new australian laws (social media ban + vape/illicit tobacco crackdown)

i might be blogging too close to the sun right now, but no matter! the show must go on. i'm really tired right now, so please excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes. 

i felt compelled to write this blog because i recently discovered that spacehey mobile no longer works in my region, because it currently has no method of age verification that it can use to stay running in australia. i'm able to use it on my laptop though because i use a VPN, LOL (even still, i'm 16+, so i can legally use social media apps)

and then my thoughts started going towards the vape ban that was released last year, as the reasoning for that ban was quite similar to the reasoning of the social media ban.

content warning for mention of illegal drugs.

my thoughts on the social media ban for kids aged 15 and under.

i'll start this off by saying my opinion on social media as a whole -- great invention, made a horrible downfall after big corpos realised how much they could profit over it via making people suffer. i am so opinionated on this topic that i made a blog about it. (i hope that link worked.)

long story short, i don't like social media, and i think it has negatively affected young people on a very large scale. it would be nice to see people collectively take a break from these apps, but the way the australian government has gone about this issue is... not it.

my main concern is the huge breach of privacy that will ensue. the government has sort of left it to the companies to figure out how to verify users ages, rather than giving them any specific instructions, and fining them up to 45 billion dollars if they don't comply. current methods are: biometrical face/voice scanning via AI, monitoring user activity on platforms to estimate ages, connectID (linking your bank to your account), monitoring internet service usage through your phone number, and photo ID.

the former two on the above list are wildly inaccurate at times, and invasive, while the latter three are essentially handing your most sensitive documents and data to untrustworthy companies.

it's not just affecting kids, it's also affecting adults in forcing EVERYONE to provide age verification. the government has stated that there strictly should be verification options that don't require ID proof, but unfortunately, with how unreliable the other options are, the only way to firmly and accurately verify yourself is via photo ID.

it should not be the government who controls internet usage in kids and teens, it should be the responsibility of parents. quite frankly, i think the issue runs a lot deeper than just bad parenting -- now, this is probably going to be a very hot take for some people, so bear with me -- 

well, it just boils down to my hatred of capitalism and social expectations, honestly. modern life is hard. everything is expensive, inflation rates are rising so much higher than wage rates, there's horrible news everywhere -- it feels like we're only ever seeing the bad sides of the world. life sucks for a lot of people, and i don't imagine being a parent makes it any easier, so i can vaguely understand why parents would want to let the devices do the parenting for them. of course, it was the parent's choice to have a child in the first place, so the fault does absolutely fall onto them.

i make it a point not to ignore the stigma around childless people, and how things like abortions have been so morally debated over the past couple of years. there's a lot of pressure, especially from parents, for their kids to give them grandkids. getting married and having kids has become some sort of a socially mandatory milestone for adults to achieve, even when it feels like it's starting to become near impossible to have a stable family and stable finances at the same time.

i hope you're picking up what i'm putting down here. i'm absolutely not trying to take the blame off of bad parents, but i do believe that it's a very layered topic.

back to the actual topic. in 2024, it was found that approximately 35% percent of people globally were addicted to the internet, with teens and young adults having the highest rates. i would imagine that suddenly taking away something that a lot of kids are addicted to probably wouldn't induce many positive emotions -- my mind is wandering closer to psychological withdrawals.

in a more personal observation, i've had some friends of mine who are under 16 talking about how upset they are with the social media ban. one friend attributed her escalating drinking problem with the new rule; with the loss of the internet as a coping mechanism.

the government probably should have put a bit more thought into this, as this is a gateway to a serious privacy issue with companies being forced to collect such sensitive info on us, and social media companies are notoriously not known for being able to hold back on their urges to profit off of the exploitation of their users.

my thoughts on the recent crackdowns on illicit tobacco stores.

well, lookie here, i'm not done yapping yet.

australia is the first country in the world to make the sale of vapes and e-cigarettes in tobacconists against the law. as of january 1st, 2024, you could only obtain nicotine vapes via pharmacy with a prescription. flavours being limited to mint, menthol, and tobacco. the end goal being to bring down vaping rates in australian youth.

here's the burning question -- did people stop vaping? absolutely not. tobacconists were still importing them into the country. and the best part? they were so much cheaper, because the government couldn't put insane amount of tax onto them.

it wasn't just vapes either, it was cigarettes too. in gov controlled tobacco stores, a pack of 20 would usually go for 30-60 AUD, but the imports were around 8-15 dollars. 

the government got mad at the fact that they were losing so much money from not being able to tax the products, so they started raiding tobacconists, under the guise of public health concerns. they did confess at some point that it was because of the loss of revenue.

many people are addicted to nicotine, plain and simple, and a lot of people are about to feel the effects of no longer being able to have it. this time, it's physical withdrawal symptoms. australia has a pretty high youth crime rate, and a lot of aussies are expecting it to go much higher now that a lot of kids are probably going to start going through withdrawal on a mass scale, from more than just nicotine.

something similar to this situation happened in the united states, back in the 1920s. the prohibition era, where the production, importation, and distribution of alcohol was made illegal. this obviously didn't last very long, as a huge black market for alcohol was created instead, and crime rates increased. part of this was also the loss of much-needed tax revenue during the great depression.

i believe that the vape laws will lead down this path -- creating an even sneakier black market, now that obtaining affordable nicotine through tobacco stores is no longer available. 

i will be adding some experiences of my own into this argument. 

it's very easy to access illegal substances in this country, much more easier than it would be to get legal substances. the first time i had experimented, the way i found them was done completely on my own without the assistance of any peers or common links. 

many young people i currently know are regular users, and the amount of people (of all ages) who involve themselves in such things is at a much higher number than people would expect. i have very little doubt that the illegal distribution of nicotine would be any harder to navigate. desperation leads people to many dark places, especially young kids, and i'm worried about the new world that teens will get into once they find out that they could get so much more than just nicotine.

this might be my longest blog post. i would like to find something positive to say to try and close this off nicely, but i'm very tired.. my brain wouldn't let me sleep until i typed this out. i've been at this since 4am, and now it is 9am. please wish me luck in that i won't fall asleep during my work shift today.

if you've read this far, thank you so much! feel free to give this blog both constructive and destructive criticism.

i'm going to bed.