Ok. Smaller platforms like this here lemmy server don’t do anything because it’s expensive, or they are ethically opposed. They have no business in Australia and fines can’t be collected. Australian kids (and adults who want to be anonymous, or don’t like the government-mandated changes) flock to these platforms.
It gets banned/blocked, or sued for noncompliance for allowing Australian users without age verification. They’ll play whack a mole for decades, just like they have been for P2P file sharing.
Like a lot of post-911 legislation, it’s anti-privacy surveillance disguised as a way to ‘protect the children’. It’s absolute shit and we should absolutely be taking measures to anonymize our open source social media platforms further.
They’ll play whack a mole for decades, just like they have been for P2P file sharing.
Some differences to that, though.
Downloaders can be prosecuted. That raises the question of what happens to kids or their parents who use non-compliant sites.
Blocked servers are inaccessible to adults, too, which raises freedom of information issues. These servers don’t contain illegal information, after all.
Large scale piracy is illegal pretty much everywhere, meaning that the industry can go after the operators and get the servers offline. Not so here.
Ok. Smaller platforms like this here lemmy server don’t do anything because it’s expensive, or they are ethically opposed. They have no business in Australia and fines can’t be collected. Australian kids (and adults who want to be anonymous, or don’t like the government-mandated changes) flock to these platforms.
What now?
It gets banned/blocked, or sued for noncompliance for allowing Australian users without age verification. They’ll play whack a mole for decades, just like they have been for P2P file sharing.
Like a lot of post-911 legislation, it’s anti-privacy surveillance disguised as a way to ‘protect the children’. It’s absolute shit and we should absolutely be taking measures to anonymize our open source social media platforms further.
Some differences to that, though.
Downloaders can be prosecuted. That raises the question of what happens to kids or their parents who use non-compliant sites.
Blocked servers are inaccessible to adults, too, which raises freedom of information issues. These servers don’t contain illegal information, after all.
Large scale piracy is illegal pretty much everywhere, meaning that the industry can go after the operators and get the servers offline. Not so here.