Paul Stenhouse: No clear way to monitor Australia's under-16 social media ban

Australia passes its under-16 social media ban 
While this law has good intentions, how it will actually work is unclear. Unfortunately, there's not a good way to verify ages (or even people) online which makes this an almost impossible task for the social media companies. 
 
Credit Cards could be one way to verify those aged over 18, but it also means that only those who can get a credit card can use the service. But this age restriction is 16, so there's nothing that exists. Unless the government wants to roll out a 16+ government issued ID. But the government is already ruling out the use of official documents, such as a passport, due to privacy concerns -- so what on earth do they do? 
 
 
Meta is building a $10 billion undersea cable that spans the globe 
When your company accounts for 10% of all fixed internet traffic, and 22% of mobile internet traffic, you know the pipes are important! Reporting from TechCrunch says they are planning to build a 40,000+ kilometre cable network around the world that will take around 10 years to complete. 
 
Initial plans show the cable going from the US east coast to South Africa, up to India, down to Australia (Darwin), then up to the west coast of the US - purposely avoiding places of "geopolitical tension" such as the Red Sea, and the South China Sea.  
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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A'd be well, Australia has passed its big law. This
is the social Media band, so effectively, sixteen year olds
in Australia, well, people under the age of sixteen in
Australia will not be allowed to use social media. They're
going to have various verification processes, but the burden or
the onus to verify social media uses ages all gets

(00:36):
put on the social media companies themselves. Our textbit Postine
houses here with the details. Calder Paul, this is pretty big.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, and I truly don't know how they're going to
do this Jack, in all seriousness, I don't know what
the solution is going to be, especially when the government
has said they cannot use any government ID, so they
can't use a passport, they can't use a birth certificate
Jurdi privacy concerns, and I was actually racking my brain
this morning trying to think of how they could do this,

(01:04):
and the only other form of verification I could think
was a credit card, and a credit card is typically
issued to people over the age of eighteen, but that's
not sixteen, and obviously that also creates quite a barrier, right, Oh,
you've got to have a credit card. Well, then you've
got to have a credit score. You've got to like
have maintained good credit, or you've got to apply or
whatever it is. I truly don't understand what they're going

(01:25):
to do here.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Yeah tough, Yeah, yeah, And look, I've worked in digital
products for quite some time, and I'm seriously I'm racking
my brain to think what they're going to do.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Unless they get together. The government said they don't want
to do any sort of kind of you know, like
sixteen plus ID. So unleas the social media companies get
together and create like a consortium and they create their
own kind of like sixteen plus ID. Honestly, I'm trying
to think of what the companies would do. Like if
I was working at somewhere like Meta and was given

(02:00):
this problem, I don't know how I'd solve it.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, it's going to be amazing. I mean, the burden
riders shifted onto the social media companies, so they get.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
For the fine.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Hey, but remember the burden is there already today because
you have to be over thirteen in their terms and conditions.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
You have to their terms and conditions, but they don't
get punished. Right, so if someone if someone breaks it,
they don't get fined.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
No, but they do. I mean they do the only
thing you can do, which is put what's your birthday?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, like I were a part from some I mean no,
I've had stuff though where I've had to send photo
ID before. I mean, that's what makes it tricky to me. Yeah,
rock and a hard place.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, this is a really good example of a law
of it. It sounds great, don't get me wrong. Do
we need to do something about kids in social media? Absolutely,
but this.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
You're not convinced by this one? Interesting?

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Okay, well look, well the proof of the puddings in
the eating. We'll see how it all goes. Hey. Interestingly,
while lots of companies are trying to put satellites in
space to increase internet access basics of course being top
of the list, Meta is building a ten billion dollar
undersea cable that spans the entire globe.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah. Well, when your company is ten percent of all
land based internet traffic and twenty two percent of all
mobile internet traffic on the planet, you know that pipes
are important, and that's why they are laying a forty
thousand kilometer cable. This is the report, so they haven't
confirmed this yet, but all reports suggest so this is

(03:30):
what they're going to do. It's going to take them
around ten years to complete, and it's a fascinating pattern.
It's called the w It goes from the east coast
in the US down to South Africa, up to India,
down to Australia. They're going to use Darwin at the
top of Australia there and then over to the west
coast of the US, So it forms that kind of

(03:50):
double shape around the world and purposely avoiding areas that
they're saying have geopolitical tension, such as such as the
Red Sea and the South China Sea because one of
the things that some of these groups are doing disrupt
things as they're disrupting the undersea cables and of course

(04:10):
repairing trying to repair those as a bit of a nightmare.
So yeah, they're trying to take these routes that they
think are going to be the safest. It's interesting though,
right because if you own the pipe, you can control
what you do with the pip and so it's in
some ways it could be a win for META customers
because it's the WhatsApps, the Facebook's the Instagrams of the
world because they get to prioritize their own traffic. And interestingly,

(04:33):
if Meta is going to play in this AI game,
there is a lot of AI innovation technology skills in India,
and they say that this pipe that is obviously you know,
has India as part of its w means that the
US will have Meta will have a nice high speed
pathway to get access to the data centers that they

(04:54):
think will be built for AI in India.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Interesting, that's really intriguing. Maybe it're just trying to organize
that there.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Can you imagine how long that cable has to be,
Like I'm trying to think of the cable drum on
the back of the show.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Oh huge, Yeah, I think I think there's only a
hunch that I suspect they might need to refill the
cable drum one or two times. Hey, thank you so
much for We'll catch you in soon. That's our textbook.
Paul Stenhouse. Doctor Brian Biddy is here with details on
the hooping coffee podemic. Next.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks d B from nine am Saturday, or
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