From here in Australia, nobody was really asking for this here.
Best I can tell it came from a single but sustained pressure campaign by one of the Murdoch newspapers.
Then the Government gamed some survey polling to make it look like there was support for it (asking questions that assumed an impossible perfect system that could magically block under-16s with no age verification for adults). Still, over 40% of parents said that 15s and under should be able to access Facebook and Instagram, and over 75% of parents said they should be able to access YouTube, but the Government was acting like 95% of people were for blocking them, when it was closer to 50% of parents.
> From here in Australia, nobody was really asking for this here.
> Still, over 40% of parents said that 15s and under should be able to access Facebook and Instagram
They weren't asking for it - the small sample of parents (not a random sample of voters) agreed in principle with the impossible-in-real-life blocking with no age verification for adults system, but nobody actually really cared enough to push for it except one newspaper pressure campaign...
Yet, as I said the Government was making out like that this gamed survey meant it was basically unanimous support for a system that will require full identity/age verification for everybody (yet they’re still really trying hard to keep the ‘everybody’ bit quiet)
>From here in Australia, nobody was really asking for this here.
Government in australia is about being seen to be busy. Give them an idea that cant be morally contested, that the media wont contest, and they go about it.
Much like how we got our eSafety commissioner and internet bans. We protested them for years, but then sneaky scomo used Christchurch as wedge and got it through without protest.
And as ever, our minor parties, especially liberty minded ones are more concerned with whats in kids pants than actual liberty.
As an Australian living overseas, I heard about this on social media from friends / celebrities pushing for this to become a law so I disagree that no-one was asking for it.
Is it this one? How did the government game this poll?
> According to the YouGov poll, seen by the dpa news agency, some 77% of respondents said they would either "fully" or "somewhat" support similar legislation in Germany.
Best I can tell it came from a single but sustained pressure campaign by one of the Murdoch newspapers.
Then the Government gamed some survey polling to make it look like there was support for it (asking questions that assumed an impossible perfect system that could magically block under-16s with no age verification for adults). Still, over 40% of parents said that 15s and under should be able to access Facebook and Instagram, and over 75% of parents said they should be able to access YouTube, but the Government was acting like 95% of people were for blocking them, when it was closer to 50% of parents.