Life Uncut - Banning Kids Under 16 From Social Media, Forgetful Anniversaries & Saying Yes To The Dress!

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

Hey lifers!Laura and Matt both forgot their 2nd wedding anniversary. Do you celebrate each year?Are you the person who remembers 'dates'? We're talking anniversaries, birthdays, 'firsts' etc. How about your partner? What happens if one of you is a date celebrator and the other isn't?Britt has picked her wedding dress and Laura wants to see it! Did you share your wedding dress with your friends before your actual wedding day? The government has announced proposed legislation to be introduced to parliament that would ban kids under 16 from using social media, even if they have parental consent. Initially we thought this was great. But once we scratched the surface we realised that maybe it wasn't as good as it initially appeared.We speak about the pros and cons of implementing age restrictions on social media, whether it's a bit of a performative action, how it would be implemented and if there are alternative ways to protect kids online.  Britt got to enjoy Coldplay and Laura got to enjoy Chris Martin walk solo down Bondi beach looking very, very 'cool'! You can watch us on Youtube Find us on Instagram Join us on tiktok Or join the Facebook Discussion Group Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! xxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode was recorded on Camaragal land. Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Brittany. And I am Laura. Sorry for that noise I just made at the very start of the episode. Did anyone hear that? We all heard it. I heard it. It's weird that sometimes that happens. You just go to speak and your mouth has to prepare itself. to go beforehand.

It's also weird that that's what bothers you when for five and a half years this is what we hear every 20 seconds. Yeah, but Keisha edits those out. I do also edit out a lot of the... So for anyone listening who has a bit of a sound aversion like I do, cheek clicks, most of them are gone. I suffer for you. Sometimes Keisha sends together like a compilation

of mouth noises that she's cut down. I don't get them. It must just be you. Because they're my mouth noises. Hey, so I have some news. Oh my God, you can't start something like that. In three split milliseconds, my brain has gone a hundred places. It's news because I'd forgotten about it and then I remembered, but I remembered very late.

Today is my, well, it's not mine. It's mine and Matt's two year wedding anniversary. Oh, cute, wholesome, loving, two years of marital bliss. two years that has flown by especially considering how long the wedding was put off initially like remember because of covid we kept we like i was getting married too we kept postponing your wedding well when you think about it so next year next year in february is when i met matt on the bachelor eight years ago so it's been eight years that we would have been together but then this is our two-year wedding anniversary but the problem is is often in relationships you have one person

that's not a date person right they're not like a birth date person they're not like an anniversary person. The issue in our relationship is that neither of us are date people. So we often forget things completely. And we were out on Saturday night at a friend's birthday and this random person was like, hey, didn't you guys get married in November? Isn't it your wedding anniversary soon? Okay, stalker. That's how we remembered. Anyway, I woke up this morning, Lola was in between us and I went to the toilet and I was on the toilet and I'd completely forgotten. I know that we discussed it only on Saturday, but it had completely evaded my memory. So I was on the toilet doing a wee and Matt walked in to get something. Oh no, he walked in to take his

retainers out and put them into the other glass. I feel like this is all information that doesn't need to be had for this story, but I'm glad Matt took his retainers out to have this monumental. Shows it, the romance isn't dead. No, it isn't. Yeah, it does. Because then I'm sitting on the loo and Matt turns to me. Again, irrelevant. And he comes and gives me a kiss on the forehead and goes, happy anniversary, sweetheart. And then goes back to bed. That's it. That's all we've done so far. Dunny love. That's it. Dunny love. Dunny love. Yeah. That's where you're at. Some would say it's going down the toilet I thought toilet love would come I thought that kind of celebration would come like I don't know I thought you'd have a solid decade 10 15 20 years two years

in and you're celebrating on the toilet I'd be asking questions I went back into the bed and I and I like climbed on top of him gave him a cuddle and I was like isn't it crazy two years sometimes it feels like a decade he goes I don't know if that's a compliment I don't know what to do with that either actually I just feel like we've achieved a lot in two years feels like lots happened. I don't think you have to be date people. Like, I don't think it's that you're not a date person or he's not a date person. I think it's also just adulthood. Like, I think you just get so run off your feet. You and I were talking about this the other day. All of a sudden you blink and it's Christmas. I feel like we all just had Christmas last year.

I was over in Scotland with Ben's family. Mitch was on this big trip with me in Europe. Now it's literally three weeks away. We're going overseas again and we're celebrating Christmas again. What happened? Where did 2025 go? I don't know. Who am I? Mate, I'm having these existential crises internally every single day, but it's, I think that's what it is, right? Like it's not that it doesn't mean anything to you. It's not that it's not important. It's just that you're like, fucking, I don't know what day of the week it is. I don't know, because there's a lot of people out there who are really like, they will always celebrate a birthday or they will always celebrate an anniversary. I think a lot of people, wedding anniversaries are a big one and they also

have themes so every year has a different theme like yeah one year's paper I know that this year's cotton because my metal or something yeah like my mother-in-law told me it was cotton but I haven't done any of it so you cleaned his ears anniversary it's a cotton bud I'm gonna clean your ears while you're on the toilet I was going to buy him some underwear maybe fitting I think it's actually yeah I think it's a good thing if you marry someone who's the same because I imagine if you marry if you're a date person and you marry a non-date person they're going to forget you're going to get resentful if two date people marry each other then they're both going to be planning for weeks and it's going to have to be this big thing but because they're both date people they'll

probably appreciate that maybe this is one of those things where it's like opposites don't actually attract opposites have divorces I agree I think that if you are two opposite you are not a good match I think you should be very similar and I think it is quite evident that both Matt and I there's a high chance that the two of us have undiagnosed ADHD so that's okay and it works well for our relationship oh thank you for saying that do you feel validated after accusing me for five years I wouldn't use the word accused I just can't believe that that was only two years ago though I know that two two years to me feels like a small amount of time kind of but and not to make this about britain sorry not to make your wedding anniversary about us but i just think that we are

different people to who we were two years ago because i remember being at laura's wedding and we've briefly spoken about this on the podcast but we may or may not have made out with two of the guests as independently but now i think about this i thought you were about to say that you and i made out no like no one really knows this we made out so at my wedding brit made out with one of the guests and Keisha also met up with one of the guests mind you I've not spoken to that guest since the wedding neither have I literally never heard from him again I don't even remember what they look like yours was Matt's cousin oh that's right I was trying to keep him in the family I was like Laura how cute imagine if we all married into the family then I was like not for me great guy

not for me um so yeah so it's my so guys in one week today I banged Ben so also your two-year anniversary in one week today it's my banger a bangerversary one week today I banged Ben for the first time and that has become our bangerversary slash anniversary so we have this discussion all the time even a couple of days ago he's like babe have we decided when our anniversary is because obviously it's in a week's time or it could be in a couple of months time so but we we decided from the start that we would go off the bangerversary because when we banged And we fell in love. Could you blame him?

Such a romantic bang. But like we were basically together from that moment. We didn't speak to another person. We didn't see another person. We were obsessed with each other from day one. So I was like, let's just call it then. Let's just make it sound like it's longer as well. Let's just make it sound like it's longer.

I was trying to hit my own personal record of the longest relationship I've ever had. So I was like, let's just backdate it. Let's pretend we met a year ago. No, so it's our anniversary in a week as well. cute I'm so happy for you guys cotton maybe we need to put Laura's anniversary slash your bangerversary in our time tree our shared calendar and then we can all become date people we'll just set it as a reoccurring thing in our joint calendar and then it covers everything no I don't even need it and I also said to Matt I don't that's also the undiagnosed ADHD it's just not a big deal like

and I said this to Matt I was like hey do you want to go out for dinner or something like this was saturday night when we'd been reminded it was an anniversary and i was like oh shit that's monday do you want to do something you want to have a dinner and he goes why would i want to do that he's like i'll just meet you on the toilet and then i had this moment where i was like i think that from the outset people would think that that's highly unromantic and that we're not excited about our anniversary at all i was like but to me i kind of am just i'm so convinced that we're just going to be together forever so i'm like oh what's the big deal it's another year we're gonna have 50 of them. We'll celebrate next one. I think you really should celebrate it. And I say that

because sometimes you need a reason. And I know that's shitty. You shouldn't have to have a reason, but how many times do you guys just go, let's go on a cute date night. Sometimes you need an excuse. You've got kids, you've got busy lives. I would take those moments and make the most of them personally. Yeah. We do have a mother-in-law now who takes care of the kids. We, to be fair, not that you guys need this information. One would think that having a mother-in-law living in the house would mean that there's less romance between you. But actually there's more and it's not. Her bedroom's underneath yours.

It's not because Ellie's a stimuli. It's because she does the cooking and she cleans and she helps so much with the kids that we have more free time. Evie, did you just refer to sex as romance on a sex podcast? Who are you? Guys, I don't know if you need to have an overshare, but there's more romance in the house since Ellie's here. I didn't want to talk about fucking my husband in the same sentence

This is about talking about my mother-in-law. It doesn't have to go to zero to 100 that quick. You took it there. Yeah, you fucking took it there. Mate, do you know what? So when I'm going to see Ben soon, so I'm going overseas for, we haven't actually spoken about our plans yet, but I'm going overseas for four weeks, the month of Christmas

and the new year. So I wouldn't have seen Ben, I would have seen Ben for the one week since we got engaged in June. So it's a long time. And on the day that I arrive, this just happened to be planned. And I know she's going to listen to this, So there's absolutely zero offence. I'm excited.

But on the day that I arrived there, my sister and her husband, Jay, and their new very tiny, loud, screamy baby, Maya, is going to arrive. Romance. Yeah. So just talk about romance. So they're coming to meet us in Romania on the same day. So I won't have one night alone with Ben when I arrive, which is not the end of the world.

But he's in a tiny, like, two-bedroom apartment as well. So at least you're banging, like you've got a big house, Laura. So I'm going to have to have seen him once in six months and be banging with like an entire family in a room next door. And Ellie doesn't have great hearing, so it's okay. The baby does though. Don't wake the baby. To be fair, Sheridan's deaf.

I'll tell her to take her hearing aids out. I'll be like, Sheridan, take your hearing aids out. You shouldn't laugh about that. Jay's got super, Jay's got super. Guys, I'm only laughing because I know my sister and I know she'll think that's funny. Oh, you don't have to, you don't have to caveat it. It's fine.

Well, speaking about marriages and speaking about weddings, Britt, you have an update, which you shared on socials before you shared it with any of us. And I don't know how I feel about that, but you have chosen your dress. Yes. I chose my dress for my wedding, which is very exciting and very nerve wracking because I didn't choose a dress. I'm designing it. Now, for those of you that know, I'm not a designer naturally. You've seen my shrine on my wall you've seen how artistic and creative i am minimal brit doesn't design she just sends elements of things that she likes and says i like this none of them work together cohesively but individually they're great elements and then she goes make that work and i'm like cool i don't know

what i'm supposed to do with that but i'll frankenstein this shit together because you're so creative anyway i didn't really know what i want and it's it's funny and i said this i talked about this a little bit on my socials but i think some people grow up thinking about their wedding their entire life I don't know if you were like that not at all I just was never that girl I never was the little girl that like dreamt of the big fairy tale wedding when I got older I don't know why because I always wanted to get married like I looked at my parents wedding like celebrating their 46 years and I always wanted that but I never dreamt about it like that so I know a lot of people my sister was one of them she had like a folder of things that but she was with her

partner for seven years but she had a folder of dresses and she knew what she wanted so when the day comes, you just press play, like play on and you can go and organize everything. I just had no idea what I wanted, where I wanted. So I had started when we got engaged, like saving different aspects of wedding dresses that I saw online. You say this, but to be fair, I did help Ben organize your engagement ring and it was very handy how many engagement rings you had saved in the back end of your Instagram. So when Brit was away doing I'm a Celebrity, I was logged in obviously on her Insta because I was helping do like the promotions. And that's when I went back into all your save and I was like, you say you've done no prep

but you have done some mileage here. Well, the only prep that I had done, yeah, I had a lot of engagement rings because I couldn't wait for that moment. That is a moment I had thought about but that's because I just wanted that love so much. Like that was very needy. I just wanted the ring. I just wanted someone to love me.

I didn't want to plan the day. I just want the fucking ring. I don't want a husband. I just want a diamond. They're a girl's best friend. So I found this incredible designer. I went to a few different wedding shops, actually only two to be fair, but I found this amazing designer in Sydney.

He's not far from me, Stephen Kalil. And I feel like if you've ever gotten married or you've been in that world, you would have seen his stuff at some point because he's huge. Stephen Kalil did Anna Heinrich's dress quite a few years ago when she got married to Tim Roberts. Yeah, he's just incredible. And I knew that he would make me something bespoke. So I went in and met him and he basically said like, what are you thinking?

And because I've never made a dress in my life. He's like, do you have any ideas? Anyway, I laid out these ideas. He was like, whoa, girl. He's like, these are all incredible. He's like, but we can't put them all together because could you imagine what it would be? There'd be like peacock feathers and there'd be sleeves

and there'd be neck things and I don't know. It was a lot. So he was like, let's wind it back. He's like, I love everything, but we need to pick a few key features. And he's like, what do you want? Strapless, high neck, backless, tight, big. You like all of them. But I didn't know.

I was like, I genuinely don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Also, how do you know unless you've tried it on and you've seen how it fits? So it's really hard when you're doing something custom because you're like, I don't know what that's going to look like on me. Yeah. So I just took a stab in the dark. What I will say is I have gone for something that I never imagined. I'm just imagining you walking down the aisle looking like a glamorous Frankenstein because everything's just like, there's like bells and whistles. You've got a peplum, but then you've got massive sleeves. You've got a high neck,

but you've got no back a train but short in the front like have you seen it have you seen it it's gorgeous if i walk down the aisle and your first thought is look at that beautiful frankenstein i have failed i have failed miserably it's gonna be a grim fucking day crash tackle me off that aisle i have a question for you all though okay so when i was going through the process of getting married as one of my best friends, Brit. You were there along for the ride at every single stage. I didn't really keep my wedding dress a secret from my really close friends. I showed you. I got you involved. I got your opinions. Brit hasn't shown anyone. She won't show anyone. She's keeping it to herself. I need to butt in. Brit was trying to show me something in her phone and she was

swiping across and I saw wedding dresses and I was like, oh my gosh, that looks so beautiful. And Britt goes, that's not the one. And she was keeping on swiping. And then I was like, oh, yeah, no, I don't like that one. It was just not what I imagined Britt would ever get married in. And now imagine if it is. And then Britt kind of looked at me and froze. She was playing a prank on me.

I thought I'd just admitted to the fact that I really didn't like her wedding dress. Akisha hasn't seen the dress. Laura doesn't believe it. She has. I promise you, no one has seen it. I just want to see. I want to be inside the Covenant. I want to be under the dress.

I don't know. Just move inside you, Brit. I think you can do that before you can see the dress. Last time? She makes it sound like we hook up on a regular. I'm a married woman, two years success. I thought us hooking up at her wedding was special. No, neither of you are special to me.

I'll take anything. It was a long 10 years, Keisha. The other thing I will say as my tidbit of information is obviously there's more than one dress. Oh, so now you're keeping three dresses from us. This is 25 dresses. I won't be at the wedding. I'll just be getting changed so much.

I am going to make that transition as quick as possible. But I think that's not excessive. Me saying there's two dresses is not, like everyone does that now. It's standard to have a second dress for the reception and the dancing and stuff like that. I am just going to whip it off, make the quickest change and then get back out there. That's what's in my head.

I want it to be known here first that I'm very sad that I haven't seen it and I am so excited to see what it looks like. You're going to be the most beautiful bride. What we will say that's exciting is Laura and Tony May are making my wedding ring. The wedding band that you want is amazing. We're going to make you a wedding band that's going to sit

under that monstrous rock that you have and it's going to be glorious. And we're making bends as well. You're going to be able to be seen from outer space with all of the glitz. Yeah, that's what I want. Yeah. That's what I want. And we're making bends, we.

We're making bends too. I'm sort of designing bends with Laura. But it's going to be awesome. Yeah, I can't wait. So then you'll be on my finger the rest of my life. Well, after the joke I just made about being inside you, that's probably a better place to be. It's a really weird one because I always feel as though like Tony May

and Life Uncut are two very separate things. And so anytime I do talk about it here, I feel like I'm breaking the rules. Like I feel like I'm not supposed to talk about like my other. Except for the Black Friday sale. Oh, yeah, Black Friday is coming up, everyone. But it's like by day. Biggest sale of the year. Biggest sale of the year up to 70% off starts in two weeks.

But I feel so bad 25% off Laura Byrne. S1. swapper. What I mean is, is that like, it feels like they're two very separate lives. And so like on the rare occasions that they kind of overlap, it's, it's very cool for me. I can't wait to make a Brit. It's very, I feel very privileged that you want me to, and it's going to be amazing. Can I ask a question about rings? Do people put as much time and effort into designing their wedding bands as what they do their engagement rings? Or is it kind of like an afterthought? No, it depends on what it is these days. Like, so a lot of people, obviously the engagement ring

is a really big deal usually the engagement ring though I mean it's it's different for every couple but often the engagement ring is designed by the partner so they might have a bit of an idea or a vision from that's kind of been like gently massaged by the soon-to-be bride as a spreadsheet but yeah rings have been sent rings have been saved there's images there's references but overall the design is often the kind of like imagination of the person who's proposing but then I find now that like the wedding band some people want something really simple because the engagement rings enough but a lot of people for the wedding band choose something that's like more decorative or more elaborate because it gives them the opportunity to choose something that

represents them a little bit more and also depending on what you do for work or depending on how high your engagement ring sits a lot of people take their engagement ring off and just wear their wedding band so it really yeah well it depends on what it is you do for a job if you're if you're a nurse or you work using your hands a lot like there's definitely some rings that can't be worn so everyone is different some people don't have wedding rings like wedding bands some people only have engagement bands and vice versa but it's really really like everything goes now when it comes to wedding and engagement rings oh ben can't wear one because he's a goalkeeper like he's got gloves on in his hands every day so he can't wear one like he's gonna have one but it'll

be worn at like nighttime or weekends i guess but he wants to get maybe like a tattoo there instead yeah i love that which is cute yeah i mean i think it's different for everyone a lot of guys like don't end up wearing theirs all the time because they go to the gym or they can't like they're When they're cheating and like you can't always wear them. Sometimes you have to keep your options open. It's good if you can permanently brand them with a tattoo. It's a great way to know that it's never coming off. Britney.

Was it? Is it? Yeah. So last Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, he made a very big announcement, which is something that we have all been talking about. It is around raising the age for kids using social media. So currently, as I'm sure a lot of you guys are aware,

13 year olds and below are not able or shouldn't be able to access social media. And they're wanting to raise the age of that to what's been proposed 16 years old. This is going to roll out across all of Australia, but specifically meta. So TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, it could also roll out across YouTube. It hasn't been like the policies themselves haven't been finalized, but it's something that they're hoping to have rushed through before the end of the year. and this policy will be in place by the end of 2025. When we first heard about this concept, WIPA, who some of you might know, Fitzy and WIPA, they do the breakfast show on NOVA. WIPA's been really strongly behind this very public push called Raise the Age 36 Months, which was the

petition that started this conversation. Now, when this very first came out and I saw it, my first initial reaction was like incredible yes we should be raising the age of kids using social media we all know it is well well documented how damaging how toxic and how like insidious social media is for young kids who are being exposed to content that is far more mature for their abilities to comprehend that was my initial reaction as well yeah I was like fuck yeah this is brilliant this is what we need actually interestingly I had some friends message me forward me news articles from around the world on this topic Australia breaking news Australia looks to bands like and they were all celebrating people from Switzerland the UK America so many

different people and that is that is how huge this news is because we have so much freedom on social media but the fact that this went around the world and other people were messaging it to me and I asked them I was like what do you think about that and they were all clapping hands celebrating they were like this is what the world needs yeah it's like it's a world first well it's not specifically a world first but of its kind it is now I also shared it on my stories on the weekend I re-shared an Instagram post that was like celebrating the fact that the age was going to be raised and I was really surprised by the responses it was such a mixed bag and I think if you had asked us earlier I would have thought that it was so obvious that this was a good thing

but the more that I unpacked it and the more that I had conversations with the people who had an issue with it, the more that we have done some research on it, it has really left a really big question for everybody here. And that's why we wanted to discuss it as to whether raising the age is a good thing or whether it can have a lot of complications that come with it also. It is so complex. And I think the issue for me is, and I've been trying to listen to the pros and cons and I don't have kids. So it's really hard for me to know what a lot of parents are dealing with in the day to day. Like when their child comes home upset about something, if they've seen them consuming something they shouldn't. I'm not exposed to that, but I know

myself, if I had children, I would not want them to be on social media. So as a blanket statement, I can say I would be happy if social media didn't exist and kids didn't even know what it was until 16. That's my perfect world. The problem is we don't live in that world. And what has been proposed, it's not enforceable. Like it's not policeable. Nobody actually knows what it's going to look like yet, which is a bit of the criticism that people are receiving now after this announcement. This bill has not passed yet, but I think a lot of people are getting carried away with a lot of clickbait that's going around. Everyone's thinking, oh, this has happened. This is coming into fruition in 12 months. It's not yet. It looks like it will, but I also understand

that we're in a society now where when I think of my childhood, I would say, yes, I would love my kids to be in that childhood. I would love my kids to not know what the internet was or social media. I didn't have it and I turned out just fine. But we don't live in that world anymore. We live in a world where kids are learning. They're not writing on chalkboards anymore. They're doing things on iPads. So in a way, I have to almost check myself and check my bias around it because I'm like, we do live in a world where kids need to have that connection and exposure. Well, to give you the details on how this has kind of come to light so far. So the presentation that Anthony Almanese has done, he has said that there's going to be no grandfathering

on these laws. So it basically means that any children who are under the age of 15 now, they will no longer be able to be using social media, even if they currently have social media. So they will have to have the accounts removed. There's the big question around how is it going to be enforced? Parents and the children will not be liable. So if it does turn out that a child under the age of 16 has a social media account, there's not going to be consequences for that child and there won't be consequences for the parent. The consequences will lie for Metta. Now, currently, Meta itself, it can be fined if there are users under the age of 13, and those fines can be anywhere up to a million dollars.

But it's a really, really challenging thing to police. And so the question is, if you put a blanket ban on something like social media and you stop children from being able to access it, won't they just find other ways around it? And we all know that when kids are doing things in secrecy and then there's shame attached to it, that if something really troubling or a problem does arise, if they're accessing that content but they're doing it in an environment where they're not allowed to it creates an imbalance where the kids can no longer go to their parents and say hey mom I've experienced this really like scary frightening intimidating thing online I'm either being bullied

or I've seen pornography or something that I don't know how to deal with because the response to that in a lot of ways is going to be well you shouldn't have been on the platform in the first place so now it's creating an environment where kids are going to do it anyway but they're going to be scared to talk about it, which could essentially be more unsafe. But I don't know. I don't know if I feel the same. I think sometimes the unknown is not fathomable or it's a really scary place to be until you're there and it becomes normalized. So I want to liken it to think back to when smoking was fine and deemed healthy. People used to smoke in a hospital while they were giving birth. That was standard. You'd smoke your whole pregnancy. You would drink at any age until

laws were brought in to say you can't drink under 18. Of course, people still did it, but we knew that that was the limit. You can't smoke in a hospital anymore for this reason. Shocking at the time, people couldn't believe it, but all of a sudden time goes past, the next generation comes through and it becomes a normal thing. Now, yes, people are still going to do it, but I think it comes back to having that really good family life or the connection with your kids and your parents. So I would hope that it becomes, generations come through where it's normal and you just know that social media is one of those things that you do when you grow up but I guess my worry for it is is that kids use social media they use it to interact they use it

to communicate they are so social media literate that it is their wheelhouse whereas as adults a lot of the parents are simply not social media literate a lot of the advisors a lot of people who work in politics they're not social media literate but they're coming in and putting in place these policies and all that sort of says to me is that they say instead of saying okay I'm going to understand you and how you communicate and where you communicate. And I'm going to make the platform that you communicate on safer for you. I'm going to tell you, you can't use it anymore. We were speaking about this on radio as well, because it has permeated a lot of conversations today. Michelle Mitchell, she's a child specialist. She speaks about child behavior

and her take on this whole thing, which I thought was really interesting, is that she said that a lot of the parents who are extremely excited about this change have tweens. They have like young kids who they are scared shitless about them getting and having social media and so they want to prolong that for as long as possible but the parents of teenagers who have 15 year olds or 14 year olds or 16 year olds who are living in the world that they're living in currently online are like this doesn't work it doesn't support these kids or keep them safe in the way that you're hoping it will i think one of the biggest problems here is the fact that the age is 16 it's just too old at 16 years old you could have left school you can be working like I was working

from 14 years old you can get a driver's license you can start having sex at 16 like there are a lot of things that you are already doing and it's crazy to think that you could be going to work every single day you've left school you're in your car driving to your job but you can't be on social media I mean a very specific example of this is imagine if you're I mean you are someone or your kid is someone who started school when they're four years old so that when they're in year 10 they're still 15 and they decide after year 10 that they don't want to continue with school they want to go to TAFE they go to TAFE and they do marketing you can't do marketing in today's like currency of how we communicate and how we advertise without understanding social media

it almost feels like the drastic jump from 13 to 16 is too great like the age gap and the age distances too much and I don't know what would have been a better solution like is it 14 is it 15 or is it simply that 13 is the correct age and that there needs to be better parameters around the accessibility for people who are 13 to 16 because I also think what a huge space and developmental leap that people are going to need to take now essentially what we're saying is no exposure to social media and then 16 comes and you're going to be thrust into the world and you're going to have to know what to do with it. You're going to have to know how to navigate it. It just feels as though it's a huge amount of responsibility to dump onto a 16 year old

who hasn't had the skills or the experience or the learnings to be able to manage a platform either. Having said that, I still do think 13 is too young. Like your first year as a teenager, think back to 13, that's leaving year six, that's going into high school. So I don't think that's the right time either. And we have made a lot of focus on the fact that this is meta, right? We're using the big companies like Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all of those things. But this will flow into things like YouTube, LinkedIn, basically any other platform that serves as people connecting online. That's essentially what this blanket statement would look like. This is where I think there needs to be a little bit more time and care taken because

YouTube can also be a cesspit, but things like YouTube can be very educational as well. And I know we can say that about all social media. Is that going to mean that then kids find alternate social media platforms that are less regulated, that are less safe, that have less rules and less guidelines because they've kind of slipped underneath the blanket of what has been and hasn't been restricted. Yes, it will allow some parents to be able to have that conversation with their children later. It'll push that down the track a bit like, hey, sorry, you can't have it because it's illegal. But what happens if they go about getting it anyway? What's the solution then? But then that raises the question, just because people are going to do something anyway

doesn't mean it shouldn't have restrictions around it. It doesn't mean it shouldn't be illegal. Like I said before, we know kids are going to go and drink and do drugs and try all that stuff. We know that they're going to find a way. Of course they're going to find a way. Of course they're going to find a way to be on social media. But that doesn't mean you don't have to make it any more difficult

for them or put restrictions on this so that they're more hyper aware of it actually being an issue and it's been an issue for a reason. Do you worry though if this blanket ban comes in that it gives parents like this almost like ability to go, okay, well, they're banned. I don't need to become literate in it. I don't need to get on their level because they're not supposed to be using it. Like they can almost like be a bit ignorant to the world in which their kids are operating in. I would like to say no. I would like to say that we're still smart enough and hyper aware enough to know that kids are going to be kids and they're going to go and try to find a way. Of course, it's up to

a parent to be keeping your kids safe, right? That's a parent's job. You can do everything in your power to think you're keeping your child safe online. There is zero way to know. There is zero way to enforce that. You don't know that they're not having a conversation with some creep or stranger. Then they delete it. Then your parent checks the phone. Oh, everything looks good here. Like it's the internet. These conglomerates are not going to change what they do because they make so much money on it. They're not going to change it. They're not going to police it. So I think people like whipper has started i almost think it's like let's do what we can that's in our control that's how i feel and when i think about some of the things that go down online

it's an absolute fucking cesspit it is a cesspit that kids are not equipped to handle and i know they still need this connection and i know they still need it for education i'm so about that but when you see what the other side it is and you see the people kids that have taken their life purely from being bullied online. I think we do have to make changes. I just don't know how they're going to implement it in a way where everybody is happy and everybody is safe. Yeah, I agree. But I think that where the real initiative needs to start and where I think we'll see the most change is by cleaning up the platforms. I don't believe for a second that there isn't the capability, the infrastructure or the technology to clean up social media.

legislation is never as fast as what is actually happening these platforms move at such pace and such speed people adopt the the new ways of using technology the rules are so slow at catching up to where we actually are in real life and i think that that's always going to be the place that we're at with this type of technology and the very last thing i want to say which i do think is interesting because we we talk about how absolutely horrible social media is a lot right like the shit parts of it get a lot of attention and it's easy to talk about the shit bits but we all use it and know that actually social media has great parts as well like it has the ability to keep in contact the ability to connect with friends I know there's lots of research that says

that connection is not as good as real life ones I get it but if it was completely 100% horrible we wouldn't all use it as much as we do I think about for example imagine like a trans kid who lives in central Australia or lives in a regional town who has no point of reference for what life could be like except for their regional town. And having social media for some people gives a sense of community and it gives a sense of something that's bigger than them. There are ways in which it is positive. And like, am I saying that they outweigh the negative? Absolutely not. Maybe it's around having more restrictions for people who are of a certain age group. Maybe that age group 13 to 16 should have a different online experience that's managed in a different way that has

restrictions around it rather than simply saying you can't use it. I personally love that it's been actioned. I do. It's not the right answer, but I love that people and groups are taking the initiative enough to go and literally try and change laws to protect their minors. Okay, it's time for Accidentally Unfiltered. And I actually have one today that has come from somebody that I know and I'm just gonna use that as a blanket statement you did this someone that I know told me this last week and it happened to you it was very funny so it was a it was a guy friend so he'd been out with this chick and they were hitting it off it was like the first time and then they got home and they were hooking up and she was laying down I think he was just going

down on it I'll just say it he was going down on her and she was going oh it feels so good so he was like yeah I'm getting into it and she's like feels so good so he was like going going I feel uncomfortable just listening to this I know anyway this went on a couple of times and he was like getting more and more into it because that's what we want like we want the encouragement we want to know we're doing the right thing so then all of a sudden when he thinks he's thriving she sits up he thinks she's about to orgasm and she just vomits everywhere she was saying I don't feel so good she was going i don't feel so good and he was going yeah i thought he was like doubling down but she thought she she thought she said that feels so good and she was saying i don't feel

so good yes that is messed up that is so funny so that was their moment wow different type of ejaculation it was explosion anyway i came from the top end maybe she was like a bit hungover or like felt a bit seasick you know like if you got motion yeah she was she was hungover so she had like motion sickness and was like oh dear it's coming maybe he was rocking her too vigorously maybe there was some oysters involved i don't know i don't know but there was we do know there was a miscommunication and that's how it ended to be fair it's funny better the top end than the bottom end if you're feeling sick also what I will say is he told me that with intent of saying for the podcast he was like he's like I know you can use

it are they hanging out again or is that it I don't oh no I do know no all right well I do want to say this though guys if you have because we've not done a proper call out in a long time if you have an accidentally unfiltered story if you're new to the pod and you don't know what that is it is your most embarrassing story it has been a backbone of life uncut for so long and then we recently did a survey and we know you guys still love it but you hearing those stories relies on you sending them to us so if you have an embarrassing story something that's happened to you that every time we do this segment you think oh fuck i really should send that in please send us your accidentally unfiltered stories because we love them we also think

that they're the best things ever but sometimes we just don't get ones that are funny enough and you're always anonymous we need them to be as fucked up as possible that's kind of the benchmark anyway suck and sweet what is your suck my suck for the week is this is a double suck my suck for the week is Delilah came home from dog care the other day and she had rolled in something she was covered in like wax I remember I saw this on Instagram she was covered in and when I say it everyone's like just wash up I have never experienced anything like it I washed her three times thoroughly and nothing her hair was just matted together I was like I don't understand what's going on. I tried to cut clumps and it was a disaster. It was never coming out.

And I did try everything. A lot of people like put oil in it and stuff. I tried everything. It was not coming. So I was like, guys, I'm going to have to cut her. Wow. The meltdown that the internet had over the fact that I was going to cut Delilah because everyone's concerned that you're not supposed to get rid of their hair. And I was like, guys, I'm not keeping this in So I cut her. She looks brilliant. That's fine. Like I just cut it. They managed to do a good job I was like cut it without shaving her but then I started to get sent all these articles and this is where the suck gets suckier it's got to be what it was there are news articles going around everywhere saying in the eastern beaches of Sydney these balls like this is a full police

investigation these balls have been washing up on like all the beaches and they're full of drugs and feces they're a sappy ball it's unlike anything you've seen like it's a sticky ball They don't even know why. It was about a month ago that they started washing up, wasn't it? Yeah, but they're still like along the beach. What do you mean they're full of drugs and feces? Who's mixing the two things together? That's the quote.

They're like these black tar balls. Yeah, they're all over the beaches. But it was, I'm like, maybe she has gone to one of the beaches with the dog walker and rolled in that. But I was like, does that mean she had fucking feces and drugs on her? I think you would have smelled them. I'm high on feces. Ew.

Delilah's really active today. She's on pinning. So that was my suck. And my sweet was I went to Coldplay. So for the first time ever, I had never seen them before. I got to go and see them on Saturday night and they were truly incredible. So I saw Chris Martin on the weekend on Saturday walking around Bondi Beach. I kind of like walked past him and I didn't clock that it was him straight away because

he just like looks like a very normal dude, except he was dressed. He was dressed like he was famous. Like he was dressed in a way that just screamed, I'm so fucking cool. I'm too cool for Bondi. I don't belong here. I belong in the States. He had like deep, like a kind of like cobalt blue baggy pants on. Like baggy.

But like full baggy cargo pants. And then he was wearing like a singlet that was tucked in. He had chains on. But that makes him sound like a hip hop dancer. He wasn't. He just looked really cool. And then he had no shoes on. And so he walked past and as I saw him, I was like, oh, that guy looks, oh, that's Chris

Martin. and a couple of other people were doing a double take as well and then you would think someone who is as famous as him who was completely by himself as well he didn't wasn't with an entourage he was solo would try and be inconspicuous but he walked down past the kiddie pool and then walked directly along the shorelines everyone's like whipping their phone out and trying to like take a photo of him from behind he was very very nice to everyone who stopped and said hello but there was quite a few people who asked if they could get a photo and he was like ah no no no photos and then he just kind of like went on his way and then he just walked into the distance down bonnet beach

it's funny because if he didn't dress like that he would be so unassuming that no one would even know if he just wore normal board shorts if he totally if he was dressed normally you would never have known that it was him it was purely because the way he was dressed so did not fit in with what was happening or in bondi like he's like he looked so like unique in his style like he looked just really really cool my suck for the week is that i miss coldplay so i was meant to go of the Coldplay concert with Brit and then unfortunately it coincided with a friend's birthday and I couldn't go and I was very sad because I felt like it was like a once in a lifetime thing even though it was really nice for my friend's birthday I was like oh I want to be

there yeah yeah so that was my suck but my sweet for the week is something that I don't think anyone else is going to care about but it's something I feel really proud of for Marley and I'm really excited for her she in the last like couple of weeks has completely figured out how to read and I know that that sounds like like oh how does one figure out how to weed not from you she definitely can figure out from you but she hasn't started kindergarten yet she starts next year and she can already fully read majority of and I would say simple words like she's not reading you know a kinesiologist I don't yeah she's not reading the word kinesiologist that was good I was trying to think of one long word I could tell not a single long word came to

my mind. Do you want to know what the longest disease is in the world? Pneumon ultra-microscopic coelacovolcanoconiosis. Wow. Continue as you were. You'd be good on trivia. Thanks. So she learned to read and she like sits up at nighttime and she has her own little books and she just like reads through them herself. And then in the morning, if there's a word that she's come across that she hasn't figured out, she'll bring the book to me in the morning and ask what that word is. She's like, mom, what's 50 shades of gray? Let's get out of here. All right. That is it from us guys. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave us a review. Share it with a friend.

Also, if you have your own thoughts around what we were talking about with kids under 16 having access to social media, which is such a, I mean, it's a very hot topic at the moment. Quite polarizing. We would love to know your thoughts on it as well. Slide into the DMs at Life Uncut Podcast or you can join the discussion in the Life Uncut discussion group where all the juicy shit goes down.

Bye. And you know the drill. Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friends and share the love. Because we love love. We'll be right back.