Comments by Brian Shilhavy

Health Impact News

This week Australia began a new ban on children under the age of 16 from using social media. It is the first such ban worldwide, but there are already proposed bills in the U.S. that will do the same thing, and Texas has already passed a bill that is supposed to go into effect next month (January, 2026).

The issue, of course, is that to know if a user of social media is over the age of 16 or not, pretty much EVERYONE will need to verify their age to use such platforms. It is currently being done by uploading a photo of yourself, which of course will make children (the ones over 16) even more visible targets to pedophiles.

Many believe that this law in Australia that was just implemented, as well as others being planned in the U.S. and many other countries, is just a step in the direction of requiring everyone to use a Digital ID that can track your entire online activity, be linked to your bank accounts, etc.

We covered this law when it was passed a year ago in December of 2024, but was just implemented this week. See:

Australia Passes “Age Verification” Bill to Keep Children Under 16 Off of Social Media – Back Door to Digital ID Requirements for EVERYONE

Maria Zeee from Australia was interviewed today by Redacted, where she discussed how this was being received in Australia.

I found it humorous that children are getting around it by using pictures of older siblings, and in one case a picture of their Labrador dog. And while that is funny (at least to me, because as a technologist myself I see how frail these systems are), I think she is correct that the government will complain that this new law is “unenforceable” due to the shortcomings of the technology, and so they will probably require everyone to get a digital ID to “protect the children.”

Here is the 15-minute clip from the Redacted show today: