Since then all that talk went away and there’s been 2 years of this social media ban.
Surely a coincidence.
[edit: not a senator, a member of the House of Reps]
I do think this is all a bit of a conspiracy theory. There was support for the ban from many quarters in politics, media, parent groups etc due to widespread mental health issues among teenagers. And state governments are still doing plenty to try and mitigate problem gambling (whilst also relying heavily on taxes from gambling).
Just for anyone else reading this, Crikey is an extremely reputable source of original reporting and not some conspiracy rag.
I like Crikey. I paid close attention to it right from its inception, I've known people who have written for it, I have subscribed to it at times. All I meant was it's not a mainstream outlet doing traditional reporting; it has always specialized in outsider, stir-things-up takes on issues. That's always been its reason for existing and it's a very important reason to exist.
Personally I think that sometimes it gets so wrapped up in hubris that it can be a bit holier than though and can be too willing to believe in conspiracies, because, hey, its business model is built in exposing things so it's kind-of inevitable. And I don't think it's "extremely reputable"; it's shamelessly provocative and appealing only to a particular segment of the market – that's by design.
But it's fine. I still like it and I didn't meant to trash it.
Who ultimately did fund the 36 months campaign?
If you're a skeptical fan of Crikey, like myself, perhaps you're also an eyebrow raised sometime watcher of Gruen and understand that the crowd Peter Carey once ran with don't do anything for nothing .. even the 'free' content is agency self promotion.
The money trail here runs cold in the vicinity of the sports betting lobby and there's form on their ability to run distraction not to mention the returns on 'grooming' gamblers via particular kinds of campaigns that work as well on young dumb adults as they do children.
There's been no follow up on gambling advertising and they're still free to run the kinds of ads they likely may have had to phase out if focus hadn't shifted to saving the children.
That seems a success worth paying for ... even if the receipts aren't out in the open.
Same with drinking, etc.
Ideally there were would be well moderated sites for children, but that’s not practical.
Saying “let’s move kids out of this area so we can do grown up stuff” is totally fine. It protects children while not infringing on adults freedoms.
There are technically some implementations that will let adults prove they're adults while staying anonymous, but none of those implementations have gained serious traction with an actual government. The actual, REAL result is "you can't go online anonymously" - because governments and ad tech companies are DYING to know everything you look at and say online.
The kids are an excuse, just like they've always been.
Meanwhile, social media is melting the brains of everyone over 45 into relitigating moon landing conspiracies. Maybe a bit less time in YouTube holes and a bit more time actually parenting would be good for both parties.
Well, "blame the parents" is as hypocritical as "think of the children". It just displaces the responsibility of excluding kids from society from the community to the parents.
Creating a safe society for everyone is one of the roles of the state/government. That is why they are granted a monopoly on violence. As you rightly say, children are members of the society and therefore they are included in that responsibility.
The Australian government should be rightly criticized for passing a law that makes being online less safe for adults. However, that doesn't mean we should dismiss the alleged aim of the law, protecting children from harmful online content. It is a real problem that deserves serious attention.
What's weird to me is that this advertising company simply lobbied directly for what they wanted both to politicians and the public. Normally as the article mentions you'd have a cover group that's the face of movement to obscure the true intentions. God Aussie journalists are crap.
Bad actors can push for good things and they still be good.
hn_acker•9h ago
> Australia's Social Media Ban Was Pushed By Ad Agency Focused On Gambling Ads It Didn’t Want Banned
bena•8h ago