Censored at 16: What Australia Isn’t Being Told About the Social Media Ban

Australia’s proposed under-16 social media ban is being sold as a simple safety measure — but the truth is far more complex.

In this live panel hosted by Stand Up Now Australia, Paul G. Conlon (author of Citizen One) and political advisor Michael Arbon unpack the hidden implications of the legislation, the rushed parliamentary process, the shift toward centralised digital identification, and the deep impact on parental authority.

From real examples inside Parliament to historical patterns from Germany’s ID systems to modern biometric failures like India’s Aadhaar, this discussion cuts through slogans and reveals what’s actually at stake.

Topics covered include:
• Why age assurance inevitably becomes identity verification
• How centralised digital ID systems create “guilty until proven innocent” societies
• The collapse of parliamentary scrutiny and the 6-day rush that passed the bill
• The developmental cost to children when the State replaces parents
• How AI learns from prohibition policies
• Whether decentralised models (SSI) could work instead
• Why prohibition pushes children into the darkest corners of the internet
• The cultural dangers of outsourcing risk-judgment to government
• The Tobruk story and Australia’s lost spirit of solving our own problems
• What parents can do right now — practically, psychologically, and politically

This isn’t fear-mongering.
It’s clarity.

Replay originally hosted by Stand Up Now Australia (SUNA).
Learn more at: censoredat16.com.au

📘 Paul’s Book: Citizen One — The Case Against Digital Identity: paulgconlon.com
🎓 Weekend Anonymity Course: weekendanon.com

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Australians deserve to understand the systems shaping childhood, parenting, and freedom itself.