Australia's social media ban for children takes effect in world first

Re:Australia's social media ban for children takes effect in... by jrochkind1 on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @08:48PM (#46226676)

The government has laws saying people under 16 can't drive cars, do you think that's part of the slippery slope that has led to all of those happening-in-practice bad things?

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Re:Australia's social media ban for children takes effect in... by 9rx on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @11:13PM (#46227580)

> The government has laws saying people under 16 can't drive cars

We did, though. The chances of getting caught were slim to nil. Will kids (and adults for that matter) have the same easy opportunity to evade enforcement here?

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Re:Australia's social media ban for children takes effect in... by komali2 on Thursday December 11, 2025 @03:59AM (#46229136)

I thought the point of laws was not that enforcement is perfect but rather that the consequence of getting caught created a counter-incentive to doing the thing?

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Re:Australia's social media ban for children takes effect in... by 9rx on Thursday December 11, 2025 @07:58AM (#46230827)

The point of laws is to document what everyone in a community has come to agree on, assuming a democracy. Or, in a dictatorship, what the dear leader has decided upon. Any punishments encoded into those laws may serve as a counter-incentive, I suppose.

But baked into that is the idea that enforcement isn't perfect so you can still disappear into the night when you have that urge to do whatever it is that is technically illegal. This allows acceptance of laws that might be considered too draconian if enforcement was perfect. However, it seems in the case of these digital-centric laws that enforcement will become too close to being perfect as, without the need to hire watchful people, there is strong incentive to make it ever-present.

Or maybe not, but that is why the question was asked.

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Re:Australia's social media ban for children takes effect in... by madeofpalk on Wednesday December 10, 2025 @09:30PM (#46226944)

Yes but every time you drive on the road you don't need to prove you're over 16.

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Re:Australia's social media ban for children takes effect in... by eimrine on Thursday December 11, 2025 @12:33AM (#46228019)

It would be true if the windows are totally black or humans under 16 are looking totally adult.

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Re:Australia's social media ban for children takes effect in... by vaylian on Thursday December 11, 2025 @05:29AM (#46229710)

No. It would be true if the car didn't turn on the engine unless you showed your face and ID to some on-board computer of the car.

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