Australian Senate bill means under 16s will be banned from using social media – News

Australian lawmakers today approved a landmark ban on social media for children under 16 in an attempt to address the negative impact of various apps on young people’s physical and mental health.

The world-first ban will affect most major platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Snapchat, and Reddit, although Google LLC-owned YouTube hasn’t made the list. Already critics have raised concerns over kids being pushed into darker areas of the internet, being unable to access important information, and leading to feelings of isolation.

However, this won’t happen overnight. Companies will have 12 months to comply with the rules, which will mean introducing new age-verification systems for Australian users. If companies don’t comply with the rules, they might find themselves being fined A$50 million ($32.5 million).

The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the law reflects the concerns of parents who see their kids’ health being harmed due to social media use. In a press conference, he said, “Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them.” He said there is a “clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians.”

This being the first time a country has tried this kind of thing, there’s already a lot of skepticism from academics and advocacy groups. It’s not yet known how exactly the ban will be enforced or if enhanced age verification may mean social media companies collecting too much data.

Unsurprising, X Corp. owner Elon Mush weighed in, writing on X, “Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians.” The post was viewed 24.5 million times and reposted 17,000 times.

The Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers fired back, “The idea that Elon Musk is not delighted with our steps to try and protect kids online is not an especially big surprise to us, nor does it trouble us greatly… Our job is not to come up with a social media policy to please Elon Musk.”

However, Musk isn’t alone in his criticism of the law. There’s the fact that companies may have to introduce biometrics, a possible invasion of privacy, and also that kids may just use VPNs or find other ways to flout the rules.

There’s also the fact the onus is being put on the companies, rather than asking parents to limit the use of such technologies using what are now abundant parent controls on such apps or by occasionally taking the gadgets away from their kids. Some experts have called it “too blunt an instrument” to tackle a complex problem. Meta has already said the law will be “ineffective” while Google and Snapchat have also aired criticism. That’s not to say the negative effects social media can have on children isn’t a serious problem.

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