Ah, I see. We'll do what we did with alcohol, cigarettes, porn, drugs, guns, and etc... that will show them. /s
Australia has shown that their politicians are just as stupid as the rest of the world. We pass a law pretending that we are doing something about it. We make is someone else's problem.
I'm not saying this because I agree with these companies. I avoid social media. It's just drivel and a fake and lazy method of keeping in touch.
I'm saying this because we are eliminating what works and pretending that we care and that we are doing something about it.
Smoke and mirrors. This will give more valuable information to online multinationals increasing the value of the information that they gather on us.
Children are resilient and they will access the material by other means. Do not kid yourself. The same way we didn't stop drugs, smoking, drinking,... we will not stop them from accessing social media. The means may lead them to more dangerous avenues.
Has "do as I say not as I do" ever worked in society?
A better solution would be to increase privacy rights of the individual. Limit the sharing of personal information and hold accountable and responsible organizations when they abuse. Limit the information collected to what is required to provide the service and only for the duration of providing the service. Information that will be sold needs to be identified to the user and all sharing of personal information must be disclosed in detail with whom prior to acquiring that information otherwise permission needs to be granted and not by a TOS.
What is making social media addictive is the value of the information that they can sell. They build the profile by having you show them what you like and dislike. The only way they can do that is by keeping you glued to the screen.
With Australia's law we have increased the value making it more lucrative to collect the data. The opposite of what the desired outcome was.