>but in practice anyone using a VPN and pretending they're not in AU (whether adult or child) will be able to get around them, so we've traded massive disadvantage for minor deterrence; or 3) we introduce some kind of Chinese/Iranian firewall to prevent people doing 2, destroying our online economy
I am not Australian but I have followed the discourse. I have been online since I was 8, over 25 years ago. 2 and 3 are both better than the status quo. The old internet only worked because it was limited to a certain social class. But I also never believed in anonymity, anyway.
Okay, thanks for that. From my cursory glance at the requirements - most people commenting on the Government's 'vagaries' (and 'incompetence') aren't familiar with software development - that being descriptive (not prescriptive) problems being solved and implemented by developers.....
The Guardian's take is on it, is that there are expected to be edge cases where circumvention will occur, but they want more rigorous means to stop that (a bit like alcohol/tobacco sales to underagers). If the argument against this is more about civil liberties - that horse bolted a long time ago.
Speaking as a parent, who's ultimately/legally responsible for the access provided to these - there are no existing mechanisms that a 5 year old can't get around (sure VPN - but we don't know that is going to be the loophole yet). Anyone that's attempted to use parental controls quickly ....
... realises that either their kid is a genius destined to be the next Steve Jobs, or the actual case, that their protections are built to be exploited (all the platforms fail to act on these - it's a loophole hellhole and parents give up). Maybe this will encourage a new/better network ....
... (eg: #bsky) that's got some protections built in? I'm still not convinced there is a bonafide argument against this (certainly not one being advanced by the MSM).
Just want to add that all this is in the spirit of better understanding, and thanks for sharing your thoughts. I am happy to reassess this (given more details, though).
its not just VPN its also Location/GPS info that gets sent unless you turn it off. Any existing accounts would probably have already sent that data, so they would need to be verified. New accounts may be harder to block, but I am sure algorithms could be used to see what account interacts with