The liberal-dominated Australian parliament passed an amendment to its online safety legislation last year, imposing age restrictions for certain social media platforms.

As of Dec. 10, minors in the former penal colony are prohibited from using various platforms, including Facebook, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and YouTube — platforms that face potential fines exceeding $32 million should they fail to prevent kids from creating new accounts or from maintaining old accounts.

Australian kids were quick, however, to find a workaround: distorting their faces to appear older.

'They know how important it is to give kids more time to just be kids.'

Numerous minors revealed to the Telegraph that within minutes of the ban going into effect, they were able to get past their country's new age-verification technology by frowning at the camera.

Noah Jones, a 15-year-old boy from Sydney, indicated that he used his brother's ID card to rejoin Instagram after the app flagged him as looking too young.

Jones, whose mother supported his rebellion and characterized the law as "poor legislation," indicated that when Snapchat similarly prompted him to verify his age, "I just looked at [the camera], frowned a little bit, and it said I was over 16."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images.

Jones suggested to the Telegraph that some teens may alternatively seek out social media platforms the Australian government can't regulate or touch.

"Where do you think everyone's going to?" said Jones. "Straight to worse social media platforms — they're less regulated, and they're more dangerous."

Zarla Macdonald, a 14-year-old in Queensland, reportedly contemplated joining one such less-regulated app, Coverstar. However, she has so far managed to stay on TikTok and Snapchat because the age-verification software mistakenly concluded she was 20.

"You have to show your face, turn it to the side, open your mouth, like just show movement in your face," said Macdonald. "But it doesn't really work."

Besides fake IDs and frowning, some teens are apparently using stock images, makeup, masks, and fake mustaches to fool the age-verification tech. Others are alternatively using VPNs and their parents' accounts to get on social media.

The social media ban went into effect months after a government-commissioned study determined on the basis of a nationally representative survey of 2,629 kids ages 10 to 15 that:

71% had encountered content online associated with harm;
52% had been cyberbullied;
25% had experienced online "hate";
24% had experienced online sexual harassment;
23% had experienced non-consensual tracking, monitoring, or harassment;
14% had experienced online grooming-type behavior; and
8% experienced image-based abuse.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement on Wednesday, "Parents, teachers, and students are backing in our social media ban for under-16s. Because they know how important it is to give kids more time to just be kids — without algorithms, endless feeds and online harm. This is about giving children a safer childhood and parents more peace of mind."

The picture accompanying his statement featured a girl who in that moment expressed opposition to the ban.

The student in Albanese's poorly chosen photo is hardly the only opponent to the law.

Reddit filed a lawsuit on Friday in Australia's High Court seeking to overturn the ban. The U.S.-based company argued that the ban should be invalidated because it interfered with free political speech implied by Australia's constitution, reported Reuters.

Australian Health Minister Mark Butler suggested Reddit was not suing to protect young Aussies' right to political speech but rather to protect profits.

"It is action we saw time and time again by Big Tobacco against tobacco control, and we are seeing it now by some social media or Big Tech giant," said Butler.

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Inside Hollywood’s Secret Conservative Club & If Hollywood Is Over | Patricia Heaton

Botoxic femininity? 'Titanic' star bashes 'cartoon'-faced plastic surgery addicts

Our looks-obsessed, social-media-fueled culture is out of control — and it is causing more and more women to turn themselves into "cartoons."

So says Hollywood star Kate Winslet, who unloaded on the subject in a recent interview with the Times.

'It is f**king chaos out there.'

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Winslet, who rocketed to worldwide fame after starring in 1997's "Titanic," recalled enduring incessant scrutiny of her weight early in her career — at one point being described as "a little melted and poured into" a dress she wore at an awards show.

Still, the now-50-year-old said she never reacted to these barbs by getting surgery or taking weight-loss drugs, two approaches she feels are so common today that they have warped our idea of beauty.

Winslet added that her first reaction when seeing another woman with Botox or filler in her face is to think "No, not you! Why?"

But, Winslet continued, "No one's listening because they've become obsessed with chasing an idea of perfection to get more likes on Instagram. It upsets me so much."

Lip service

Nor is Winslet a fan of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic."

"Do they know what they are putting in [their bodies]?" she asked. "The disregard for one's health is terrifying. It bothers me now more than ever. It is f**king chaos out there."

Photo by SC/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

Winslet implied that while she gets why the Hollywood crowd is obsessed with appearances, what really bothers her is the thought of everyday people "who save up for Botox or the s**t they put in their lips."

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To illustrate her point, she told the Times about a BBC article she read about a car crash with a young woman.

"She looked like a cartoon," Winslet scolded. "You do not actually know what that person looks like — from the eyebrows to mouth to lashes to hair, that young woman is scared to be herself. What idea of perfection are people aspiring to? I blame social media and its effect on mental health."

To that end, she added that it has been "heartbreaking" to see people constantly looking at their phones.

"Nobody’s looking into the f**king world any more."

Photo by: Vince Bucci/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

While attempting to show that "life" is in one's hands, Winslet remarked, "Some of the most beautiful women I know are over 70, and what upsets me is that young women have no concept of what being beautiful actually is."

The interviewer noted that Winslet went out of her way to prove she "hasn't got anything" in her face and even squeezed her hands to show creases around her veins.

Australia BANS key social media apps for kids under 16 — and platforms must enforce the rule

Australia will put the onus on social media platforms to limit access to children under 16 years old.

The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 amended Australia's reigning online safety measures and gave social media companies time to age‐restrict their platforms and "take reasonable steps to prevent Australian under 16s from having account[s]."

'No Australian will be compelled to use government identification.'

Officially taking effect on December 10, the ban includes Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, X, and YouTube's general platform; YouTube Kids and WhatsApp do not meet the criteria for the ban.

Australia introduced its social media minimum-age framework that included a list of criteria that would result in a platform being banned for those under 16. This included if a platform's sole purpose, or "significant purpose," is to "enable online social interaction between two or more end‐users."

Or if the service "allows end‐users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end‐users" and "allows end‐users to post material on the service" and "meets such other conditions (if any) as are set out in the legislative rules," it will not be available for younger Australians.

The legislation can also specify certain platforms, or classes, to not include in the ban.

Social media platforms will be responsible for enforcement, and neither children nor their parents will face punishment should they gain access. Companies face fines of up to $32 million USD or just under $50 million in Australian dollars.

Photo by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images

The government further defined the requirements placed upon the platforms, adding that they must "take reasonable steps to prevent" those under 16 from having accounts.

The legislation also specified that "no Australian will be compelled to use government identification (including Digital ID) to prove their age online" and that platforms must offer reasonable alternatives to its users.

According to the BBC, other countries are hot on Australia's tail in terms of implementing their own similar bans. This includes the French government, which has begun a parliamentary inquiry into banning children under 15 years old from social media, while also implementing a "digital curfew" for those between 15 and 18.

The Spanish government has also drafted a law that would require parental consent for children under 16 to access social media.

Photo by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images

Ruling left-wing Labour Party official Anika Wells, who serves as Australia's communications minister (and minister of sport), said that the ban is not "perfect" and is going to "look a bit untidy on the way through."

"Big reforms always do," she added.

Australians under 16 will still be able to access content that is available on a website without being logged in or being a member, as there is virtually no way to prevent that without restricting access to the internet entirely.

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Meta retreats in Washington as socialist Democrat brandishes new corporate tax hikes

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has narrowly avoided a costly disaster.

When Meta bought the rights to more land in Bellevue, Washington, in 2020, it brought the company's potential footprint in the area up to more than 3 million square feet. After five years of expansions, subleases, and plan changes, Zuckerberg's company had to decide if it wanted to dive fully into the expansion it was offered or stay with what it had.

'The way for Washingtonians to fight back is to build a bolder Washington.'

Newly released details about Meta's plans in Bellevue’s Spring District now confirm that the tech company has avoided disaster by about a month. As reported by Downtown Bellevue, Meta is returning the rights for several blocks in the district to developer Wright Runstad & Co., which is considered turning the land into apartment buildings, instead of offices.

With Meta using only around 700,000 square feet of its current land leases, the relinquishment comes on the cusp of massive new corporate taxes that seem to be on the horizon from a state Democrat, who is openly socialist.

State Rep. Shaun Scott (D) hopes to counteract tax cuts by the Trump administration by issuing a new corporate payroll tax that will affect the largest companies in the state, including Amazon, Microsoft, and, of course, Meta.

Scott is a Democratic Socialist, according to a report by Axios, and is certainly living up to the "socialist" part of his title with the new 5% tax.

His proposal would tax private companies where employees earn more than $125,000 per year, with the new tax applying to salaries above that threshold. Any company with more than 50 employees, a payroll in excess of $7 million, and gross receipts over $5 million will also be taxed.

The tax would raise $5.5 billion over two years, according to Komo News.

Photographer: Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The tax reportedly comes in direct response to money lost from the Republicans' H.R.1, aka the Big Beautiful Bill Act, which claimed from the outset that it would "reduces taxes."

Scott is, in effect, proving the bill to be true with his proposal.

"The way for Washingtonians to fight back is to build a bolder Washington: a Washington that defends the programs that people depend on, while the other Washington defunds them," he said, according to the Olympian.

The bill would take effect on July 1, 2026.

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Confirming Covid Jabs Killed Kids Reinforces Gen Z’s Distrust Of Government

American teenagers have a fractured relationship with the federal government, one that may never be healed.

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Character flaw

'Conflicts of interest': Democrat-led federal agencies allegedly blocked efforts to investigate Clinton Foundation

EXCLUSIVE: Meet Brad Lander’s Top Choice for Campaign Communications Director

Minnesotans Agree: Fraud Is a Big Problem and Tim Walz Hasn't Done Enough To Stop It

Kamala Harris wants to run for president again? Some see signs despite donors and party leaders worrying she cannot win.

Radical Anti-Israel Group Planned To Bomb Los Angeles Buildings Marked With Hamas Triangles, FBI Reveals

American muscle-car culture is alive and well ... in Dubai

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We’ll keep you informed with top stories for conservatives who want to become informed decision makers.