Australia to ban social media for children under 16

The Australian government announced on Thursday what it described as worldleading legislation that would institute an age limit of 16 years for children to start using social media and hold platforms responsible for ensuring complianceSocial media is doing harm to our kids and Im calling time on it Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saidThe legislation will be introduced in Parliament during its final two weeks in session this year which begin on November 18 The age limit would take effect 12 months after the law is passed Albanese told reportersThe platforms including X TikTok Instagram and Facebook would need to use that year to work out how to exclude Australian children younger than 16Ive spoken to thousands of parents grandparents aunties and uncles They like me are worried sick about the safety of our kids online Albanese saidThe proposal comes as governments around the world are wrestling with how to supervise young peoples use of technologies like smartphones and social mediaSocial media platforms would be penalised for breaching the age limit but underage children and their parents would notThe onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access The onus wont be on parents or young people Albanese saidAntigone Davis head of safety at Meta which owns Facebook and Instagram said the company would respect any age limitations the government wants to introduceHowever whats missing is a deeper discussion on how we implement protections otherwise we risk making ourselves feel better like we have taken action but teens and parents will not find themselves in a better place Davis said in a statementShe added that stronger tools in app stores and operating systems for parents to control what apps their children can use would be a simple and effective solutionX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday TikTok declined to commentThe Digital Industry Group Inc an advocate for the digital industry in Australia described the age limit as a 20th Century response to 21st Century challengesRather than blocking access through bans we need to take a balanced approach to create ageappropriate spaces build digital literacy and protect young people from online harm DIGI managing director Sunita Bose said in a statementMore than 140 Australian and international academics with expertise in fields related to technology and child welfare signed an open letter to Albanese last month opposing a social media age limit as too blunt an instrument to address risks effectivelyJackie Hallan a director at the youth mental health service ReachOut opposed the ban She said 73 per cent of young people across Australia accessing mental health support did so through social mediaWere uncomfortable with the ban We think young people are likely to circumvent a ban and our concern is that it really drives the behaviour underground and then if things go wrong young people are less likely to get support from parents and carers because theyre worried about getting in trouble Hallan saidChild psychologist Philip Tam said a minimum age of 12 or 13 would have been more enforceableMy real fear honestly is that the problem of social media will simply be driven underground Tam saidAustralian National University lawyer Associate Prof Faith Gordon feared separating children from there platforms could create pressures within familiesAlbanese said there would be exclusions and exemptions in circumstances such as a need to continue access to educational servicesBut parental consent would not entitle a child under 16 to access social mediaEarlier this year the government began a trial of agerestriciton technologies Australias eSafety Commissioner the online watchdog that will police compliance will use the results of that trial to provide platforms with guidance on what reasonable steps they can takeCommunications Minister Michelle Rowland said the yearlong leadin would ensure the age limit could be implemented in a very practical wayThere does need to be enhanced penalties to ensure compliance Rowland saidEvery company that operates in Australia whether domiciled here or otherwise is expected and must comply with Australian law or face the consequences she addedThe main opposition party has given inprinciple support for an age limit at 16Opposition lawmaker Paul Fletcher said the platforms already had the technology to enforce such an age banIts not really a technical viability question its a question of their readiness to do it and will they incur the cost to do it Fletcher told Australian Broadcasting CorpThe platforms say Its all too hard we cant do it Australia will become a backwater it wont possibly work But if you have welldrafted legislation and you stick to your guns you can get the outcomes Fletcher addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness 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