Photo: SKI
The scope continues to expand.
MORE PLATFORMS ADDED
Australia’s social media age verification trojan horse will now apply to messaging board Reddit (big news) and live-streaming platform Kick, as well as the Meta-owned Threads, the online safety regulator has ruled.
Communications Minister, Anika Wells, confirmed the platforms are joining Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook and Instagram, as “age-restricted” from December 10.
The eSafety Commission declared the nine services currently meet the criteria for being included in the ban, specifically relating to the fact their “sole or significant purpose is to enable online social interaction”.
Threads, which requires an Instagram account to access, is a last minute addition.
Wells said she had met with the major social media platforms in the past month, and they understood there was “no excuse for failure” in implementing the ban.
“eSafety has assessed platforms as requiring age-restriction but their assessments will be ongoing and this list is dynamic,” she said.
“We aren’t chasing perfection; we are chasing a meaningful difference.”
Nice words for a plan that will evolve to engulf much of the internet over time.
She even says it herself – the list is dynamic and will constantly be reviewed.
From 10 December, any platform that fails to “take reasonable steps to keep Australians under the age of 16 from holding an account” will face fines of up to $49.5 million.
Tech giants have argued the government’s slow release of information and guidance so close to the start date has hampered their ability to prepare to implement restrictions.
But at a Senate hearing last week, officials representing TikTok, Meta and Snap all confirmed they would indeed comply when the new laws take effect next month.
Social media giants to comply with age checks, warn ID may be required
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Wells said there was a “time and place for social media in Australia”, but there was no space for “predatory algorithms, harmful content and toxic popularity metres manipulating Australian children”.
But ask her to define ‘harmful’ and ‘toxic’.. well, that’s a different story.
Meanwhile, what about Twitch?
As explored in latest member video, this site is potentially the worst of them all, simply from a perspective of harm to children. 24/7 streaming personalities who willingly put themselves in a world out of The Truman Show – and encourage kids to do the same.
Would You Watch Someone’s Life With 24 Hour-a-Day Access?
RELATED VIDEO
Another point proving it is not actually about ‘children’s safety’, it’s about targeting all avenues that free speech may be allowed to prosper – to track and trace accounts.
Twitch, although very harmful to children, doesn’t have people talking about rising up against the government, or the Israeli lobby, or the hidden hands behind news stories.
So, it seems like they are safe.
Perhaps one day they will be included, as I can foresee this legislation – underpinned by Digital ID and mass biometric analysis – be expanded to include most of the internet.
Because, ‘if children go elsewhere, we need to shut them down too’.
‘If a child leaves Facebook, they could end up on TOTT News, so they must be included’.
The scope will continue to broaden as the years go on, ladies and gentlemen.
BROADENING SCOPE
Both the federal government and social media companies have been very hidden about exactly what methods will be used when this goes live next month.
A preliminary report from trials suggested everything is ‘robust and ready’ for rollout, and that there are “no significant technological barriers preventing the deployment”.
Social media verification trial finds technology is ‘effective’ ahead of rollout
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While the ban ‘applies to young people’, to work, it will also require adults to verify their ages with social media providers, to the concern of many individuals.
It is predicted that age assurance, either via official documentation or biometric identification linked to a dataset, will eventually end up being the methods employed.
Meanwhile, face-scanning technology tested on school students as part of the trial could only guess their age within an 18-month range in 85 per cent of cases.
Even ignoring the difficulties of determining whether a photo or video was taken live, this kind of technology is known to be imperfect.
Previous evaluation has shown that on average it is accurate within only 3.7 years of somebody’s true age. More concerning, it performs worse on tweens and teens than it does on adults over 20. So, age estimation may fail, and tougher measures will emerge.
I believe this is just the first phase, and when biometric age assurance fails, it will become government-linked Digital ID via your phone or app that will grant access.
They will do whatever is necessary to get it done, so they can have total surveillance, including a eventual crack down on VPNs and other alternative avenues.
Let’s not forget that last year, it was announced that tech giants will be forced to scan emails, online photo libraries, cloud storage accounts, and dating sites of Aussies for “illegal content”, or face fines of nearly $700,000 per day.
eSafety Commissioner will force big tech to scan photos, emails
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Apple warned the proposal to force tech companies to scan cloud and messaging services for child-abuse material risks “…undermining fundamental privacy and security protections” and “…could lead to mass surveillance with worldwide repercussions“.
It’s all about ‘protecting the children’ from harm, including ‘disinformation’.
Australia is already part of an international coalition of over 60 nation states who launched A Declaration for the Future of the Internet to ‘fight disinformation’.
Australia joins 60 country pledge to ‘reclaim’ internet, fight ‘disinformation’
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The eSafety Commissioner had her hands all over both of those pushes, as she does with this new attempt to implement Digital ID by stealth.
What will the internet look like in Australia from next month?
Will this be the beginning of the end of internet freedom in this country?
Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
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Twitch not included, along with gaming platforms that so many children use and can chat with strangers? So is this really about protecting children? No, more like getting adults to provide ID. How do we get around this one?
It’s never been about protecting children. If that had been the case they would have protected children better in childcare centres, schools, foster carers, abusive households, etc It’s about shutting us all off from seeing anything that govt doesn’t want us to see. It’s about stopping young people from seeing anything about problems with govt or other govts. or anything that they are able to understand from a fairly young age.
The sad thing is most people will likely give in to this and pretty soon in 5, 10, 15 years time you’ll be required to provide ID to access most sites on the internet!
From Allied Council of Australia:
What You Can Do Right Now
Knowledge is power — and momentum starts with awareness.
You can help slow the net from tightening by taking these simple, practical steps:
Refuse to enrol in Digital ID systems wherever it’s still optional
You don’t have to comply.
Australia’s Digital ID Act 2024 (Cth) makes it clear under Section 74:
“Creating and using a digital ID is voluntary.”
That means:
No one — not a business, not a government department — can force you to use Digital ID to access a service.
But the trick: they won’t tell you about the alternative – they’ll only give you the Digital ID option: that’s a plan, that’s a ploy, that’s the plot.
If they try, remind them of Section 74 and insist on and use the alternatives – note they won’t be as convenient but they will retain your privacy.
They must provide an alternative.
“No one — not a business, not a government department — can force you to use Digital ID to access a service.” they said the same thing about the vax and mask mandates…look how that turned out
I was just letting people know what Allied Council pointed out under Section 74, but yes using coercion gets people to do anything, when you block their access to what they normally do in their life. As with the Under 16 social media ban it is being put on the social media companies to fulfill this ban NOT Government.
The real crux of the matter is that we are entering into a era where you have verify who you are in order to access services that previously did not require you to do so, whether it is via the government’s official digital ID platform or uploading official ID documentation and or a face scan to a third party verifier, all to protect the children of course!
Yep no doubt they will start with welfare recipients. Just like trying to get parents to get their kids vaccinated and deducted a payment when they don’t comply. No jab no pay will be No id no pay.