Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced today that he plans to ban access to social media for children under the age of 16, at a time of growing international criticism that internet giants are not adequately protecting their vulnerable users.
“It’s a measure for mums and dads. Social media is doing a lot of harm to children and I decided to put an end to it,” Albanese said, speaking to reporters.
In September, the Australian prime minister had announced plans to take steps to limit social media use by minors, but at the time he did not mention a specific age limit.
Albanese added that the measure would be presented to state premiers this week before being tabled for a vote by parliament at the end of the month.
The bill will come into force 12 months after it is approved by MPs, and will not provide exemptions for children who have parental or guardian permission to have a social media account or for those who already have accounts.
Technology companies and social media will be responsible for ensuring that their users are over 16, otherwise they risk penalties.
“The responsibility does not lie with parents or young people. There will be no penalties for users,” Albanese said.
The Australian prime minister said social media algorithms were presenting children and teenagers with inappropriate content.
“There are things showing up on my phone that I don’t want to see. Imagine a vulnerable 14-year-old child,” he explained.
In addition, Albanesi also mentioned the risks to children’s physical and mental health from excessive use of social media, especially the dangers for girls exposed to images with absurd physical patterns or misogynistic content.
Meta, the subsidiary of Instagram and Facebook, said it would implement “any age limit” the government “wishes to impose”.
But Antigony Davis, Facebook’s global security manager, said Australia should seriously consider how those restrictions would be implemented.
However and some experts doubt whether it is technically possible to impose such a measure.
“We already know that existing methods of age identification are not reliable, are too easy to circumvent or compromise user privacy,” observed Toby Murray of the University of Melbourne.
Many countries and regions have decided to adopt an age limit for access to social media.
In the state of Florida in the US, a law came into effect in January that prohibits children under the age of 14 from getting an account on these platforms.
Spain also passed a law in June banning children under 16 from accessing social media.
In both cases, the method of confirming the age of users has not yet been determined.
In France, a law passed in 2023 set the age of “digital maturity” at 15, but it has not yet come into force pending the European Commission’s decision on whether it complies with European law.
China is restricting minors’ access to social media from 2021 and asking users to confirm their age with their ID.
In addition, children under 14 cannot use Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, for more than 40 minutes a day, and there are limits on the amount of time children and teenagers can spend online.
