Australia moves to ban children under 16 from social media

Australia’s prime minister on Thursday vowed to ban children under 16 from social media, saying the pervasive influence of platforms like Facebook and TikTok was “doing real harm to our kids”.

The tech giants would be held responsible for enforcing the age limit and face hefty fines if regulators notice young users slipping through the cracks, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Australia is among the vanguard of nations trying to clean up social media, and the proposed age limit would be among the world’s strictest measures aimed at children.

“This one is for the mums and dads. Social media is doing real harm to kids and I’m calling time on it,” Albanese told reporters outside parliament.

The new laws would be presented to state and territory leaders this week, before being introduced to parliament in late November.

Once passed, the tech platforms would be given a one-year grace period to figure out how to implement and enforce the ban.

“The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access,” Albanese said, explaining what he dubbed a “world-leading” reform.

“The onus won’t be on parents or young people.”

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it would “respect any age limitations the government wants to introduce”.

But Antigone Davis, Meta’s head of safety, said Australia should think carefully about how these restrictions were implemented.

She said poorly drafted laws “risk making ourselves feel better, like we have taken action, but teens and parents will not find themselves in a better place”.

Snapchat pointed to a statement from industry body DIGI, which warned that a ban could stop teenagers from accessing “mental health support”.

“Swimming has risks, but we don’t ban young people from the beach, we teach them to swim between the flags,” a DIGI spokeswoman said.

TikTok said it had nothing to add at this stage.

– ‘Falling short’ –

Once celebrated as a means of staying connected and informed, social media platforms have been tarnished by cyberbullying, the spread of illegal content, and election-meddling claims.

“I get things popping up on my system that I don’t want to see. Let alone a vulnerable 14-year-old,” Albanese said.

“Young women see images of particular body shapes that have a real impact.”

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said social media companies were repeatedly “falling short” in their obligations.

“Social media companies have been put on notice. They need to ensure their practices are made safer,” she told reporters at a press briefing alongside Albanese.

Rowland said companies like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Elon Musk’s X would face financial penalties if they flouted the laws.

While Rowland did not detail how big these would be, she suggested fines of US$600,000 (Aus $1 million) were well below the mark for companies boasting yearly revenues in the tens of billions of dollars.

Analysts have expressed doubt it would be technically feasible to enforce a strict age ban.

“We already know that present age verification methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent, or risk user privacy,” University of Melbourne researcher Toby Murray said earlier this year.

A series of exemptions would be hashed out for platforms such as YouTube that teenagers may need to use for school work or other reasons.

Australia has in recent years ramped up efforts to regulate the tech giants, with mixed success.

A “combating misinformation” bill was introduced earlier this year, outlining sweeping powers to fine tech companies for breaching online safety obligations.

It has also moved to outlaw the sharing of so-called “deepfake” pornography without consent.

But attempts to regulate content on Musk’s X — previously known as Twitter — have become bogged down in a long-running courtroom battle.

The tech mogul likened the Australian government to “fascists” earlier this year after they announced they would crack down on fake news.

Several other countries have been tightening children’s access to social media platforms.

Spain passed a law in June banning social media access to under-16s.

And in the US state of Florida, children under the age of 14 will be banned from opening social media accounts under a new law due to come into force in January.

But in both cases the age verification method has yet to be determined.

France passed laws in 2023 that require social media platforms to verify users’ ages — and obtain parental consent if they are younger than 15.

China has restricted access for minors since 2021, with under-14s not allowed to spend more than 40 minutes a day on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

Online gaming time for children is also limited in China.

AFP