Hi Lemmy.World Admins and Support Staff,

I like this place a lot and wanted to give you a heads up pollies down under passed some new laws.

The govt wants a ban on social media for everyone under 16. This week was the last sitting week of parliament and a few bills were passed by both houses and are set to become law. (See link).

I’m not after any immediate reaction or actions, but looking to bring it to your attention for you to discuss (edit:internally) how you would react. I haven’t seen the legislation and don’t know how this is meant to be mechanized and it seems pretty hard to do.

Some other tech giants have already made statements as this appears to be a worldwide first.

Edit: I might have a look at the laws text and put some details here as a comment

-AnAustralianPhotographer

  • @TheEighthDoctor
    link
    618 hours ago

    By those definitions any newspaper website with comments is social media. The sole purpose (or main purpose) of a Lemmy instance is to aggregate links, the comments are secondary (just like in newspaper websites). The definition is too vague and if you apply it to the letter it would include 99% of websites, even porn websites have comments these days.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      19 hours ago

      The definition is too vague and if you apply it to the letter it would include 99% of websites

      I think that is their intention

    • @Kelly
      link
      English
      417 hours ago

      The sole purpose (or main purpose) of a Lemmy instance is to aggregate links

      We call them “link posts” and I think they may qualify as posts under this broad definition.

      For the purposes of this Act, material is posted on a social media service, relevant electronic service or designated internet service by an end - user if the end - user causes the material to be accessible to, or delivered to, one or more other end - users using the service.

      https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/osa2021154/s11.html