"Media ban - wargaming opportunity?" Topic

Australian children are now banned from using Social Media.

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Surely, this provides an opportunity to get more Teens into wargaming? I wonder if the government would consider subsidising Warhammer figures?

They will go to other sites or use someone else's device/s. They are not going to be sitting on ghe front stoop wishing that they had something to do. Ironically, social media is a great way to reach young gamers. GW (and GW fans) has a huge social media presence.

Nothing like a ban to stir interest in violating the ban.

ochoin, rustymusket is closer. Try getting the government to prohibit historical miniatures wargaming for anyone under the age of 21. Have teachers give long dull lectures on how no one should ever play with toy soldiers--especially historical ones--and if at all possible, try to get some actors and singers popular with the 40+ set to make videos in support of the ban.

There'd be Napoleonic miniatures in every kid's closet, terrain under all the beds, rules passed hand to hand between classes and Waterloo fought out every weekend.

And cafeteria debates about Grenzers vs Freikorps.

Yes, banning underage drinking, setting an age to get a driver's licence & controlling firearms all result in some breaking of the law. But mostly work.

Heaven forbid any effort to limit the insidious influence of Tik Tok etc. Not least of which are child suicide.

This is an interesting social experiment that may well bear fruit. Only curmudgeons & the mega-rich social media companies art against it.

"work" for who, exactly? Other than the rulers, of course. If it doesn't work for the rulers, it doesn't become law. Prohibition "worked" if you measure it by the reduced number of cirrosis of the liver cases, and close your eyes to the tremendous boost it gave organized crime and police corruption.

Find a real historian--not someone promoting "social justice" and talk to him or her about historical "interesting social experiments." Maybe you can get an average body count. They can also tell you about how well slandering opponents of a policy works over the long term.

For the record, my son and daughter in law are keeping my grandchildren off social media until an age yet to be determined, and I support them in that. I think it's wise. But I do not confuse governments with parents.

+1 Robert P

+2 RP.

Oh. And subsidizing Warhammer figures would result in precisely one thing--GW raising prices to soak up the available money. That particular "interesting social experiment" has been done to death.

If you actually think there's a national advantage in giving kids figures, Establish the Australian National Fantasy Figure Range, and have competitive bidding to produce them. Watch how long the contract is for, and beware of corruption among your quality control people. That will get you cheap figures. We used to build ships and tanks that way. Now we--never mind. Not on TMP.

"Subsidizing warhammer figures"
You don't do satire do you?

Interesting that Australia's gun legislation was criticised for exactly the same reasons when it was enacted. However, gun crime was greatly reduced, suicide by firearm virtually disappeared & what about those pesky school shootings? Australia doesn't seem to have any.

And I'm so glad there's two parents who do the right thing.
And the many who don't? I'm glad you trust the Billionaire Social Media owners to do the right thing by our children. How trusting of you.

All the negative comments would be much more effective if a certain president hadn't tried to ban Tik Tok:
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To answer your initial question- it may result in some kids becoming interested in some form of gaming with tangible figures, not just pixels. However I think the genre that would benefit most is the Sci-Fi/Fantasy one, rather than historicals.

As for the ban itself, there's a whiff of token gesturism:

1. The real issues- rock-spiders grooming kids, access to illicit sites (pornography, drug use, etc), "screen addiction", online bullying, etc- were too hard to tackle, so going with a social media ban (hopefully) looks like they're doing something!
2. There's no clearly stated mission objective beyond banning under-16's from some social media sites. Just vague mentions of reducing online bullying, child suicide, etc.
3. Following on from serial 2., what is expected to be achieved, in what time frame?

I hope something worthwhile does come from this, and it is not just more tax dollars blown on a half-baked thought bubble. But then I look at Parliament's record with social engineering, from McMahon to Albanese, and don't feel hopeful. But if it saves one kid from suicide, I'll count that as a justifying the ban.

"But if it saves one kid from suicide, I'll count that as a justifying the ban."

I don't think you know, from a first hand basis, how toxic is the online bullying? The amount of self-harm is frightening. This ban won't be a panacea. It will take parents, the Law, teachers & (God help us), politicians.

BTW Porn. You would be shocked at the extent this is accessed by the Young. What that does to impressionable minds is devastating.

Time frame? If it holds,maybe the *next* generation. Still better to be trying to do something than just post a lot of "+1"s on a forum thread. (I was piled on by a load of curmudgeons!!! There's a hip displacement joke there but I'm too classy to make it).

@rustymusket and Robert P, of course some kids will try to find a way around the blocks. I would have, at that age, just to see if I could. I'm pessimistic about how the ban will work, the reasons listed above, but nobody knows until it gets tried. As I said, if it saves one kid….

I don't think you know, from a first hand basis, how toxic is the online bullying?

Fortunately not first hand, Ochoin. But I've seen what pre-Telecom Generation bullying did to one of my sons. I agree about the ban not being a panacea, but some of the commentary- from pollies as well as ignorant gossip-mongers in the media- seem to see it as such, and some are promoting it as such (eg the ABC a couple of nights ago).

Your comment on porn worries me. That's a wide description and covers things like S&M, and worse. But who points the kids to the sites? I can see young teens being interested (I remember parts of '69-'75) and searching them out, but young kids? Why would they be searching for porn?

That's just sick.

They send stuff to each other. Lowest Common Denominator. FOMO. Curiosity. You were a teenage boy yourself, once?

And then we get into the predators who infest Social Media in order to target and exploit vulnerable teens.

As well as the sort of scum were we're talking about – there's gambling. Do you have any idea the number of kids who gamble on line? It starts with simple "Free" online games for quite young children that you "need" to buy special features for. Kids are targeted with gambling ads. And so it begins – research shows that around 600,000 kids under 18 are gambling in Australia, spending more than $18 USD million a year.This is done online & through Social Media accounts.

I've seen the social problems first hand – lack of physical activity, poor communication skills, sleep disruption, poor self-image. How would you like your vulnerable & sweet teenaged daughter or grand daughter to see altered photos of herself created through AI from "Nudify" & other sites & circulated to everyone in her school?

And the Social Media sites take no responsibility, exercise no control & simply rake in the trillions from the exploitation of children with, I guess, a clear conscious.

And yet we get allegedly well-meaning types who say, "We don't need controls; my son knows how to protect my grandchildren". Or the civil rights types who provide the clearly false analogy of Prohibition.

Do I sound a little passionate? I'd say to the '+1'-ers of this thread that protecting our children is rather important. Will the ban work? I don't know but I say – I really, really hope so.

Thanks for a more detailed view than what the gossip-mongers have been presenting, mate.

You were a teenage boy yourself, once?

As I said above, been there, done that, misplaced the tee shirt….. I can remember parts of the 60's and 70's, too, not being attracted to recreational pharmaceuticals (despite the "smoking green" fronting the library at Uni- I don't why the cops never raided it…?).

Social Media sites take no responsibility, exercise no control & simply rake in the trillions from the exploitation of children with, I guess, a clear conscious.

Which makes them no different from any other big corporation, mate. We're not people, we're self-propelled cash that hasn't yet been collected.

You know, even two years ago, the "we know what's best" crowd were spaying and neutering children. That too, was supposed to prevent child suicide. I don't think the experts have any credibility left. Power without accountability is a frightful thing.

As for this being some opportunity to expand wargaming, I suggest you actually read some of the "it's for your own good" people, and find out how they feel about children and "the toys of war." Give them a few years, and you could be looking at hard time for promoting the hobby.

I'm all for the ban. I regulate my grandkids use when they are here. I avoid all Social Media because I think its intent has long since been corrupted. Social media has stifled the art of compromise, the ability to debate because everything is a poll or there is an expectation of yes/no or conform or be bullied.
The companies will never police this they make token efforts. I have helped investigate countless online bullying including suicides and in remote communities it is even worse.
Even the Royal Navy could not get submariners because young folk did not want to be in an internet restricted environment unable to do tik tok feeds.
I know people will cite free speech but FFS we managed before social media….
Yep, Im a luddite.

We were all Luddites, without even a clue about "social media" 50 years ago.
I had to get my porn from magazines! And we were happy back then!

As for getting teens to get into wargaming…
What are you smoking? Or is it shrooms? 😄
I'm assuming that was serious. If not….

I can't imagine "teens" getting excited about an Old Glory order for SYW Austrian Grenzers. Or whining about the lack of M้tis figures.
"Teens" in this instance meaning anyone who never gave a hoot about wargaming before. ("Oh no! The Kardashians show has been canceled! I know. Let's go over to Bob's for a 30mm Column Line and Square game!")