Australian Teenagers Are Looking For Ways To Equity The Prohibition Of Social Media

Australian youth tries to break through social media bans (photo: dock. unsplash)

JAKARTA - Starting Wednesday, December 10, Australia began to enforce rules that are widely opposed by young people. This rule prohibits children from accessing social media if they are under the age of 16.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described this move as a moment when "Australian families reclaimed power from big tech companies". Albanese believes that this rule is the right move.

Seconds before the ban took effect, many teenagers used their final hours to criticize the government. Albanese was also the target of anger from children by losing more than 6,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram.

This prohibition encourages children and adolescents to find ways to keep access to social media. Some children try to outsmart the system by drawing fake facial hair. There are also those who use their parents or older ones' accounts.

In addition, Australia's search for a virtual private network (VPN) jumped sharply to its highest level in 10 years. Google data shows that this spike occurred about a week before the law took effect.

Meanwhile, some platforms that are not covered by the ban actually go up to the top of the application download ladder. The Australian government responded to this by saying that the list of regulated platforms is 'dynamical' and can be updated.

The photo-sharing app, Yope, is known to have experienced very fast user growth. The app gets 100,000 new users in Australia. Half of the users are confirmed to be over 16 years old.

Yope told Reuters that they consider the app a personal messaging service, not social media. This was conveyed to the Australian internet regulator in charge of overseeing the ban.