The Australian government’s world-first plan to ban children from social media has caught the attention of Elon Musk, who says it could lead to wider restrictions.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday announced the introduction of his bill, which would require Australians to be over 16 to use many popular apps, including Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and Musk-owned X.
“It seems like a backdoor way to control internet access for all Australians,” Musk responded after Albanese boasted about the law on social media.
Musk, who recently earned the nickname ‘First Buddy’ due to his friendship with US President-elect Donald Trump, has long been an advocate for free speech, which is one of the reasons why claimed that it bought X, then called Twitter, in 2022. .
Greens senator David Shoebridge, at a Senate Committee hearing earlier this month, questioned whether the ban could only be enforced by requiring age verification for all Australians using social media.
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts Undersecretary for Communications and Media James Chisolm responded “yes.”
The government has since said that part of the proposed legislation would prevent technology companies from retaining information collected during the verification process.
Companies that systematically flout the ban could be fined up to $50 million under legislation being debated in Parliament.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk criticized Australia’s proposal to ban social media for children
Musk said the ban could lead to broader restrictions for Australians.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told Parliament the ban would dramatically reshape Australian society’s relationship with social media.
“This bill seeks to establish a new normative value in society that access to social media is not the defining characteristic of growing up in Australia,” he said.
“There is broad recognition that something must be done in the immediate term to help prevent teenagers and children from being exposed to streams of unfiltered content,” he added.
While there is bipartisan political support for passing the proposed teen ban, there is debate over whether it will actually curb the harm of social media.
Details about the ban could change before the legislation is passed by Parliament.
The platforms would then have a year to implement a process to enforce it.
Messenger Kids, WhatsApp, Kids Helpline, Google Classroom and YouTube are expected to be classified as “out of scope services.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was urgent to introduce the ban.
Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said social media companies had “abrogated their responsibility to care about Australian children” for too long.
“We look forward to working constructively on this legislation with a view to it being approved by Parliament next week,” he said.
The eSafety Commissioner’s office said ensuring age was important but had to be part of a broader approach.
“We must also continue to work to ensure that online services are safe by design and develop children’s digital literacy, resilience and critical thinking skills so that when they are old enough to use these services… they are equipped for the online world,” he said.
The Australian Human Rights Commission said that while the ban was designed to protect children from harm, it would likely have negative impacts on young people’s human rights.