Mike's Minute: The social media ban will not happen

The social media ban is like the pay equity debate. 

It's not hard to drum up a lot of emotion and it's not hard to find people who would argue passionately for it. 

So in this sense, perhaps unlike the pay equity debate, the Government is on the right side of this. 

For the record, my gut says the pay equity debate is somewhat of a risk, but is more beltway and union-based than many think, and won't ultimately damage the Government. 

The social media ban won't damage them either, even though it won't work, which it won't. 

It's not like a school phone ban. A phone ban is black and white. You either have no phones in class, or not. 

That has been successful because the Government played the bad guy allowing schools to do what schools should have done all along. 

The social media ban is designed to help parents be the bad guys, backed by the Government. 

We are looking to Australia for guidance. 

In Australia they are exempting YouTube, they are exempting Telegram, they are exempting gaming, and as part of that, the game Roblox. There are confirmed reports of paedophile rings using Roblox. 

So the Government are now the arbiters of what's good, what's bad, what's right and what's wrong. 

Libertarians will be having a field day. No wonder Act are not on board. 

Act also, according to their leader who was listening to the Prime Minister on this show, have not moved their position on backing the idea. Because they don’t. 

So the moment you go down the “Meta is bad, but YouTube is fine” pathway, that's lawyers, or possibly threats of lawyers, or possibly the pulling of a service from a country. 

The Government was also looking at big tech paying our local media for content they take and make money off. We were following Australia on that too. 

What happened to that? Trump did, and tariffs, and threats of services being pulled. Has any of it come to pass? No, it has not. 

Will this come to pass? No, it will not. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The social media ban. I've been thinking about that. It's
like the pay equity debate. Actually not hard to drum
up a lot of emotion, not hard to find people
who would argue passionately for it. So in this sense,
perhaps unlike the pay equity debate, the government is on
the right side of this. Now, for the record, my
gut says the pay equity debate is somewhat of a risk,
but is more Beltway and union based than many thinking
won't ultimately damage the government. The social media ban won't

(00:23):
damage them either, even though it won't work, which it won't.
It's not like the school phone ban. A phone band
is black and white in class no phones. Now, that's
been successful because the government played the bad guy, allowing
schools to do what schools should have done all along.
The social media ban is designed to help parents be
the bad guys, backed by the government. Seeing now we're
looking to Australia. In Australia, they're exempting YouTube, they're exempting telegram,

(00:47):
they're exempting gaming and as part of that roadblocks. There
are confirmed reports of pedophile rings using roadblocks. So the
government and now arbiters of what's good what's bad what's wrong.
Libertarians will be having a field day. Director not on
board and act. By the way, according to their leader
who was listening to the Prime Minister on this program yesterday,
have not moved their position on backing the idea because

(01:09):
they don't. So the moment you go down the meta's
bad YouTuber's fine pathway, that's lawyers and possibly threats of
lawyers or possibly the pulling of services from country. The
government was also you might remember related matter, government was
also looking at big tech paying for local media for
content that the big tech takes and makes money off.
We were following Australia on that as well. What happened

(01:30):
to that trumped it and tariffs and threats of services
being pulled? Has any of it come to pass? No?
It has not. Will it come to pass No it
will not. For more from the Mic asking Breakfast, listen
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