Given that “social media” is in fact not banned and all this does is impact a select (and frankly logically inconsistent) list of services, this seems very unlikely. Children are still free to be groomed and gamble on Roblox and join servers belonging to The Com on Discord. To be clear I don’t think those services should be regulated by this obscene law either but this isn’t going to bring back any kind of halcyon era for kids. It will expand the surveillance of and shame around young people’s internet use, however.

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subscribed 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Roblox blocked communication between adults and kids. I can't chat with my own children in app even though we don't live in Australia.

That's for the better, as far as I see it, I can just shout :p

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watwut 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I still prefer my kids to play roblox over being on X or tiktok much.

It is still more ok then most of what any other todays tech provides. No matter how much geeks on HN hate it.

	▲	creata 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		And it can inspire them to learn programming with Lua(u).

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anakaine 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How so? It has been implemented so that age verification is a token only, a yes/no authorisation. The age verification service doesnt get browsing details, and the site providing content doesnt get any additional user details beyond what they would likely already have, including those subject to PII legislation.

	▲	rpdillon 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This is false. Like all the age restricting laws being passed around the world, the implementation is not being specified and is being left to the individual platforms, which are using some combination of photo ID and video selfie in order to validate people's ages. Each platform is implementing it differently, and on different timelines. For example, X has failed to even respond for a while, but it's finally said they'll comply. > Companies have told Canberra they will deploy a mix of age inference - estimating a user's age from their behaviour - and age estimation based on a selfie, alongside checks that could include uploaded identification documents.
	▲	rainonmoon 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> It has been implemented so that age verification is a token only, a yes/no authorisation. This is misinformation. The legislation does not specify a single particular implementation for age-based verification and there's absolutely no single "age verification service" that platforms are legislated to use. Instead they're required to verify users' ages based on several recommended methods, including age inference. https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/2025/12/03/what-you-need-t... Further, the Communications Minister herself regarding whether she's concerned about people bypassing authentication-based age verification checks: "If you’re an adult - you probably won’t need to do anything extra to prove your age, because like I said before, these platforms have plenty of data to infer your age." https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/wells/speech/address-...

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everyday7732 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It will also massively expand the surveillance of adults: if a platform introduces face scanning or checking government IDs for "age verification", then they don't just scan the underage users.