Tiffanie Turnbull 悉尼 30分钟前 13岁加入社交媒体时，Varsha Yajman已经对自己的外貌感到不自信。
Tiffanie Turnbull Sydney 30 minutes ago Varsha Yajman was already self-conscious about the way she looked when she joined social media as a 13-year-old.
无尽的健身视频充斥着她的信息流，承诺着不可能实现的效果。通过屏幕，她从未见过的女孩们敦促她参加危险的热量挑战。其他人则在个人资料中骄傲地展示自己的身高和体重——甚至他们被送往医院的次数——以此进行一种扭曲的竞争。
Endless workout videos making impossible promises filled her feeds. Through the screen, girls she'd never met urged her to sign up to dangerous calorie challenges. Others proudly promoted their height and weight - even the number of times they had been sent to hospital - on their profiles in a form of twisted competition.
每当她夜晚入睡时，Varsha会在互联网上观看一个陌生人记录他们当天的饮食。
Every night as she fell asleep, Varsha would watch a stranger on the internet diarising what they'd consumed that day.
“我当时想，‘我不需要吃东西。我可以只看别人吃’，”Varsha对BBC说。
"I was like, 'I don't need to eat. I can just watch other people eat'," Varsha tells the BBC.
“我会发现自己陷入了这些非常深的兔子洞……感觉无论你多么努力想要摆脱，都做不到。”如今24岁、正在从厌食症中康复的Varsha表示，尽管她已经打开了所有安全设置，并设置了详尽的禁用词列表，她仍然在社交媒体上看到减肥内容。
"I would find that I'd be down these really deep rabbit holes... it was like no matter how hard you tried to get out, you couldn't." Now 24 and in recovery from anorexia, Varsha says she is still served weight loss content on social media - despite having every safety setting turned on, and an exhaustive list of banned words.
Tiffanie Turnbull / BBC Varsha Yajman表示社交媒体加重了她的饮食失调 澳大利亚政府表示，它正试图通过一套新法律来保护像她这样的人，这些法律旨在打击大型科技公司，并于本周提交议会审议。
Tiffanie Turnbull / BBC Varsha Yajman says social media aggravated her eating disorder It is people like her the Australian government says it is trying to protect with a new suite of laws cracking down on big tech, which were introduced to parliament this week.
他们提出的改革核心是：一个算法开关，将迫使社交媒体平台允许用户关闭推荐内容。其理念是，用户只能看到他们所关注账号的帖子。
The centrepiece of their proposed reforms: an algorithm switch which would force social media platforms to let users turn off recommended content. The idea is that you would only see posts from accounts you follow.
这并不是第一个尝试这样做的政府，但现有的算法控制往往是暂时的，并且伴随着应用功能的权衡。
It isn't the first government to try this, but existing algorithm controls are often transient and come with trade-offs in app functionality.
澳大利亚旨在制定更严格的立法来阻止这种情况。它希望其新法律——这些法律还将对在线服务施加法律上的注意义务——能够帮助澳大利亚人变得更快乐和更健康。
Australia has set out to make its legislation tighter to stop this. And it hopes its new laws – which would also impose a legal duty of care on online services – will help Australians become happier and healthier.
但批评者担心，总理安东尼·阿尔巴尼塞的政府在与大型科技公司的斗争中咬下了比自己能够咀嚼的更多的东西，而其他人，包括特朗普政府，则表示这些改革威胁到言论自由。弗林·马丁知道被算法螺旋卷入是什么感觉。
But critics are concerned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government has bitten off more than it can chew in its fight with big tech, while others, including the Trump administration, say the reforms threaten free speech. The choice Flynn Martin knows what it is like to be sucked into an algorithmic spiral.
自称厌女的网红安德鲁·泰特以及其他男性圈层人物大约四年前开始充斥当时20岁的弗林的社交媒体信息流。
Self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and other manosphere figures started overwhelming the then-20-year-old's social media feeds about four years ago.
当时，弗林最终被诊断出患有双相情感障碍，他感到不安全，对生活感到沮丧，并且在心理健康方面挣扎。他说他相信了这种言论。
It was a time when Flynn, who was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was insecure, frustrated with his life and struggling with his mental health. He says he fell for the rhetoric.
不久之后，他因两段视频在澳大利亚走红：一段是抱怨作为一个直白的白人男性是否可以接受，另一段则是他批评一位约会对象点的冷冻酸奶。
He soon went viral in Australia for two videos: one ranting about whether it was OK to be a straight white male, and another where he criticised a date for her frozen yoghurt order.
“你会发现自己陷入了一种回声室……很容易被裹挟其中，”他告诉BBC。
"You find yourself in like a bit of an echo chamber... It's easy to get swept up in that," he tells the BBC.
“我真的相信我们生活在这种矩阵中，我们有一个真正负面的系统，它是专门针对你设计的。而摆脱它的唯一方法就是成为这种‘阿尔法男性’角色。”这位墨尔本人只有在经历了一段精神病发作并住院治疗后才被拉出男性圈层。
"I really bought into the idea we were living in this matrix, we had this really negative system that was designed against you. And the only way to break out of it was becoming this alpha male character." The Melbournian was only pulled from the manosphere after a period of psychosis and a hospital stay.
丹尼尔·费默 / ABC新闻 弗林·马丁表示他仍在努力寻找与社交媒体的健康平衡如今，他发现很难回头审视当时的自己：“虽然有一点羞愧和尴尬……但我觉得对那个年轻的自己有一点同情。”弗林和瓦尔沙都认为社交媒体本身并不是他们人生最黑暗章节的唯一原因，但他们说它是一个关键因素。
Daniel Fermer / ABC News Flynn Martin says he's still finding a healthy balance with social media Nowadays, he finds it tough to look back at that version of himself: "While there's a bit of shame and embarrassment... I think there is a bit of empathy for that younger man." Both Flynn and Varsha know social media alone isn't to blame for the worst chapter of their lives, but say it was a key factor.
无数人有类似的经历：他们遇到了自己未主动寻求、也不愿看到的社交媒体内容——长期以来，人们一直怀疑这些平台的算法在策划此类内容时正在伤害用户。
Countless others have stories of being confronted by social media content they didn't seek out, and didn't want to see – and there's long been suspicions the algorithms curating these platforms are harming users.
社交媒体公司认为潜在风险被夸大了，并且他们已经为用户提供了有效的安全工具。但来自世界各地的研究正在描绘出不同的画面。
Social media firms argue the potential risks are being overstated and that they already provide users with effective safety tools. But research emerging from around the world has been sketching a different picture.
研究发现，社交媒体的使用会触发类似于赌博和物质成瘾的大脑反应；算法——通常是未经请求的——会向用户推送损害其心理健康的内容；他们还在传播虚假信息、加剧两极分化，从而导致线下暴力。法院案件和举报人已经公开指控，这些公司知道其中的危害，但愿意视而不见，因为这项技术提升了用户参与度和他们的利润。
Studies have found social media use triggers a similar brain response to gambling and substance addiction that algorithms – often unsolicited – serve up content which harms users' mental health and that they're spreading disinformation and increasing polarisation, driving violence offline Court cases and whistleblowers have aired claims that these companies know the dangers and are willing to overlook them as this technology lifts user engagement and their bottom line.
“结果就是，他们推广的内容要么令人愤怒，要么能激发人们的强烈情绪——可能是愤怒、恐惧、欲望、欲望或不安全感，不管是什么，都会让我们一直滚动下去，”Chanel Contos对BBC表示。
"The result is that they promote content that is outrageous or that invokes strong emotions from people - so it might be anger or fear or desire or lust or insecurity, whatever it is, it's going to keep us scrolling," Chanel Contos tells the BBC.
Cordelia Hsu / Reuters 同意教育倡导者Chanel Contos在2021年创立Teach Us Consent网站后，曾向政府游说以推动改革。在大学期间研究该议题时，这位曾帮助澳大利亚改革性同意教育标准的活动家提出了一项变革倡议。
Cordelia Hsu / Reuters Consent education campaigner Chanel Contos lobbied the government for change after founding the Teach Us Consent website in 2021 While studying the topic at university, the activist - who helped reform sexual consent education standards in Australia came up with a campaign for change.
“修复我们的信息流”要求默认关闭推荐算法，并让社交媒体用户能够选择是否开启它们。
"Fix Our Feeds" demanded recommended algorithms be turned off by default, and social media users be given the choice to opt into them.
Contos设想回归到2010年代初期的社交媒体——那时一个人的信息流充满了来自朋友或他们实际关注的人的帖子，而且信息流是有限的。
Contos envisaged a nostalgic return to the social media of the early 2010s – a time when a person's social media was filled with posts from friends or people they actually followed and their feeds were finite.
超过15,000人签署了她的请愿书，该运动还获得了两位前总理、多位议员、有影响力的人物、心理健康倡导者以及在线安全专家的支持。
More than 15,000 people signed her petition, and the campaign also won the backing of two former prime ministers, several MPs, influential figures, mental health advocates, and online safety experts.
政府在9月表示，它已经听取了支持Contos运动的澳大利亚人的意见，并宣布了她提议的一个版本：迫使大型科技公司引入算法开关——但未要求其自动设置为关闭。
The government in September said it had listened to the Australians who had backed Contos's campaign, and announced a version of her proposal: forcing big tech to introduce an algorithm switch - but stopping short of requiring it be automatically set to off.
“这不是关于政府控制，而是关于让人们掌控自己，”阿尔巴尼塞说。
"This is not about giving government control, it is about giving people control," Albanese said.
“如果人们想要沉溺于刷屏……那也没关系，那是他们自己的选择。”希拉里·沃德豪 / 盖蒂图片社 通信部长Anika Wells（左侧讲台）和澳大利亚总理Anthony Albanese（右侧讲台）在9月与家长们举行了新闻发布会，讨论即将出台的《数字护理义务》法案。
该政策是政府《数字护理义务》法案的一部分，该法案将要求在线服务——社交媒体公司、游戏网站、聊天机器人等——“在合理可行的范围内确保安全的在线环境”。
"If people want to doom scroll… that's fine, that's up to them." Hilary Wardhaugh / Getty Images Communications Minister Anika Wells (left podium) and Australian PM Anthony Albanese (right podium) held a press conference with parents in September around the upcoming Digital Duty of Care bill The policy is part of the government's Digital Duty of Care bill, which would require online services – social media firms, gaming sites, chatbots and more – to "ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, a safe online environment".
儿童必须受到保护，免受“有害”内容和设计功能的侵害——例如色情内容和鼓饮食失调或对女性持有害态度的材料——而成年人必须受到保护，免受“严重有害”内容和行为的侵害，这是一个范围更窄的非法内容清单。违反该法律可能面临最高1亿澳元（约合5200万英镑，7000万美元）的罚款。
Children must be protected from "harmful" material and design features – for example, pornography and material which encourages eating disorders or harmful attitudes towards women – and adults must be protected from "seriously harmful" material and conduct, a much narrower list of illegal content. Breaches of the law could attract fines of up A$100m (£52m, $70m).
“数字护理义务回应了社交媒体最低年龄法所引发的许多‘那怎么办’的问题，因为它范围更广；它涵盖了所有在线服务，并将责任的负担从受害者的肩上转移到了那些试图从澳大利亚用户身上赚钱的大型科技运营商的肩上，”通信部长Anika Wells对BBC表示。
"The digital duty of care answers a lot of the 'what abouts' of the social media minimum age law because it's much broader; it captures all online services and it shifts the onus of responsibility from the shoulders of victims onto the shoulders of the big tech operators who seek to make money off Australian users," Communications Minister Anika Wells told the BBC.
挑战方面，大型科技公司的反应较为冷淡。Meta、Snap、TikTok、X以及拥有YouTube的Google均拒绝了BBC的置评请求，且未就该立法发表公开声明。
The challenges There's been a muted response from big tech. Meta, Snap, TikTok, X and Google, which owns YouTube, have all declined BBC requests for comment, and have not made public statements about the legislation.
在公告发布后的几天里，Instagram 负责人亚当·莫塞里主张，非算法信息流意味着用户将看到来自朋友的帖子变少，并表示他不认为自己的应用具有成瘾性——尽管美国陪审团最近作出了相反的裁决。“我认为我们把日常口语中使用‘上瘾’这个词的方式——比如，‘我对这个节目上瘾，我一直在连续观看它’——与临床上的成瘾混为一谈了，”他在悉尼的一次新闻发布会上表示。
In the days after the announcement, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri argued non-algorithmic feeds would mean users saw fewer posts from friends, and said he didn't believe his app was addictive –although a US jury recently ruled otherwise "I think we conflate the way we colloquially use the word 'addicted' – like, 'I'm addicted to this show, and I'm binge-watching it' – and clinical addiction," he told a press briefing in Sydney.
Jason Henry / Bloomberg 通过 Getty Images Instagram 首席执行官亚当·莫塞里认为推荐算法对用户享受至关重要。澳大利亚的右翼政党——以及特朗普政府——表示，算法提案和更广泛的法案都存在导致过度审核和审查的风险。
Jason Henry / Bloomberg via Getty Images Instagram chief Adam Mosseri argues recommender algorithms are essential to user enjoyment Right-wing parties in Australia –and the Trump administration– have said the algorithms proposal and the broader bill both risk forcing over-moderation and censorship.
但支持该法律的人士表示，这不会发生，因为你仍然可以关注你想关注的人，分享你想分享的内容。“如果成年人……该提案在公众和在线安全专家之间似乎比澳大利亚对儿童的社交媒体禁令要少得多争议。
But those who defend the law say that won't happen because you can still follow who you want and share what you want. "If adults The proposal seems to be far less divisive amongst the public and online safety experts compared with Australia's social media ban for children.
然而，关键问题是：澳大利亚将如何实施这项政策？到目前为止，它一直在努力实施该禁令。调查显示，禁令实施前曾使用社交媒体的大多数儿童仍在使用，且尚未开出任何罚款。
However, the big question is: how will Australia implement this policy when, so far, it has been struggling to implement the ban Surveys suggest most children who were on social media before the ban still are, and no fines have been issued.
Getty Images 澳大利亚监管机构正在调查可能违反社交媒体禁令的行为。欧盟在2023年尝试引入算法控制——在此之后，平台推出了仅限关注的信息流——这是一个警示故事。
Getty Images Australian regulators are investigating potential breaches of the social media ban The EU's attempt at introducing algorithm controls in 2023 – after which platforms rolled out following-only feeds – is a cautionary tale.
社交媒体公司表示，诸如此类的安全和控制功能的采用率很低，并将其视为用户喜欢他们产品当前状态的证据。专家表示，这背后有其原因。
Social media firms have indicated the take-up of safety and control features like this has been low and cite it as evidence users like their products the way they are. Experts say there is a reason for that.
“平台按照法律要求行事，但方式如此笨拙，以至于用户实际上并不享受该选项，而是坚持使用默认的算法体验。”来自数字儿童卓越研究中心（ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child）的研究员克里斯·佐默（Chris Zomer）在《对话》杂志上写道。以Instagram为例，当你关闭算法时，你无法看到直接消息或访问你的个人资料和设置。当你离开应用时，它在你返回后会恢复为受算法控制的信息流。
"Platforms do what the law orders, but in such a clunky way that users don't actually enjoy the option and stick with the default, algorithmic experience," researcher Chris Zomer, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, wrote in The Conversation On Instagram for example, when you turn off the algorithm, you can't see direct messages or access your profile and settings. When you leave the app, it reverts back to an algorithm-governed feed on your return.
唯一这些问题不存在的地方是荷兰。去年，荷兰法院认定Meta违反欧盟《数字服务法》后，荷兰进行了相应修改。
The only place where these issues don't exist is the Netherlands. It was changed there after a Dutch court last year found Meta in breach of the EU's Digital Services Act.
Benjamin Fanjoy / 彭博社，通过盖蒂图片社 Meta在三月份对荷兰法院裁决提出上诉失败，这意味着荷兰的用户仍能保留对其主页信息流的选择权。澳大利亚的规则尚未最终确定，但政府表示，仅关注的信息流使用起来不应更困难或功能更弱，算法设置必须“明显”，并且即使用户离开应用，也不能在未经用户“明确选择”的情况下发生变化。
Benjamin Fanjoy / Bloomberg via Getty Images Meta lost an appeal against the Dutch court's ruling in March, meaning users in the Netherlands retain choice over their home feeds The rules for Australia aren't set in stone yet, but the government says following-only feeds must not be harder to use or less functional, that algorithm settings must be "obvious", and that they must not change without an "explicit choice" by the user, even if they leave the app.
受澳大利亚成功经验的鼓舞，Contos现在正将她的运动推向全球。
Buoyed by her success in Australia, Contos is now taking her campaign global.
“我们觉得加拿大、英国和澳大利亚在网络安全方面高度一致……如果这三个司法管辖区都在这样做，这可能会成为临界点。”尽管像他们这样的经历帮助激发了这些改革，但弗林和瓦尔沙对这些改革持 somewhat 怀疑的态度。
"We feel like Canada, UK, Australia are all very aligned on online safety... Then if those three jurisdictions are doing it, it could become a critical mass thing." Though experiences like theirs helped inspire these reforms, both Flynn and Varsha are somewhat sceptical of them.
瓦尔沙表示，她很难相信像澳大利亚这样的国家能够在与大型科技公司的较量中占上风：因此她不确定《数字护理义务法案》是否会奏效。而弗林表示，立法者应该对算法切换的潜力保持“现实”：”说到底，我们使用社交媒体只是作为一种娱乐形式。”本月早些时候的民调显示，三分之二的同龄Z世代人士会保留他们的社交媒体算法——尽管大约一半的澳大利亚人总体上会关闭他们的算法。
Varsha says she struggles to believe a country like Australia can outmuscle big tech: so she's not sure the Digital Duty of Care bill will work. And Flynn says lawmakers should be "realistic" about the potential of the algorithm switch: "At the end of the day we use social media as a form of entertainment." Polling earlier this month indicated two-thirds of their fellow Gen-Zs would keep their social media algorithms – though nearly half of Australians more generally would turn theirs off.
尽管瓦尔沙承认她不太可能多使用算法切换功能，但她很高兴拥有这个选择。
Though Varsha admits she is unlikely to make much use of an algorithm switch, she appreciates having the choice.
“糟糕的一天里，我仍然容易受到17岁时那些事物的影响。知道如果自己心情不好，可以选择退出，这让我感觉非常好。”
"On a bad day I'm still susceptible to all of the things that I was at 17. To know that, if I'm having a bad day, I can opt out makes me feel really good."
如果您受到本文所提问题的影响，可以咨询健康专业人士或提供支持的组织。英国境内提供建议和支持的组织详情可通过BBC行动热线获取。
If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, you could speak to a health professional or an organisation that offers support. Details of organisations offering advice and support for people in the UK are available from BBC Action Line