I’m pretty sure we’re all across the recent decision to restrict social media to people aged 16+, but has any thought been put into how we’ll respond to this?
I know we have about a year to figure it all out, but I am worried about the future of aussie.zone. @[email protected] @[email protected] do you have the time to implement something? Do you feel comfortable collecting the required information and managing age verification? Are donations sufficient to allow you to pay some other company to do it for you?
Another option is that we may be able to apply for an exemption from the eSafety Commissioner - but is that an actual option? Do either of you have the ability and time to procure the required documentation and write letters to the commissioner, or whatever else is needed?
Perhaps more importantly; what modifications could even be put in place that would be compatible with Lemmy? Will the instance just shut down?
If worse comes to worst, could another option be disabling signups and banning/removing all users, but keeping the instance open as a remote instance accessible solely through other instances?
Forgive me if I am being cynical and jumping the gun, but I am genuinely concerned that a solution won’t be found, or neither of you will have the time/ability to implement one, forcing aussie.zone to come to a close. I really love our little instance, and it would be a major shame to see it go.
Whatever happens, please don’t just leave us in the dark before eventually pulling the plug on AZ with a couple of days notice (or worse: no notice)
This is a little bit different, because aussie.zone is hosted in Australia, run by, and primarily used by Australians. The European courts and GDPR people probably have bigger fish to fry than the 1 or 2 people that may or may not use our instance. The same is also true of our court system and these laws, but it’s still a little bit different in my view, as it would cost way less to prosecute our instance admins, than it would be for the European systems.
Your argument is certainly applicable to other instances not run by people easily prosecuted here, but I don’t think it’s really that relevant. Considering the fines are up to ~49 million dollars, I certainly wouldn’t stake my money on just being deemed “too small to care about” if I were in their shows.
Something to consider on that point is that there might be a spike in the userbase once the major players put in whatever irritating form of age verification the govt dreams up.