reach out to. The bullying goes to the all new special app all the kids on the playground are using that is hosted out of another country that doesn't give a shit about Australian laws and becomes impossible to take down as we have just taught our kids to work around the tissue paper blocks the government keeps relying on.

On top of all this, we don't have comprehensive data privacy laws, and while the government says it will levy massive fines against companies that don't take reasonable steps to secure our data, the reality is that they will not, and if they tried to what's to stop the companies deciding that Australia is not an economically sound country to operate in and just up stumps and leave rather than paying the $85,000,000 fine?

This is all just the surface level thoughts I have of this debacle.

I find it hilarious that the only people who can't talk about this online right now are also the only ones directly affected by it.

Well the best part of all of this is it will incentivize youth to learn how to get assertive doing this stuff. I have been so disappointed by my teenage Canadian daughter not even being willing to use a web browser, but if you took aware her Roblox unless she could hack around the government requirements she'd find a way. Oh who am I kidding my wife would make me do it for her.

Please do not mention workarounds here

Honestly, considering the commission's guidance actually specifically says the sites are supposed to take into account these workarounds, I think discussing them should be fair game. If nothing else, in the name of transparency and of calling out uncompliant sites.

Wow I wish the media would remember that a strong independent media that is willing to hold the government to account actually makes for a stronger democracy.

Somehow Jonathon Haidt is being discussed as the ultimate authority on this topic because he wrote a book that some pollies read. Not seeing Candice Odgers being brought up, just to grab a name at random. Her take seems a bit more nuanced but we can't do nuance these days.

And meanwhile the truly catastrophic damage is already being done, how many young people handed over their biometric data today? Yes there is a lot of noise in that data, but the politicians are categorically stating that the systems will improve over time, if the scope of data collection is solely for the purpose of performing verification and no data is being retained... How exactly are these systems expecting to improve over time... And the mask is off, "Won't somebody think of the kids?!?!" Is actually, "Won't somebody provide categorised biometric data to the scumbag AI companies?".

Citizens need to start demanding that the eSafety Commissioner investigate these AI companies for misappropriation of data starting today, if the demands are concerted and consistent enough maybe we can keep the government tied up investigating these companies and help them avoid shooting any more toes off in the process.

Good idea for a post!

I'm very interested to see what if anything happens to my accounts. My Reddit is 13, my Facebook probably 16 or 17, my YouTube could probably vote.

My Twitch account is quite young...I may have first created it during the pandemic, and I certainly only first started using it with any regularity then. But I do mostly watch streams of games old enough that the average professional is in their late 20s.

I have Xitter and Snapchat accounts, but haven't used them in years and won't try logging in just to see how this affects them.

I've never used Threads, TikTok, Kick, or Instagram, to round out the list of platforms specifically mentioned by eSafety.

I've only looked Facebook, Discord, and YouTube so far. No general age gating, but today is the first day I've been asked for age verification by Discord to view NSFW channels. Frustrating, because the only NSFW channel I actually ever look at is for some very slightly memes in a server that I'm a mod of. Hard to mod if they're gating me.

I suspect they've tagged my account, so a VPN won't work. But I wonder if pointing my camera at some fake old people will work.

I'll be hanging out without complying until I get banned fyi.

Sounds like the ban didn't work very well !

Here are some other comments from parents who contacted the ABC as part of an audience call-out looking at the immediate impacts of the social media ban:

"My son opened TikTok this morning and received this message: 'The social media ban has come into effect. Your age is estimated to be 18 years old.' He is 11." — David, Vic

"My 13-year-old son has passed the age verification face scan by hiding his teeth and scrunching up his face. It guessed his age as 30+. In real life he passes for a 10-year-old." — Matt, Qld

"My son is almost 16 and has been kicked off Snapchat already on the 9th December but my daughter who is 14 still hasn't been asked to verify her age on the app. We know multiple children who are 13 who passed the Face ID scan." — Melissa, WA

"My 13-year-old daughter still has access to all her social media accounts this morning, and she verified her age via facial scanning. I am hoping that they are still working their way through and she will be booted off soon. If not then it's a fail for us." — Alison, NSW

"I am under the age of 16 and have not been banned on any platform. Many of my friends in my grade are also under 16 and not one of them has been banned yet." — Julius, Qld

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-10/social-media-ban-day-one-teen-access/106126706

On the bright side, hopefully the social media giants cop some big fines.

When the day comes that we are finally forced to take a video selfie:

Have any adults had trouble verifying on any platforms ?

Which platforms have prompted you to verify? None have asked me yet.