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Australia says knowledge is harmful to minors

Australia is really going to the dogs.

Not only is the Australian government looking to bring in hugely restrictive controls on social media access for under 18 year olds but they are also planning to force search engines to restrict access to certain content in search queries.

What are they smoking there?

Meanwhile, no such age-based curbs on access for Australians appear to be planned for websites containing pornography.

Excuse me?

One could be forgiven for thinking that this is just Aussie politicians taking the piss and having a laugh but apparently they're serious.

Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has made it very clear that the government will be setting up age-based restrictions both for social media and search-engine access by the end of the year.

Originally it had been proposed to exempt YouTube from the net because of its huge educational value but they've done an about-face on that and now Even YouTube for Kids will be restricted to 18-year-olds and over.

Yeah, it's ridiculous -- but then again, isn't everything that government departments decide to do these days in regards to regulating our freedoms simply a power-trip on their part?

Remember that here in New Zealand they're proposing that it become illegal to fly a toy 20g drone indoors without having passed an approved training course so we're clearly not immune to this idiocy.

This story on The Conversation has some good background on the way this could affect search engines such as Google and Bing.

Of course it's all just an exercise in sabre-rattling because we know full-well that under-18-year-olds are far more tech-savvy than those making these ridiculous laws. Within seconds of this diktat coming into effect those kids will be using VPNs or stolen account credentials to carry on "business as usual". It's only the tech companies that will be truly inconvenienced, having been forced to come up with methods of restricting access to underage Net users.

However, as I've mentioned before, the Australian government will doubtless try to make life easier for big-tech by rolling out a Digital ID system that could be used as proof of identity and age. Although billed as a "won't someone think of the children" initiative, it's pretty easy to see that this is really just a poorly disguised strategy for forcing Digital ID onto Australians.

The Aussie government has already said "Digital ID won't be compulsory" but then they're also going to be saying "however, if you want to access the internet and not be defaulted to content suitable only for under-18-year-olds then you'll probably want it".

What ever happened to that quaint notion that governments were created to *serve* the public?

Now it seems that governments are focused on *controlling* the public and serving the best interests of those who actually comprise the government itself.

It's becoming increasingly apparent exactly why Australia underwent such dramatic firearms law reform a few decades ago. No government that is prepared to abuse the rights of its citizens this badly wants firearms in the hands of that public; do they?

And if you're tempted to believe that Australia doesn't have a self-serving government and civil service then read this and marvel at how it looks after its own.

Here in NZ we need to keep a weather-eye out for similar moves on the part of our government. We know they'd love to have us all fitted with a compulsory Digital ID (as proposed by the Shipley Government of days-past) so if Australia manage to pull this off you can bet your bottom dollar the same "won't someone think of the children" strategy pulled off here.

Stay vigilant!

Carpe Diem folks!

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