Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has described Australia's social media ban for under-16s as an 'unmitigated disaster' and an 'embarrassment', arguing it teaches children to accept surveillance from tech companies. Speaking to Guardian Australia, Wales criticised the policy, which requires age verification, calling it 'madness' and 'really unsafe'.
Wales, who is visiting Australia in May for writers' festivals, acknowledged the toxic nature of early internet forums like Usenet, which predated social media. He noted that humans do not need algorithms to be unkind, but he opposed government-imposed bans, suggesting instead that parents should be educated about existing parental controls on smartphones.
The Wikipedia founder also addressed the impact of AI on the encyclopaedia, revealing an 8% drop in human traffic since the rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT. However, he said this loss is mainly from low-engagement users seeking quick answers, while bot traffic from AI crawlers has increased significantly, putting strain on Wikipedia's servers.
