Social media ban must look to future teen trends
The federal government plans to introduce its social media ban for under-16s by December.
Announced to mixed reviews last year – parent groups were ecstatic, while mental health organisations have warned about the risk of isolating vulnerable teens and tech commentators questioned the data security trade-offs – the ban would eventually require all Australians to complete an age verification process to use Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and other social media apps.
The exact parameters of the ban remain to be seen, and will need to pass parliament, but last week, the Herald reported eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant had advised the government to not restrict its new rules to specific social media platforms.
Inman Grant is specifically seeking to include video platform YouTube in the ban, after it previously received an exemption due to its 'significant educational purpose'. According to the eSafety Commission's research, four in 10 young teenagers have been exposed to harmful content, such as eating disorder videos, misogynistic or hateful material, or violent fight videos, while watching YouTube.
As the Albanese government finalises the details of its attempt to restrict social media on a national scale, the Sun-Herald believes it is extremely prudent to not include a discrete list of platforms the rules cover. Indeed, as Emily Kowal reports in today's Sun-Herald, there are emerging forms of online engagement driven by artificial intelligence, for which regulation should also be considered.
Companion chatbots such as Replika and Character.AI allow users to converse, call and exchange photos and videos with an AI 'friend'. The user can style this friend as their favourite character from a movie, a celebrity, or someone they know in real life.
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It is not hard to see why child safety experts are concerned.
The eSafety Commissioner said she had received reports of children as young as 10 spending hours on chatbots, which AI researchers say learn from their user, evolving to respond in ways to keep them talking for longer.
Some bots are designed to be mean, others tend towards pornographic or other forms of conversation inappropriate for children. All collect information about their user, and few have any real mechanism to validate their user's age.
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