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This is definitely a lot more serious than my usual blogs and I’m not really the best with words and I’m sorry if I leave anything out, please correct me or add anything if I’m wrong.
As a lot of you may be aware, Australia is deciding to “ban under 16s from social media”. Which may sound really great, even I would agree that they should because of how dangerous and horrible it can be (coming from a 15 year old so that would include me). But with the way they’re going with this is just beyond fucked. They expect us to show our IDs to them as if we’re supposed to trust them.
They don’t care about the kids, because if they really did, they WOULDNT be doing this. Sure social media can DEFINITELY have a negative impact on kids even anyone in general, but it also has a lot of positive impact.
This is also coming from someone who was groomed online as a 13 year old (well not really 13, I was still 12 actually because it was before my birthday that year). That shit ruined my life, it really did. I used to harm myself because of it and I still sometimes think about that incident nowadays.
But, that doesn’t mean that being on the internet and being on social media hasn’t had an actual good impact on me.
I ended up starting a YouTube channel around October last year and started doing something I was extremely passionate about, which was reprinting songs from the Vocaloid Underground Catalog as I LOVE lost media and there’s a lot of lost songs in those Vocaranks, so I wanted to reprint the available ones in case they ever went lost. I may not have a heaps of subscribers (267), but I still have people who are genuinely interested in what I do and continue to support me through it.
I also of course ended up joining SpaceHey this year near the end of May. Which I honestly never thought it would be so important for me. Originally I joined because of one of my irl friends and I thought it would be pretty cool to be able to make a pretty looking profile. But then I ended up friending people who shared the same interests as me and they have become some of the most important people in my life. Especially because I don’t have many friends, I find it extremely difficult to socialise because of how introverted I am and how much I overthink. But, meeting everyone on here has made me feel so much happier and I don’t want to fucking lose ANY of them.
I’ve been able to share my passions on here, specifically with my art and the OCs I’ve created, which I’ve been dreaming of doing this for a long time now, and even if I don’t have HUNDREDS of people interested in what I make, I still feel happy that there IS people who are interested.
But of course, to the government, half the stuff I just said they probably couldn’t give two shits about because not every child HAS had a great experience on social media. And I get that, but it’s on the parents to make sure their kids are safe online or even better, DONT let them on social media until they’re a little older.
I find it so fucking stupid that the government would rather worry about the “safety of children online” (when it clearly isn’t, they just want to censor everything. I mean, have you seen what’s been happening in the UK??????), rather than the ACTUAL problems here in this country.
There is so many homeless people living on the streets, there are LITERAL teenagers (as young as 13 from as far as I’m aware) who are breaking into people’s homes and making them feel unsafe (they also get put out on bail), the prices for basic things keep going up and so much more!!!!
I was actually thinking of getting WhatsApp so I could continue to communicate with my online friends but ig I can’t fucking do that now, this country is a joke.
I’m not sure how much this will really help, but we NEED more people to sign this petition.
As I said in the beginning, feel free to add or correct me on anything, this was kinda made in a rush because of how upset and angry I am about all of this stupid shit.
Comments
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unaunagii
Just wanted to link more petitions I found!!!!
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8179
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8159
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8157
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8155
Some more petitions!!!
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8434
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8467 (This is related to Digital ID but it’s still bad whatsoever)
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN7927
by unaunagii; ; Report
MORE PETITIONS!!! (I’m so happy they keep adding more…)
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8584
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8577
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8548
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN8494
by unaunagii; ; Report
2befoxgloved
this is actually crazy...i have a friend in china who i can only communicate w/ on discord and tiktok. he's had small episodes before where i needed to help him make a decision regarding who to trust or having a bad day (hes self harmed before). they dont actually care about the kids anymore
2befoxgloved
this is actually crazy...i have a friend in china who i can only communicate w/ on discord and tiktok. he's had small episodes before where i needed to help him make a decision regarding who to trust or having a bad day (hes self harmed before). they dont actually care about the kids anymore
Kann1bal_Kl0wn
I just came here as an Australian and just found out that steam was getting banned?? Wtf?? This government is a joke. This summer boutta be the craziest summer anyone's seen
☆∼ oyasu
i think that ts could be heavily improved by just removing the texting functionalities out of the apps
not only for Australia but in general too, like why would I need to he able to text people on Pinterest lol (it realistically wouldn't remove the problem, but it'd be wayyyyy less easy for predators to get in contact with children imo)
✮PitterAarav✮
Why the f is github on there, are children not allowed to code anymore
StarryBunny
With you all the way!
✩₊˚.Tatoom⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
I wonder if a federated account would help. Fediverse platforms are decentralized social media and run by people through instances. You can try joining an instance communicating with your friends there. Although I find it both unfair and understandable the government is only wanting to help the way they want to and not the way they need to. I do agree there is a lot of questionable activity on these sites and apps, though. They generate a lot of money of people especially children. But you should be able to know what is happening no matter what and be with your friends.
Here are some platforms you can try too:
Mastodon (microblogging, like twitter)
Pixelfed ( kind of like Instagram)
Friendica ( similar function to facebook)
Misskey and it's forks like Sharkey ( also similar to twitter)
and there is probably more, but those are the ones I know
It doesn't really matter which one you get because they can all be connected to each other. You just choose a function that you like. I prefer the microblogging so I joined an instance on a misskey fork. It takes a bit to get used to but it's an alternative.
Saint Rogue
THIS HAS NOT A LOT TO DO WITH ORIGINAL POST
I agree but I am American and where I come from things are a million times worst and I dream of moving to Australia as a 15 yo. Charlie, big oompa loompa man, tariffs, and every single other thing here Idc about the spiders the bugs the small tiny adorable INSANELY POISANOUS octopuses any single thing you list its better than the things here gotta love AU🇦🇺!!!
I have no clue why that comment was added twice
by Saint Rogue; ; Report
its a common glitch on spacehey dont worry :D
as an australian, im honoured! australia is an amazing country with beautifully unique ecosystems. we have some of the oldest fossils in the world!!
i highly suggest learning more about our fauna and flora! when you can, learn more about kanagaroos - not just the eastern grey and the red kanagaroo, but tree kanagaroos and wallabies aswell! or the very cute, one of our few mammal predators, the quoll! and the well-known but misrepresented dingo! and this is just mammals - i havent even touched our amphibians and reptiles yet alone our marine animals!
or our beautiful trees - my favourite is personally the morteon bay ash and the wattle!
theres so much to learn about this beautiful continent and i'd highly suggest it :) if you arent sure where to start, theres a guy on youtube i love to watch - the backyard naturalist.
sorry for the long comment! i may have gotten excited
by ashton; ; Report
Im actually currently subscribed to him and another australian YouTuber (three if you count one that is Australian but doesn't say anything Abt it he just plays clash royale lol)(Ken) anyways I love that you are proud to be there and when I'm older I will move there asap!!! Im not sure if this is part of my last comment but the blue ringed octopus is my favorite animal its like a little plushie lmao ( wont be touching it tho). Also the first time I started researching Australia is when I fell in love with Bluey :D. sorry for the poor punctuation but this isn't an essay just want to show my love for Australia Idc if its cringey you can bite my ass I love that place and always will.
by Saint Rogue; ; Report
thats goated!!! hell yeah!!!!!!!!!!!
you did mention the blue ringed octopus in your last comment! :D we've got plenty of really sick marine animals, such as the blue ringed octopus as you mentioned! my personal favourite is probably our giant cuttlefish!! i do agree blue ringed octopus are cutie patooties, but unfortunately we will not be touching it :(
bluey is goated hell yeah man!! my little step sister lives in colombia and its so sweet to me that although she lives ages away she loves our silly australian dog kid show and that so many people of all different ages can appreciate it.
its not cringe to be passionate <3 i love my country
by ashton; ; Report
I looked that up its pretty cool man. But yeah we gonna be moving to that place and its gonna be sick
by Saint Rogue; ; Report
Yeah its probably the best kids show (imo) adventure time after then regular show I made a post asking for favorite kids shows and adult shows those were top three kid shows In that order
by Saint Rogue; ; Report
Have a great life man ur a pretty fucking awesome dude
by Saint Rogue; ; Report
Saint Rogue
THIS HAS NOT A LOT TO DO WITH ORIGINAL POST
I agree but I am American and where I come from things are a million times worst and I dream of moving to Australia as a 15 yo. Charlie, big oompa loompa man, tariffs, and every single other thing here Idc about the spiders the bugs the small tiny adorable INSANELY POISANOUS octopuses any single thing you list its better than the things here gotta love AU🇦🇺!!!
duster
Some of these bans are crazy!!!
gazebo
i agree completely with what you said, its not the governments job to protect children its their parents. especially because social media is HUGE in todays society and allows people to share mutual interests and learn about new things. I wouldn't say im reliant on social media but when i reflect on my life i notice that so many of my special interests and the media i consume in general is because of social media. like learning about vocaloid and pjsk, along with rekindling my love for pokemon and anime, really bought back joy, which during that time, was lacking in my life. I also think its going to have a negative impact on the metal health of kids and young teenagers, just observing the peers at my school i see a variety of so many people, some that consider social media as nothing to them, but a majority of them are so reliant on it they cant go even an hour without it. And even though their heavy reliance on social media is sad and kind of dystopian to see i just know it will only become so much worse when that ban comes. Even though i heavily dislike those classmates, i cant help but feel bad for them, they have no personality aside from the social media that consumes their lives and once that's taken away from them they'll just become shells of the people the once were before
(also random side tangent, but as i was looking at the website you link i found this quote "Yuh it made me sad that they are banning it frfr im lowkey so sad 0, QLD" )