- Federal legislation to keep kids off social media to be introduced this year
Australia will ban children from using social media from the age of 16, the prime minister announced on Tuesday, promising to get kids off their devices and “onto the football fields.”
Anthony Albanese has said federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, describing the sites’ impact on young people as a “scourge”.
The minimum age for children to log on to sites like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok has not yet been decided, but is expected to be between 14 and 16, Albanese said.
The Prime Minister said his own preference would be to block users under the age of 16.
Age verification trials will be held in the coming months, the centre-left leader said, although analysts said they doubted it would be technically possible to impose an age limit online.
Anthony Albanese said federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, describing the sites’ impact on young people as a “scourge”.
The Prime Minister said his own preference would be to block users under the age of 16.
“I want to see kids put down their devices and get onto soccer fields, swimming pools and tennis courts,” Albanese said.
“We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm,” she told national broadcaster ABC.
“This is a scourge. We know that many young people suffer from mental health problems,” he said.
Australia’s conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton said he would support an age limit.
“Every day of delay leaves young children vulnerable to the harms of social media and takes away their time to rely on tech companies to enforce age limits,” she said.
But it’s not clear that the technology exists to reliably enforce such bans, said University of Melbourne associate professor of computer science and information technology Toby Murray.
“We already know that current age verification methods are unreliable, too easy to bypass or put user privacy at risk,” he said.
Analysts warn that an age limit does not always help troubled children.
“It threatens to create serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful and healthy participation in the digital world,” said Daniel Angus, who heads the digital media research centre at Queensland University of Technology.
“It makes sense to set boundaries that limit young people’s access,” said Samantha Schulz, a senior sociologist of education at the University of Adelaide.
“However, young people are not the problem and youth regulation overlooks the more urgent task of regulating irresponsible social media platforms. Social media is an inevitable part of young people’s lives.”
The centre-left leader said that age verification trials will be held in the coming months.
Analysts warn that an age limit does not always help children with problems
The Prime Minister said parents were expecting a response to online bullying and harmful material on social media.
“These social media companies think they are above everyone,” he told a radio interviewer.
“Well, they have a social responsibility and right now they are not fulfilling it. And we are determined to make sure that they do,” he said.
Australia has been at the forefront of global efforts to regulate social media platforms, with its online safety watchdog notably clashing with Elon Musk’s X over the content it transmits.
