Australians to face age checks from search engines

Re:Australians to face age checks from search engines by kolinko on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @03:15AM (#44440976)

I had internet access since 13yo, although it was the internet of 1996, so it was way more basic.

And for me it was a place to explore my passions way better than any library in a small city in Poland would allow.

And sure - also a ton of time on internet games / MUDs, chatrooms etc.

And internet allowed me to publish my programs, written in Delphi, since I was 13-14yo, and meet other programmers on Usenet.

On the other hand, if not for internet, I might socialise way more irl - probably doing thing that were way less intelectually developing (but more socially).

It just hit me that I need to ask one of my friends from that time what they did in their spare time, because I honestly have no idea.

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Re:Australians to face age checks from search engines by bombcar on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @07:02AM (#44442201)

The Internet of 1996 and even of 2006 was a lot more “work” than the direct-into-your-eyebulbs Internet of today.

YouTube didn’t start until 2005! Even just getting Flash working to watch Home*Runner was an effort.

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Re:Australians to face age checks from search engines by jdcasale on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @07:17AM (#44442325)

I'd keep in mind that internet usage of 96 (I was there) bears no resemblance whatsoever to internet usage of today. The level of predatory sophistication of today's attention economy makes any sort of comparison between the two misguided at best.

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Re:Australians to face age checks from search engines by kolinko on Saturday July 12, 2025 @03:33AM (#44540079)

Yes, but complaints about my generation sitting in front of computers was not that much different from my generation's complaints now of the next generation being on social media.

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