John - I contacted Peter Duttons office and spoke to them but they just could not see the problems.
The younger people I have spoken to think this is stupid. They use social media to talk to their friends and relatives, and have no issue, and wonder why they are being singled out.
For political reasons and for an issue which really only impacts badly on a small number we now have the ESafety Commissioner jumping for joy. Why has she been set the task to put together how this is going to be achieved? Why is a proven dangerous, unelected, unaccountable person being asked to put this all together? Why is this not up to our politicians?
As you say, we will be tracked and they will use it against those who the bureaucrats or govt of the day decides they do not like. So posting on the actual science behind climate, on the stupidity of masking during covid etc etc will be tracked and noted, and almost certainly used against us...
If there was ever proof that the LNP has completely lost its way, (that was not already obvious in the senseless covid policies, signing up to Net Zero etc) then this is it.
Vote Libertarian, ONE Nation or UAP, or Independent. Do not vote for the two majors until they can put up sensible policies rather than those straight out of 1984.
I grew up in a poor, fatherless family on Tyneside. I started contributing financially when i was 13, buying some of my own clothes etc. paying for cinemas etc, and bought myself a good bike on my 14th birthday. I wasn't a rarity. I am horrified that Dutton and co could support this ridiculously rushed bill with it's age 16 bar. We've just got a woke neo-Labor Premier in Queensland, I was hoping that after limp Morrison, Dutton would show some mettle. But perhaps not.
We need to drain the 'Swamp' asap. As usual thanks to Alex, Matt & Bridgit. I fled the Libs, after 65 years, as I watched Morrison reveal what a sad and shallow political figure he really is/was. With only some rare exceptions, we have never been more poorly served in Canberra in my 76 years.
If I had a dollar for every hare brained idea fed to or dreamed up by politicians I would be a very wealthy man. The Chancellor to Gustavus Adolphus, Count Axel Oxiensterna was so right when he said to his son "An nescis, mi fili, cum quantilla scientia mundus regatur?"
It seems to me the Liberals have in one fell swoop just lost the next elections and that is just disappointing. Another four years of the dopiest government in history.
I am glad to see that you mentioned that we all will have to use whatever lame brained identification scheme the boffins come up with. What could go wrong with giving social media companies access to our personal information? The mind boggles.
Jillian – it is noteworthy that the the people who run the Liberal Party take their political advice from a pollster company with a long history of failure, whose thinking is stuck twenty years in the past. That is why Labor is in the political ascendancy in nearly all the Australian states - and likely to remain so.
The people who run the Liberal Party treat opinion polls and focus groups as if they were magical crystal balls that point the way to the future - but in doing so they ignore the principles of RG Menzies who founded the party to represent Australia’s ‘Forgotten People’. To make things worse, they virtually ignore inputs from their grass-roots membership – the people of Middle Australia. Membership in the Liberal Party has been been in freecall since Turnbull ejected Abbott and tried to force through a corporate buy-out of the party.
That explains how badly they do and the ignoring of the base. Peta Credlin seems to rate Redbridge. After the US elections I thought most pollsters were discredited anyway.
Jillian - they will be using your ISP to identify if you are Australian. Might I suggest that you contact Starlink in the US and get an account with one of their US branches. Its all the same satellite system.....but you will be registered as a US customer...
There are other satellite providors out there who may also be able to cover Australia. Suggest though that Elons Starlink may be more amenable....
In your article you say “However, there are better ways to fix the problem than a government-imposed ban that leaves no role for parents whatsoever.”
But you give no detail on these “better ways” given the amount of dysfunctional and in many cases deadly content on these platforms. Peer pressure most times trumps what parents tell their children so that doesn’t protect the still developing brains of children from the Wild West content (including soul destroying pornography) on many of these platforms. Solutions please John not just the freedom argument. Even adults have their freedoms curtailed by laws when in their best interests. Protecting the priority best interests of developing teenagers is the key issue and you presents no solutions to that.
I agree there should be no ban on the internet for children. Parents who pay for phones can put in their own restrictions but I am definitely opposed to the idea of dropping the voting age. With the push for every child to complete 12 year at school those under 18 are still school children with no idea of the bigger world and often even no idea of the value of money and how the economy works. When I finished school only 9% of the cohort were eligible for University, 6% went to University (while some others went to senior technical colleges which have now been wrongly upgraded to universities) and only 3% completed a degree. 18 year olds mostly working had some experience of life. There is some justification now with the many infantile students at university to lift the voting age to 21 but with the drinking age at 18 and acceptance that 18 year olds can be called to fight a war it is unlikely to ever happen.
What is needed is a change to the school system with maybe 15 year olds split to complete schooling and selecting course streams to university and others going into TAFEs and /or apprenticeships. There are now too many universities. Some should go back to being TAFEs. The exam requirements should be raised so there are less students. A maximum30% of all 18 year olds of any year should be at or going to University.
So what are your answers? What SHOULD be done to alleviate this problem?
So far all the government and public discussions, the 'should-does' and tsk-tsking have led to zero improvement in the situation. Should we just continue with what we've got and keep hoping? No, that's the old thing about repeating an action and expecting different results. People are acting as if this is the end of the world - we have only had this technology in this present form for less than 20 years (first iPhone 2007), we can survive and thrive by adjusting HOW we use it.
As a grandparent watching the devastating results of phone addiction (depression, bullying, blackmail and suicide) in my family I see this law as a good result. It's not THE solution at all, but it, along with parents getting off their backsides, taking a good, honest look at their own phone addiction, which my family had to do and is really a big part of the picture. If you, in your delusion think that you have your online addiction under complete control then all I can say is, "head, meet sand". Time to start to act with responsibility towards your role as caregiver and loving parent.
Parents are not there to be their children's 'friend' - the job is hard, thankless and more often than not involves making unpopular decisions around the kid's safety - something kids themselves usually don't see. The human brain isn't fully developed until around 25 years of age - lots of care, guidance and advice is needed to help them navigate a difficult world.
We have age drinking laws because young people cannot self regulate and their brains would be adversely affected - so THE SAME goes for consuming digital content, it damages ALL brains.
And as for the idea of lowering the voting age to 16? No way - they may be emotionally active around issues but not rationally or intellectually.
This law is by no means the whole answer, but it will be an important item in the currently available toolbox. People need to get a grip.
John - I contacted Peter Duttons office and spoke to them but they just could not see the problems.
The younger people I have spoken to think this is stupid. They use social media to talk to their friends and relatives, and have no issue, and wonder why they are being singled out.
For political reasons and for an issue which really only impacts badly on a small number we now have the ESafety Commissioner jumping for joy. Why has she been set the task to put together how this is going to be achieved? Why is a proven dangerous, unelected, unaccountable person being asked to put this all together? Why is this not up to our politicians?
As you say, we will be tracked and they will use it against those who the bureaucrats or govt of the day decides they do not like. So posting on the actual science behind climate, on the stupidity of masking during covid etc etc will be tracked and noted, and almost certainly used against us...
If there was ever proof that the LNP has completely lost its way, (that was not already obvious in the senseless covid policies, signing up to Net Zero etc) then this is it.
Vote Libertarian, ONE Nation or UAP, or Independent. Do not vote for the two majors until they can put up sensible policies rather than those straight out of 1984.
Libs really are a pack of non-thinking dopes. That bubble called Parliament House turns them all into mindless zombies…. Gawd!!!
I grew up in a poor, fatherless family on Tyneside. I started contributing financially when i was 13, buying some of my own clothes etc. paying for cinemas etc, and bought myself a good bike on my 14th birthday. I wasn't a rarity. I am horrified that Dutton and co could support this ridiculously rushed bill with it's age 16 bar. We've just got a woke neo-Labor Premier in Queensland, I was hoping that after limp Morrison, Dutton would show some mettle. But perhaps not.
We need to drain the 'Swamp' asap. As usual thanks to Alex, Matt & Bridgit. I fled the Libs, after 65 years, as I watched Morrison reveal what a sad and shallow political figure he really is/was. With only some rare exceptions, we have never been more poorly served in Canberra in my 76 years.
I think that too.
Damned silly
If I had a dollar for every hare brained idea fed to or dreamed up by politicians I would be a very wealthy man. The Chancellor to Gustavus Adolphus, Count Axel Oxiensterna was so right when he said to his son "An nescis, mi fili, cum quantilla scientia mundus regatur?"
It seems to me the Liberals have in one fell swoop just lost the next elections and that is just disappointing. Another four years of the dopiest government in history.
I am glad to see that you mentioned that we all will have to use whatever lame brained identification scheme the boffins come up with. What could go wrong with giving social media companies access to our personal information? The mind boggles.
Jillian – it is noteworthy that the the people who run the Liberal Party take their political advice from a pollster company with a long history of failure, whose thinking is stuck twenty years in the past. That is why Labor is in the political ascendancy in nearly all the Australian states - and likely to remain so.
The people who run the Liberal Party treat opinion polls and focus groups as if they were magical crystal balls that point the way to the future - but in doing so they ignore the principles of RG Menzies who founded the party to represent Australia’s ‘Forgotten People’. To make things worse, they virtually ignore inputs from their grass-roots membership – the people of Middle Australia. Membership in the Liberal Party has been been in freecall since Turnbull ejected Abbott and tried to force through a corporate buy-out of the party.
That explains how badly they do and the ignoring of the base. Peta Credlin seems to rate Redbridge. After the US elections I thought most pollsters were discredited anyway.
Jillian - they will be using your ISP to identify if you are Australian. Might I suggest that you contact Starlink in the US and get an account with one of their US branches. Its all the same satellite system.....but you will be registered as a US customer...
There are other satellite providors out there who may also be able to cover Australia. Suggest though that Elons Starlink may be more amenable....
Thanks. I will look into it.
In your article you say “However, there are better ways to fix the problem than a government-imposed ban that leaves no role for parents whatsoever.”
But you give no detail on these “better ways” given the amount of dysfunctional and in many cases deadly content on these platforms. Peer pressure most times trumps what parents tell their children so that doesn’t protect the still developing brains of children from the Wild West content (including soul destroying pornography) on many of these platforms. Solutions please John not just the freedom argument. Even adults have their freedoms curtailed by laws when in their best interests. Protecting the priority best interests of developing teenagers is the key issue and you presents no solutions to that.
Thank you John for providing lots of useful thoughts and words for my letters to all politicians who should be caring about what I think
I agree there should be no ban on the internet for children. Parents who pay for phones can put in their own restrictions but I am definitely opposed to the idea of dropping the voting age. With the push for every child to complete 12 year at school those under 18 are still school children with no idea of the bigger world and often even no idea of the value of money and how the economy works. When I finished school only 9% of the cohort were eligible for University, 6% went to University (while some others went to senior technical colleges which have now been wrongly upgraded to universities) and only 3% completed a degree. 18 year olds mostly working had some experience of life. There is some justification now with the many infantile students at university to lift the voting age to 21 but with the drinking age at 18 and acceptance that 18 year olds can be called to fight a war it is unlikely to ever happen.
What is needed is a change to the school system with maybe 15 year olds split to complete schooling and selecting course streams to university and others going into TAFEs and /or apprenticeships. There are now too many universities. Some should go back to being TAFEs. The exam requirements should be raised so there are less students. A maximum30% of all 18 year olds of any year should be at or going to University.
So what are your answers? What SHOULD be done to alleviate this problem?
So far all the government and public discussions, the 'should-does' and tsk-tsking have led to zero improvement in the situation. Should we just continue with what we've got and keep hoping? No, that's the old thing about repeating an action and expecting different results. People are acting as if this is the end of the world - we have only had this technology in this present form for less than 20 years (first iPhone 2007), we can survive and thrive by adjusting HOW we use it.
As a grandparent watching the devastating results of phone addiction (depression, bullying, blackmail and suicide) in my family I see this law as a good result. It's not THE solution at all, but it, along with parents getting off their backsides, taking a good, honest look at their own phone addiction, which my family had to do and is really a big part of the picture. If you, in your delusion think that you have your online addiction under complete control then all I can say is, "head, meet sand". Time to start to act with responsibility towards your role as caregiver and loving parent.
Parents are not there to be their children's 'friend' - the job is hard, thankless and more often than not involves making unpopular decisions around the kid's safety - something kids themselves usually don't see. The human brain isn't fully developed until around 25 years of age - lots of care, guidance and advice is needed to help them navigate a difficult world.
We have age drinking laws because young people cannot self regulate and their brains would be adversely affected - so THE SAME goes for consuming digital content, it damages ALL brains.
And as for the idea of lowering the voting age to 16? No way - they may be emotionally active around issues but not rationally or intellectually.
This law is by no means the whole answer, but it will be an important item in the currently available toolbox. People need to get a grip.