Social media ban aftermath: Choose your poison

The real risk of the social media ban was hardly mentioned. But it's 100% obvious to me.?

Hi everyone,

So, the social media ban is officially happening. But as you’ve no doubt guessed, it's way more complicated than just keeping kids safe. It's a whole tangled web of politics, money, and… our privacy!

?One of the biggest questions is age verification. I was invited to present at the initial expert discussions on age verification, what hasn’t come out much in the discussions is that we will all need to prove our age to use social media now, not just the kids turning 16. ?

?The good news is the government says we won't be uploading our passports or driver's licenses directly to the social media platforms! That in itself would have been a crazy risk.??

That leaves two likely options: digital ID or facial recognition. And guess what? Both come with some serious privacy risks we need to talk about.

Pros and Cons of a Digital ID

A digital ID can act as a single access point to various online services, linking your personal information across platforms. As I’ve dug deeper researching this, what concerns me is the potential for these services to share data about you.

This data sharing across sensitive platforms is happening in countries that have a digital ID. For example if you use a digital ID to access Instagram, banking, and health, then could Meta (who own Instagram) negotiate an agreement with one or more of the other services to exchange or buy your data. When a 16 year old begins social media, their feed could then be filled manipulative content and ads aggressively targeting their health.??

The Facial Recognition Option

Remember the Bunnings scandal a few weeks ago? They got in trouble for using facial recognition on customers. That's because this technology is a huge privacy risk. Centralised facial recognition is different to using your face to access your banking app because the data is stored in a central database, potentially accessible by multiple platforms and even authorities. It can be inaccurate, especially for people of colour and women, discriminatory profiling can occur, plus can be stolen and misused.??

?Will These Strategies Protect 16 year olds?

If the reason for their implementation is to protect the privacy and health of young people, then we need to know the risks that come along with the convenience. ?What data is collected of my 16-year-old and how will it be used, what control will my child have over their data, how are we protecting against bias and discrimination and what the long-term implications for privacy and autonomy for young people??

Plus, it's clear these questions need to be answered for all of us before we again agree on something we’ve been given very little detail on.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts- thanks to everyone who has been getting in touch with me! Email me or message me on any of my social platforms. The links are below. ?

Thanks everyone. Dr Jo