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Our government is made up of idiots

Despite the fact that attempts at banning social media have been seen to fail abysmally in countries like Australia, the New Zealand government is pushing ahead with its own proposed ban.

It would appear that our cloth-headed MPs are too stupid to even learn from the mistakes of others.

I certainly hope that the parents of New Zealand push back hard against this move by the government to usurp the rights and resonsibilities of parents by claiming to know better.

This is not democracy, this is authoritarian fascism -- and no, I'm not using hyperbole, I'm dead serious.

If we look at the levels of compliance in Australia it becomes abundantly clear that all we can expect from a government-decreed social media ban for under 16's is to simply demonstrate to those kids that it's okay to break laws that you disagree with.

Is that really the message we should be sending a generation that is already given to showing contempt for authority?

As I have preached in previous columns, instead of pretending that social media doesn't exist for under-16s, why not instead take the time to educate these kids as to how they can identify, mitigate and manage the risks that it creates?

The "ban hammer" is a tool that is seldom effective and simply screams of any government that uses it "we don't understand the problem, we don't have an intelligent solution so we're just going to ban it".

Given the amount of money these clowns get paid, I expect better... a *lot* better.

You see, by banning social media for under-16s you're simply kicking the can a little further down the road.

Imagine a 13, 14 or 15 year old who, by decree of the law, has no exposure to social media until their 16th birthday. Suddenly they get to wander the dark and dangerous streets of social media without a guide, without anyone to protect them. What do you think will happen?

Contrast this with kids that are given plenty of education and awareness training in respect to the risks, pitfalls, dangers and challenges of participating in social media while they're young. They'll be *armed* and prepared to cope with the trolls, the fads, the opportunities and the dangers in a way that is essential to preserve their safety at any age.

Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised to see MPs buying shares in VPN companies in anticipation of such a ban coming into effect. They know that this is exactly where the savvy under 16's will be heading and they also know the huge lure of "forbidden fruit".

So, once again, our politicians prove that they think they know better than their peers in Australia, the UK and other countries where these bans are just a joke. They also think they know better than parents, who are the ones who truly carry the burden of protecting their kids from the darker side of life.

Just think about it for a moment... when I was a kid in my early teens, we'd all meet at the local milk bar on a Friday night before walking the main street in search of fun and girlfriends. Yes, we'd get up to trouble, there'd be the occasional fight, some kids would get bullied, some would get trolled and many would be found imbibing in tobacco or alcohol behind the library.

Did we legislate to restrict milk bars to only those 16 and over? Did we forbid under 16s from walking with the late night shopping crowd on a Friday night? Did we erect barbed wire fences around our library?

Hell no, of course we didn't -- so why are we trying to do the same thing to social media, simply because nobody can be arsed teaching kids about the dangers and equipping them with the skills to manage the risks or simply say "no" all by themselves?

Lazy parenting? Lazy (power-hungry) government?

Related link: Govt pushes ahead with social media ban for under-16s (RNZ)

Carpe Diem folks!

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