WEBVTT 00:00:00.110 --> 00:00:02.609 I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and 00:00:02.609 --> 00:00:06.250 this is a Radioland Extra for December the 9th, 00:00:06.330 --> 00:00:09.990 the stupid bit of Australia's social media ban 00:00:09.990 --> 00:00:13.470 for kids. Governments everywhere are not very 00:00:13.470 --> 00:00:16.149 good at technology, but the Australian government 00:00:16.149 --> 00:00:19.329 excels in almost deliberately not understanding 00:00:19.329 --> 00:00:23.190 it. In 2017, Australia had a prime minister called 00:00:23.190 --> 00:00:26.510 Malcolm Turnbull, and all indications were that 00:00:26.510 --> 00:00:29.370 this was a man who knew his stuff. As a lawyer, 00:00:29.530 --> 00:00:32.070 Turnbull had successfully defended Peter Wright, 00:00:32.250 --> 00:00:35.950 a former MI5 official who wrote Spycatcher, leading 00:00:35.950 --> 00:00:39.090 to the book being published in Australia. Then 00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:42.270 Turnbull bought a half -a -million -dollar stake 00:00:42.270 --> 00:00:46.130 in the Australian ISP OzEmail, selling it just 00:00:46.130 --> 00:00:49.509 before the dot -com bubble burst for $57 million. 00:00:50.149 --> 00:00:53.310 So a man who understood freedom of speech and 00:00:53.310 --> 00:00:57.060 a man who understood the internet. Sadly, two 00:00:57.060 --> 00:01:00.399 brains turnbull went on to attempt to pass a 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:03.159 law to force tech companies to give a backdoor 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:07.120 for encrypted messages to the government. Encryption 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:09.739 can't be weakened for just one set of people. 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:12.840 The laws of mathematics are that if you weaken 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:15.079 encryption to let the government in, you also 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:17.260 weaken encryption for the rest of us, breaking 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:20.079 online banking and payments as well as chats. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:23.879 The laws of mathematics are very commendable, 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:27.099 he said. But the only law that applies in Australia 00:01:27.099 --> 00:01:31.459 is the law of Australia. In the sort of smug, 00:01:31.459 --> 00:01:34.340 logic -twisting nonsense that was to prove his 00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:37.500 downfall 12 months later, yay, when we got Scott 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:42.019 Morrison instead. Turnbull isn't alone, and this 00:01:42.019 --> 00:01:45.260 week has seen Australia enacting a ban on social 00:01:45.260 --> 00:01:49.150 media for children under 16. The law forces social 00:01:49.150 --> 00:01:52.450 media companies to stop allowing under -16s from 00:01:52.450 --> 00:01:54.909 holding an account on their platforms, which 00:01:54.909 --> 00:01:58.930 is good, I think. But here's what the law doesn't 00:01:58.930 --> 00:02:02.670 stop. The law doesn't make it illegal for kids 00:02:02.670 --> 00:02:05.670 to access them. The only people who'll get fined 00:02:05.670 --> 00:02:09.050 are the social media companies. Further, the 00:02:09.050 --> 00:02:12.009 law lets kids access the social media websites 00:02:12.009 --> 00:02:17.550 anyway. They just can't hold an account. So use 00:02:17.550 --> 00:02:20.349 of a VPN makes no real difference. It won't be 00:02:20.349 --> 00:02:23.409 illegal to use one to access social media, but 00:02:23.409 --> 00:02:26.909 if companies let someone from Australia use social 00:02:26.909 --> 00:02:30.889 media through a foreign VPN, they'll be fined. 00:02:31.069 --> 00:02:34.789 And the law doesn't stop many social media companies 00:02:34.789 --> 00:02:38.509 at all. Someone who's under 16 can pop along 00:02:38.509 --> 00:02:42.030 to Murdoch's Courier Mail website, open an account 00:02:42.030 --> 00:02:44.250 and leave an angry comment, and that's absolutely 00:02:44.250 --> 00:02:47.699 fine. Instead... Companies have to be named by 00:02:47.699 --> 00:02:50.500 the government. And there are only 10 companies 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:53.860 actually named, like Facebook and Instagram and 00:02:53.860 --> 00:02:56.199 Reddit and Twitch. And I'm fine with these companies 00:02:56.199 --> 00:03:00.259 being banned for under -16s, actually. But another 00:03:00.259 --> 00:03:02.699 company named by the Australian government under 00:03:02.699 --> 00:03:07.860 this law is YouTube. Now, YouTube isn't a social 00:03:07.860 --> 00:03:11.139 media platform. It's a video service. There are 00:03:11.139 --> 00:03:13.259 comments on YouTube, but as we've established 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:15.159 already, there are comments on the Courier Mail 00:03:15.159 --> 00:03:18.699 website too, and they're not banned. Being the 00:03:18.699 --> 00:03:21.139 parent of a daughter under the age of 16, I'm 00:03:21.139 --> 00:03:23.659 more aware than most about the protections that 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:26.740 YouTube has in place. I can ensure that she's 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:29.419 forced to use SafeSearch, which is supposed to 00:03:29.419 --> 00:03:32.060 successfully stop her from unearthing bad things. 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:35.400 I can also ensure that if she does find bad things, 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:38.889 she can't play them. Google's Family Link is 00:03:38.889 --> 00:03:41.050 pretty good software, all things considered. 00:03:41.750 --> 00:03:44.669 She'll still be able to use YouTube. The law 00:03:44.669 --> 00:03:48.169 doesn't stop that. She just can't use YouTube 00:03:48.169 --> 00:03:51.189 with her account, which means that she gets potentially 00:03:51.189 --> 00:03:54.110 the worst of YouTube, and I can't do a thing 00:03:54.110 --> 00:03:57.050 about it. Her account's a premium account, so 00:03:57.050 --> 00:03:59.750 I pay to get rid of the advertising when she 00:03:59.750 --> 00:04:02.969 uses YouTube. Except the Australian government, 00:04:03.090 --> 00:04:05.349 in its brilliance, won't let my daughter use 00:04:05.349 --> 00:04:08.729 YouTube under her premium account. So she'll 00:04:08.729 --> 00:04:11.449 have to see all of the advertising. And YouTube 00:04:11.449 --> 00:04:13.830 won't know that she's under 16. She could opt 00:04:13.830 --> 00:04:20.329 out of seeing gambling or alcohol or all kinds 00:04:20.329 --> 00:04:22.769 of stuff. But to do that, she'd need to log in, 00:04:22.870 --> 00:04:24.810 which would mean she'd have a YouTube account, 00:04:24.949 --> 00:04:28.069 which she isn't allowed. And she can't use YouTube 00:04:28.069 --> 00:04:31.430 music. If you're unaware, YouTube music is a 00:04:31.430 --> 00:04:33.329 bit like Spotify. Well, very much like Spotify. 00:04:33.509 --> 00:04:35.029 It's got every song in it and you can listen 00:04:35.029 --> 00:04:37.170 to all of the songs just like Spotify. But I 00:04:37.170 --> 00:04:40.029 can't let her use YouTube music anymore because 00:04:40.029 --> 00:04:42.310 that requires access to the account that she 00:04:42.310 --> 00:04:45.889 can't have access to. And I can allow her to 00:04:45.889 --> 00:04:50.149 use Spotify. So stupidly, under this law, my 00:04:50.149 --> 00:04:52.850 daughter can still use YouTube and access videos 00:04:52.850 --> 00:04:55.970 on it. I can no longer control what she sees 00:04:55.970 --> 00:04:58.689 on the service. I can no longer get rid of the 00:04:58.689 --> 00:05:01.410 advertising there. I can't even control what 00:05:01.410 --> 00:05:04.949 ads she sees, and nor can she. And she no longer 00:05:04.949 --> 00:05:08.709 gets access to YouTube Music either. For music 00:05:08.709 --> 00:05:11.129 then, we've had to shift to Spotify, which offers 00:05:11.129 --> 00:05:13.689 an identical service, but which apparently isn't 00:05:13.689 --> 00:05:16.170 a social network, even though she can look up 00:05:16.170 --> 00:05:18.810 her friends on there and message them. And I've 00:05:18.810 --> 00:05:21.709 retained YouTube Premium for my use, so I don't 00:05:21.709 --> 00:05:23.670 see the ads, so I'm now paying for two music 00:05:23.670 --> 00:05:27.050 services and not one. And none of this makes 00:05:27.050 --> 00:05:30.629 much sense to me. Although perhaps the weird 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:33.509 front page of the Courier Mail makes it a little 00:05:33.509 --> 00:05:35.889 bit more obvious that Murdoch thinks this is 00:05:35.889 --> 00:05:40.290 a very good idea indeed. Here is the Courier 00:05:40.290 --> 00:05:44.050 Mail for December the 10th. Today, childhood 00:05:44.050 --> 00:05:47.569 will be rebooted. Today is the day humanity... 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:50.319 reboots childhood with Australian kids the first 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:53.300 in the world to be banned by law from using social 00:05:53.300 --> 00:05:57.500 media until they turn 16. Not true. Lives will 00:05:57.500 --> 00:06:00.699 be changed. Lives will be saved. There are laws 00:06:00.699 --> 00:06:03.800 that will unshackle our kids from an online world 00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:06.680 they are not old enough to handle, freeing them 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:09.759 to grow up in a society that protects them. Social 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:12.779 media harms our children. Let's just let them 00:06:12.779 --> 00:06:16.600 be kids. Editorial, page 52. Parent's Guide, 00:06:16.699 --> 00:06:20.579 page 4 and 5. It's all a bit terrifying, really, 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:24.819 isn't it? Bless them. And until next time, keep 00:06:24.819 --> 00:06:25.100 listening.