Well it was one thing for this to get announced in September, but for it to now be passed in the House of Representatives and the Senate almost doesn’t feel real. Bipartisan support too, so it was going to pass no matter who was in government, though some senators in opposition abstained from voting over concerns. Some things to note with this:
- The ban seems to only affect mainstream services, so the fediverse I think is largely unaffected by this.
- The government hasn’t worked out how age verification will work. They have only said it won’t require giving ID directly to tech companies and it won’t use the myID digital ID that’s coming next year. Shoot now and ask questions later I guess…
- Gaming platforms are excluded, so kids can still play Minecraft and Fortnite if they’re still relevant
. - The Senate had a public inquiry period for this bill that only lasted 24 hours, with very little warning. Despite this, they got 15,000 submissions which is extremely impressive. You can read some of the corporate/non profit submissions here which include organisations like the social media companies themselves, universities, charities and more.
I do know why this legislation exists in the first place and got passed, or at least have seen strong theories, but I will refrain from going off topic here. Very disappointing overall and I hope this whole thing crashes and burns and fails in the end.
And a final note, I do also echo Henry’s thoughts shared on his Mastodon.