Kids are outsmarting social media bans. That's not a problem we need to solve

prologic

If this is the cokamany bullshit Child Safety Act that the AU Gov put in place with the social media ban and age verification shit™ -- I knew this would happens inevitably. The whole thing was stupid as fuck. Not a single one of us that _actually_ work in this industry were consulted to ask whether we _thought_ this was a good idea, no sir. -- Be careful my fellow Aussies, or we end up letting the government build the Great Wall of Australa!

jruohonen

I suppose Wikipedia needs to go to the dark net for allowing British kids (and adults) to read it freely. One might reckon that reading Wikipedia would be good for kids (and adults), but I suppose the Soviet Uni... err. disagrees. I mean, sarcasm aside, that is the real, fundamental danger here; VPN use has already seen big increases in Australia and the UK, and the dark net is the last place no one should go but may have to. Soon in the EU too, I suppose. https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Wikimedi...

abbadadda

Are these authors bought and paid for by big tech? This assertion, with nothing to back it up and zero mention of the negative side effects, calls the entire article’s legitimacy into doubt for me: > It’s important for kids to do this online, an arena where they often develop social skills and refine their identities. Later on they say: > Rather than attempting to block young people from online services that allow them to access information and engage in age-essential communication The fact being “social media online” is taken as a given for under 16s is laughable. Kids do not need to socialize like this, they do not need to be online, they can and should go outside. When they turn 16 their brains will be slightly more fully formed and I could go on and on but it seems these authors just want the kids exposed to the algorithms.

Eueudhsbsj32

Yes, it is. I don't want to live in a country where everything is illegal but not enforced (until someone in power dislikes you).

rdm_blackhole

Of course it doesn't work. Everyone knew it when these sort of measures were first discussed here way back when and everyone knew that they would be bypassed as soon as they were implemented. But politicians, lobbies, and everyone else who gains from this do not care.

cyberclimb

> Social media bans suppress kids’ access to information, including information that’s essential to their development, identity formation, and socialization, especially during adolescence. Indeed children were deprived of their potential for development for all of humanity up until the early 2000s, thank god we finally closed the gap with social media algorithms... Is this sponsored by Meta?

ModernMech

lol the millennial generation has been outsmarting media bans for 30+ years now. Dunno what made anyone expect Gen Z or alpha couldn’t do the same.

softwaredoug

The real solution to this has always been education. Teach the kids about social media the way we teach about drugs and sex. It’s in many ways more ubiquitous to many teens than the other two these days. (Oh and regulate the companies, not what consumers are allowed to do)

schappim

My kid (with a little help from Claude) ended up creating his own social network just to get around the bans. The name of his network makes his opinion of the bans pretty clear. For his birthday, all he wanted was his domain name and and "merch pens" printed with the domain on it. I suppose I'm proud! 1. https://idiocy.schappistudios.com

rich_sasha

Do we actually know the bans aren’t working? TFA quotes a study in Australia based on self reported use. In Poland, every now and then they publish self reported results on teenagers’ sex life. It usually turns out something along the lines of, 70% of 12 year olds have had 5+ partners, do not use any protection and took part in at least one orgy. I can imagine the bans aren’t working but maybe asking teenagers "are you doing the cool banned thing" is not the right way to determine that.

josh_s

Adding more and more techno-ignorant laws will be introduced because politicians want to be seen to be doing something while not disrupting business interests. If they actually wanted working changes the solution need to hit the money/content cycle of advertisers. here is the start of an idea: make it illegal to show ads unsuitable for children before 2100. we used to have laws like this banning tobacco, alcohol, etc. on TV and radio. They worked to slow the indoctrination. They have not been updated to include prescription drugs, gambling, etc online. This is technically already info used to target, does not require age verification, and actually points the algorithms to content that matches ads that can be shown.