The Social Media Ban Passes, By James Reed

The Albo government, desperate for a win for team tyranny, pushed through the social media ban for under 16-year-olds.Even the legacy media saw this as a rush job: "Submissions to a Senate committee inquiry into the bill were open for just 24 hours before a three-hour hearing on Monday. The inquiry report was released Tuesday, and the bill passed the lower house on Wednesday – 102 votes to 13 – before progressing to the Senate.

More than 100 submissions were made and "almost all submitters and witnesses expressed grave concerns that a bill of such import was not afforded sufficient time for thorough inquiry and report," the committee said in its report.

However, the committee recommended that the bill be passed with some changes, including prohibiting the use of government documents, such as passports, to verify users' age."

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/28/australia/australia-passes-social-media-law-intl-hnk/index.html

The Coalition thus went along with it believing that there would be no need for over 16-year-olds to have a social media ID or give ID info to social media platforms. Actually, the key phrase was government documents, so we will all need to supply some ID data to the social media companies to use the tech.

This is a job for Elon Musk, to take this one to the High Court of Australia on human rights grounds, that the Act violates children's right to communicate under the Rights of the Child. May as well use the UN for some good purpose:

Article 13

1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.

2. The exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:

(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; or

(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.

https://www.unicef.org.au/united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child

Australia became a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on 22 August 1990 and ratified it on 17 December 1990. So, go Elon, go!