Was it only 3 years ago the Government trundled out the Online Safety Act – remember that? It was trumpeted as the law to stop children from accessing inappropriate content on the Internet.
Well, fast forward 3 years and the same Government has today announced a new piece of legislation to, erm, stop children from accessing inappropriate content on the Internet. But this time the Government are wielding the Big Hammer. Yes, a total social media ban.
The total ban in Australia is working so well 60% of Australian children are still accessing the Internet.
The real lesson here is making a law is no guarantee that law will actually work. If you try to solve a problem by passing a law, but people don’t obey that law, you now have 2 problems where you used to have 1. The OSA which was introduced to solve a problem has clearly failed so there are now 2 problems instead of 1. The Australian ban has demonstrably failed and that leaves the same problem for the Australian Government to sort out. Meanwhile next year the UK Government will bring in a law banning u-16s from accessing the Internet in the same sitting of Parliament the same Government is lowering the voting age to 16. Weird, huh?
Any sensible person (or 16 year-old) could have told the government that this would be a waste of time.
OK, fair play for trying, because yes, I do believe that social media has become an addiction for many kids and – ironically – it is ruining their social lives, as much as anything else.
Restricting its use by children is probably a good thing, but shouldn’t it be the responsibility of the parents, rather than some draconian action by the government?
\tuppence worth