I firmly believe before any new law/rule/software update is implemented, we should be required to put it in the hands of users for a day, and they’ll find the loopholes. And if it’s kids they’ll do it in minutes.
Any educator knows this. It’s why we say “walk” and not “don’t run” because otherwise you’ll have kids skipping down the hall saying “I’m not running!”
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this glaring issue with Australia’s social media ban but it makes so much sense. You can’t have parental controls for an account type that is no longer allowed to exist. So now when kids find ways around the ban, instead of accessing these platforms with previous parental controls in place, they’re now using them essentially as anonymous adults. What could go wrong?!
The real disappointment here is that parents-rightfully- want tech companies to do better. But government bans aren’t actually requiring that. They don’t require an overhaul of the algorithms that children interact with. They don’t change the data that is collected on users. They don’t force these companies to give users options, like having chronological order in the content as opposed to algorithmically driven content. No, instead, government simply focused on age.
This makes it so that the companies actually have to do less to be compliant than they should. AND it means that users, particularly at risk adult users, such as senior citizens, those with developmental disabilities, and marginalized groups don’t have added safety or content protections. And to make it even worse, it means that parents now have less control than they did before, because now they cannot actually implement parental controls since kid accounts cannot legally exist.
there is no one perfect solution, but I am hoping that we can look at this experiment happening in real time and realize that one blanket solution is not going to be our answer. We need a combination of protection, granular controls for users of all ages, and comprehensive education to prepare kids for the adult content that they are going to see in a matter of years.
