Paul Stenhouse: Report on Australia's social media ban, Amazon adds a fuel surcharge to orders

Australia's social media ban's first report card is in and there’s room for improvement  

The regulator says the big social media companies are not doing enough to keep children off their platforms, particularly having insufficient measures to prevent kids from creating new accounts, not providing effective ways to report under-16s, and allowing those who said they were under 16 before the ban to say they were actually over 16.  

Social media companies Meta and Snap say they are doing the best they can to comply, but it's very difficult to know how old a person is. Meta suggests that the App Store is the best place for age verification, which would effectively move the problem to Apple and Google.  

 

Amazon's adding a fuel surcharge to orders  

The 3.5% fuel surcharge will be added to orders that are fulfilled through its distribution centres. It'll come into effect on April 17th. The company says it can no longer continue to eat the additional cost, adding that this surcharge will only partially recover the cost.  

This is not the first time – the war in Ukraine pushed oil prices over $100 a barrel and a surcharge was added then too. Amazon says the surcharge is temporary but will be in place for the foreseeable future. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
The first reviews or report cards are in on the
Australian social media ban. Of course, sixteen year olds in
Australia are banned from using social media. Our Textbert Paul
stenhouses here with the details.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
So how's going, Paul, Yeah, there's room for improvement, Jack,
So maybe what's that a C or maybe a B.
I don't know, but the regulator is watching. I don't
think they're taking any measures as yet, but they are.
They're paying close attention to those ten social media companies
who have to try to keep children off the platforms,

(00:44):
and I think it is possibly easier said than done.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Right.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
The regulator at the moment has flagged a couple of
things though, where they've said that where they're sort of
not following, or where there could be some improvements.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
One of those is that before the band came into play,
some kids said they were under sixteen, and since the
band came into effect, they've had the opportunity need to
change their account to say that they are over sixteen.
So that's one little check mark in the maybe things
to improve column. They've also found that there are insufficient

(01:18):
ways to report under sixteen accounts, whether they be from
other kids or from adults or things like that. And
also they still don't have good ways to prevent kids
from just creating new accounts who are under sixteen, but
maybe aren't saying that they are under sixteen. So look

(01:38):
social media companies, both Meta and Snap, they're both saying
they're doing the best they can to comply, but it
is and they say this. I think we've talked about
this as well. It is really difficult without a form
of government ID to know how old a person is.
Otherwise we're just trusting or potentially maybe inferring from some
of their activities. But that's not one hundred percent. So

(01:59):
Meta has at least suggested that the app stores should
really be the place that age verification takes place, which
is a little bit of a little shift aroo, if
you will.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
I was going to say, basically, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
So they're kind of saying, well, we operate and we
can't really figure this out, but hey, app store, you
maybe have credit card details, you maybe know something else, Apple, Google,
maybe you can just figure this over here.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh man, that is so interesting. I suppose at the
end of the day, though, I mean supporters of the
band would say, don't let the perfect be the enemy.
They're good. Like, if it's still stopping some younger kids
from accessing social media, and I think it is, I
think everyone agrees that they might otherwise have been using it,
then it's still a net positive compared to the previous setting.

(02:47):
But yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see
if the big social media companies come out with some
alternate plans for actually being able to verify people's ages
without using those government issued ideas. Thank you very much,
Paul our textbook Paul Steinhouse.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
There would for more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame.
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