Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 3,798
At all costs, people especially the young cannot learn the truth about Gaza and the climate crisis
A ban on Australian children under 16 accessing social media came into effect on Wednesday, setting a global precedent for state control of the internet amid rising hostility to inequality, authoritarianism and war.
Social media platforms have been compelled under threat of massive fines to institute age-verification measures and remove children. Potentially all users, including adults, now face new obligations to remain on platforms, such as providing government identification or photographs to the conglomerates.
The measure has sparked mass opposition, including from young people already finding ways to circumvent it.
This is not merely an Australian issue. The Trump administration has introduced a nearly identical policy to the US Congress, and a host of European powers are moving towards a similar ban.
Legislation was rushed through parliament by the Labor government last year, supposedly to protect young people from online harm, particularly to mental health. Those claims are false. Mental health advocacy groups overwhelmingly opposed the ban, warning it will likely intensify children’s psychological problems.
The Labor government is implementing a program that can only worsen the mental health crisis. It has done nothing to address the fact that one in six children live below the poverty line, instead imposing the burden of the cost-of-living crisis on working-class households and inflicting austerity on vital social services.
These social conditions, and the reality that capitalism offers them no future, are fuelling a radicalisation of young people. The real aim of the ban is to suppress that sentiment and prevent it from finding organised political expression.
The ban is being imposed after long developing social anger erupted to the surface amid the Gaza genocide, which has politicised an entire generation. In Australia, masses of youth participated in often weekly demonstrations, held school strikes and engaged in other actions to oppose the war crimes they were witnessing through social media.
The footage of maimed Palestinians, bombed hospitals and decimated schools showed a reality completely at odds with the lies of the major imperialist powers, including Australia, which backed the slaughter. It is such exposures of government lies and criminality that the ban seeks to prevent.
The mass opposition to the genocide followed outpourings over the climate crisis, including school strikes in Australia and globally involving hundreds of thousands.
Anger over these manifestations of capitalist crisis is increasingly cohering into an attraction to socialism. The most recent polling on the issue in Australia found last year that 53 percent of young Australians wanted “more socialism,” mirroring similar results in the US and Europe.
comrade stalin
sydney
A ban on Australian children under 16 accessing social media came into effect on Wednesday, setting a global precedent for state control of the internet amid rising hostility to inequality, authoritarianism and war.
Social media platforms have been compelled under threat of massive fines to institute age-verification measures and remove children. Potentially all users, including adults, now face new obligations to remain on platforms, such as providing government identification or photographs to the conglomerates.
The measure has sparked mass opposition, including from young people already finding ways to circumvent it.
This is not merely an Australian issue. The Trump administration has introduced a nearly identical policy to the US Congress, and a host of European powers are moving towards a similar ban.
Legislation was rushed through parliament by the Labor government last year, supposedly to protect young people from online harm, particularly to mental health. Those claims are false. Mental health advocacy groups overwhelmingly opposed the ban, warning it will likely intensify children’s psychological problems.
The Labor government is implementing a program that can only worsen the mental health crisis. It has done nothing to address the fact that one in six children live below the poverty line, instead imposing the burden of the cost-of-living crisis on working-class households and inflicting austerity on vital social services.
These social conditions, and the reality that capitalism offers them no future, are fuelling a radicalisation of young people. The real aim of the ban is to suppress that sentiment and prevent it from finding organised political expression.
The ban is being imposed after long developing social anger erupted to the surface amid the Gaza genocide, which has politicised an entire generation. In Australia, masses of youth participated in often weekly demonstrations, held school strikes and engaged in other actions to oppose the war crimes they were witnessing through social media.
The footage of maimed Palestinians, bombed hospitals and decimated schools showed a reality completely at odds with the lies of the major imperialist powers, including Australia, which backed the slaughter. It is such exposures of government lies and criminality that the ban seeks to prevent.
The mass opposition to the genocide followed outpourings over the climate crisis, including school strikes in Australia and globally involving hundreds of thousands.
Anger over these manifestations of capitalist crisis is increasingly cohering into an attraction to socialism. The most recent polling on the issue in Australia found last year that 53 percent of young Australians wanted “more socialism,” mirroring similar results in the US and Europe.
Australia’s social media ban sets global precedent for online censorship
The real aim of the ban is to suppress growing opposition among young people to war, austerity and dictatorship and to prevent it finding organized political expression.
www.wsws.org
comrade stalin
sydney
