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Dear PatronsI have two important things to share with you!Firstly, here's the preview of our next Honest Government Ad about the Social Media Ban. That's right, finally an Australien Governmernt HGA! You've been so patient, Aussie Patrons (and I love you for it)On Dec 10, our world-first ban on Social Media Ban for under 16s will come into effect. Many people, especially parents, support it (and their concerns are valid), while experts say this isn't the answer. Either way, it's happening. So this HGA's main purpose is to urge folks to look out for our young people over the coming weeks and months. As always, you're the first to hear it so let me know if you have any feedback. (With the usual reminder than some things will make sense once you can see the visuals)The video should be out in the next day or two!Secondly: if you're in Melbourne next week, come and join us in welcoming Chief Na'moks (Wet'Suwet'En nation) and Gwii Lok'im Gibuu (Gitxsan nation) to Naarm on Thursday 11 Dec! These are the legends who invited us to the Peace & Unity Summit in northern British Cilumbia back in August. Now they've returned the favour by coming to Australia to meet friends and allies fighting Woodside - one of the partners behind the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG terminal and PRGT pipeline that would cross their ancestral lands. (The topic of our latest HGA)Na'Moks and his delegation are currently visiting the Burrup peninsula (WA), the location of Woodside's North West Shelf LNG terminal and the sacred Murujuga rock-art. They will be in Naarm next week and this is a chance to meet these legends, hear about their visit to Australia, and form solidarity across the Pacific. So, SAVE THE DATE and pass it on to others who might want to come:Thursday 11 Dec at 6:15PMVICTORIAN TRADES HALL(This is a free event and places are limited)I hope to see you there!

In other news: The legends at Justice For Myanmar won the 2025 Right Livelihood Award! We can now also disclose that we collaborated with Justice Myanmar on our Visit Myanmar HGA last year. (We weren't able to do so at the time, due to safety concerns for JFM folks in Myanmar).Take care,Giordano

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Comments

Bryan A.

The HGA is on the money... Oz, the first country to make an absolute dick of itself in the mire. As usual.

Sean O'Dowd

Isn’t this a form of holding a social media company to account? Facebook requires users to be at least 13 years old globally, but they don’t enforce this at all. I also don’t believe it’s perfect, but the tone of “it’s not good enough, therefore it’s bad” - rather than “let’s do more and be better” feels very cynical. I did really enjoy when the ad started to talk about how we could do better with stronger regulation and the discussion around it.

thejuicemedia

Thanks Sean, glad you appreciated that section! I don't think the video says "it's not good enough, therefore it's bad" but rather "this won't address the problem we're trying to solve". Social media companies don't view this as a threat to their model at all.. age assurance allows them to leave their business model largely in tact. And let's the government off the hook for tackling the problem in ways which would achieve real reforms. Also, the ‘it’s not great but it’s something’ angle ignores the ways in which it is actually bad. It's a complex topic to be sure, and peoples' concerns about the harms of social media are absolutely valid. I just think our kids deserve better than this

thejuicemedia

Thanks Bryan. We sure are world leaders in some respects

Sean O'Dowd

I appreciate the thought you’ve given to reply. I make video games and social platforms for a living, and I’m well aware of the dark patterns and ways the industry fails people. The work I focus on is improving people’s wellbeing - so I feel we’re aligned! Unfortunately my takeaway wasn’t “this won’t address the problem we’re trying to solve”. If this is your goal, I wonder how it could be honed in on (or maybe I’m not your target audience?). Instagram had an internal report (that’s been leaked!) with a strong correlation between teenage use and depression. They’ve taken active steps (such as removing the like counter). Yet still, I don’t believe a young person can interact with Instagram safely - the very nature of the app reinforces social incentive structures which cause distorted sense of self and others - so age assurance feels appropriate. What I’m suggesting is that rearranging furniture on the titanic and hoping for a different outcome isn’t going to work. We need different structures, different platforms, and ways to interact that don’t promote harm. The conversation shouldn’t end here with age assurance!

Mark D Larsen

I now wish that we still had land lines and dial phones. Honestly!

thejuicemedia

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Sean, it's helpful for me to get this feedback on the video. Is there a specific part of the video that you feel is problematic, a specific line? Yes Instagram and other SM platforms are very harmful in that regard - no debate there. What the video is saying, or trying to say, is that they are harmful to everyone, not just kids; that govt could address this by regulating the underlying problems with those platforms, making it safer and better for everyone; and that the ban it introduced instead is opposed by a wide range of human rights, digital rights, mental health orgs... I hope I (and the many experts voicing their concerns) are wrong and the social media ban will have a net benefit for our young people, I really do. And I agree the conversation shouldn't end here. Pressure on Govt might lead it to take more meaningful reforms, including banning gambling ads. And that's one of the the things the HGA tries to do

Rose Elle

As someone who lives in regional Australia with a queer and disabled young person this has been a frequent topic of conversation in my house. They are having access to their support network cut off. It sucks I appreciate that you addressed the lack of care for our whole community in favour of letting billionaires do their thing and just slapping a band-aid on a festering wound

Sean O'Dowd

I’ll do my best to give concrete feedback! There’s a few things that stick out to me: the strong incongruence between “social media is brain rot” and “it’s important for our freedom of speech / human rights / LGBTQI+”. One could say both can be true, but places where kids actually congregate and gain support (discord) is not being affected by this ban. I feel as though these smaller communities allow for better moderation and oversight without algorithmic influence. Anecdotally, I’m a part of an effort to help ASD children gain social skills in a safe environment and discord is used- and we don’t advocate for instagram / FB. Minor issues with the video: - it’s strange to me to call it an experiment on children, they’re already banned at 13 years old- this is extending by 3 years and enforcement, not a new idea. It seems as though you are advocating for children to be on social media? - regulation is difficult, you’ve made the point that it is infringing on rights AND simultaneously said that regulation is a threat to our freedoms. How can this concern ever be addressed? - you pull in gambling ads / climate change, as if they’re related. I understand you’re attempting to say there’s better things to focus on, but beyond this, is there relevancy? Could this not be said for any issue we want to talk about?

thejuicemedia

Thank you Rose, it's heartening to know this episode addresses your situation. Thank you so much for supporting our work xo

thejuicemedia

We are seriously talking about doing it in our home, Mark!

Mic

I feel like I missed a video so I apologize if my comment is out of context. I worry that a storyline that people are generally missing is that corporations have become super-national political entities. State level control is pretty meaningless in the face of a small percent of people who have a massive stranglehold on resource distribution. Of course Facebook doesn't enforce age limits and of course we all accept it because we hold these multinational entities to a lower standard than we do public officials. We have been trained for decades to see this as the right way to measure accountability. I live in Canada. I feel like my similar colonial origin story makes it easy enough to relate to Australia. As I read this thread I hear our mutually contained narratives talking about the small parts of a bigger problem. Does anyone recall when Dick Cheney basically admitted that empires are 20 years ahead of the common script? That's real. We are deep in a culture of distraction, not Brave New World or 1984, but both at the same time.