I think the biggest benefit from the ban is that kids with official accounts are forced off social media, like underaged e-celebs, TikTokers, Instagram influencers etc. That shit is pretty cancerous for young people, the whole clout/money thing. They're not all bad (all the underaged Aussie sponsored skateboarders I follow had to deactivate their accounts) but that whole influencer culture is aids and this kinda makes it impossible for kids here to get involved with until they're 18.
I never took much notice of those sort of accounts so I probably ignore them a bit when it comes to the effect of the ban. You are right they are shit and better off that kids don't see them, but sadly this ban is not really going to stop that for those who really want to see it. It will stop some, like any rule does, but when workarounds, some of them as dodgy as hell, were developed before the ban came in it undermines the value of the ban itself.
Look at the YT ban. It stops kids from having accounts and comments. It doesn't (can't) stop them using YT, just from having comments. Yet kids can still play Roblox which has just as much chance of them interacting with a hate filled arsehole who wants to see pictures of them naked.
What surprised me is the lack of response from some people. The majority of the calls were to stop online bullying, stop kids killing themselves. If we can stop one kid committing suicide because they were bullied online the ban was worth it. But there was some very prominent families of children who had committed suicide because of online actions, who had advocated for child safety online, but never once agreed to how positive the ban was. People who understood that blaming one thing and stopping one thing was not the answer for all children.
Interestingly enough, this forum would be banned for under 16s under the letter of the law. The fact it's not run from Australia would make it difficult for them to control so they wouldn't ever do it though.
Fair enough. I think I was about 25 when Facebook launched, so I haven't grown up with social media. The problem is, this stuff rots brains. People become mindless zombies looking down into the street, not watching where they walk. You can barely get an acknowledgement of existence in the form of someone actually looking at you, much less speaking with you. That goes for older people as well, and those people were even older than me at the advent of SoMe.
I was older than that when FB launched and I've had an account since almost day one. To say it rots the brain and makes people mindless is naive and only looking at a small part of the picture. Billions of people use social media every day who are not mindless zombies. Sure social media has made it easier for people to access news that controls them, but it's not like these people didn't exists before social media. Social media is an easy catch all blame train. In fact blaming social media for causing so many problems in the world isn't that far removed from those who use social media to make all thier life decisions.
You are using social media by logging on to this forum and communicating with other forum users. Sure it's not Facebook or Twitter and the content here although sometimes political is more focused on one topic, but it's still social media. Whether it's this forum or one of the other million forums, there will still be people at some time focused on the forum more than life, it's not just Facebook and Twitter users. Sure sometimes it feels like people on here are mindless zombies who just parrot the thoughts of others, but not all of us are.
