Australia’s House of Representatives has passed a bill that would ban children under 16 from accessing social media, leaving the Senate with the task of finalizing the world’s first law.
Major parties backed bill that would make platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, accounts.
The legislation passed by a vote of 102 to 13. If the bill becomes law this week, platforms would have a year to determine how to implement the age restrictions before penalties are applied.
Opposition lawmaker Dan Tehan told parliament the government had agreed to accept amendments in the Senate that would strengthen privacy protections.
Platforms would not be allowed to force users to provide government-issued identification documents, including passports or driver’s licenses, nor would they be able to require digital identification through a government system.
‘Will it be perfect? No. But is any law perfect? No, it’s not. But if it helps, even if it helps in the slightest, it will make a huge difference to people’s lives,” Tehan told Parliament.
The bill was introduced to the Senate on Wednesday night for debate at an unspecified time.
There will be no exemptions if children already have accounts, or if their parents or guardians give them permission to use the sites.
Support from the major parties virtually guarantees that the legislation will pass the Senate, where no party has a majority of seats.
Lawmakers who were not aligned with either the government or the opposition were the most critical of the legislation during the debate on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Criticisms include that the legislation was rushed through Parliament without proper scrutiny, would not work, would create privacy risks for users of all ages, and would take away parents’ authority to decide what is best for their children.
Critics also argue that the ban would isolate children, deprive them of the positive aspects of social media, drive them to the dark web, make children too young for social media reluctant to report harms they found, and eliminate incentives for platforms to make online spaces safer. .
Independent lawmaker Zoe Daniel said the legislation “would make no difference to the harms inherent in social media”.
“The real goal of this legislation is not to make social media safe by design, but to make parents and voters feel that the government is doing something about it,” Daniel told Parliament.
“There is a reason why the government is flaunting this legislation as a world leader: because no other country wants to do it,” he added.
Meta, owner of Instagram and Facebook, among other applications, said it will comply with the age limit
The platforms had asked that the vote be delayed until at least June next year, when a government-commissioned assessment of age-assurance technologies would present its report on how the ban could be enforced.
Melbourne resident Wayne Holdsworth, whose 17-year-old son Mac took his own life last year after being the victim of an online sextortion scam, described the bill as “absolutely essential for the safety of our children.” .
“It’s not the only thing we need to do to protect them because education is the key, but providing immediate support to our children and parents so they can handle this is a big step,” the 65-year-old said. an online safety activist told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
“And in my opinion, it is the best moment in the history of our country,” he added, in reference to the pending legal reform.