As 2024 begins to say goodbye, Australia embarked on an experience that could change the way we engage with technology. The government has just prohibit the entry of minors under 16 years of age to social networksin an effort that some people celebrate and others view with skepticism or even concern, but that has served to rekindle an old debate… can we say that TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are addictive?
This is the strictest Internet law known and which was approved a few days ago by a large majority in the Parliament of that country. Although details of its implementation have yet to be established, it restricts access to Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and
“We want our children to be able to enjoy their childhood and for parents to know that we support them”Anthony Albanese, Australian Prime Minister, assured the press, who believes that this is an effective way to protect young people from “the harms of social networks.”
Today there are no mechanisms to validate age that do not violate the user’s privacy.
An unenforceable law?
However, There are reasons to think that it will be very difficult for this to happen.. On the one hand, platforms such as instant messengers and Artificial Intelligence chatbots, which seem to be as problematic (or more) than social networks, have been left aside.
And on the other, Today it is difficult to imagine mechanisms to validate the identity and age of users effectively without violating their privacy. The law also does not stipulate fines or punishments for parents or minors, only for companies. It would, without a doubt, be a very easy law for citizens to violate.
There are also those who reasonably wonder if it is correct to exclude a sector of the population from digital spaces that today are a source of information and sociability for millions of people. Is it legitimate to prohibit a part of the population from accessing these services? Isn’t it better to demand, for example, stricter content moderation to avoid hate speech, harassment and misinformation?
The basis of the debate is whether this technology can be truly considered addictive or if it is simply very good. There seems to be no doubt that it is irresistible to millions of people, but it remains to be shown that it generates behaviors that are beyond our control.
It does seem clear that its appeal lies in the way in which it satisfies some of the needs of our brain, which seeks to runexpected rewards in chancejust like slot machines, and which uses design tactics such as automatically suggesting more content, looping videos, and putting obstacles in the way of controlling the time we spend online. And the youngest children seem to be more vulnerable to these strategies
Anyway, regardless of the skepticism and concerns that this legislation generates, it will be interesting to see how it turns out when it is implemented.