The Australian authorities will legislate for a ban on social media for youngsters beneath 16, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese mentioned on Thursday, in what it calls a world-leading bundle of measures that would grow to be regulation late subsequent yr.
Australia is trialing an age-verification system to help in blocking youngsters from accessing social media platforms, as a part of a spread of measures that embrace among the hardest controls imposed by any nation up to now.
“Social media is doing hurt to our children and I am calling time on it,” Albanese advised a information convention.
Albanese cited the dangers to bodily and psychological well being of youngsters from extreme social media use, specifically the dangers to women from dangerous depictions of physique picture, and misogynist content material geared toward boys.
“If you happen to’re a 14-year-old child getting these items, at a time the place you are going by life’s adjustments and maturing, it may be a very troublesome time and what we’re doing is listening after which appearing,” he mentioned.
Numerous international locations have already vowed to curb social media use by youngsters by laws, although Australia’s coverage is without doubt one of the most stringent.
No jurisdiction thus far has tried utilizing age verification strategies like biometrics or authorities identification to implement a social media age cut-off, two of the strategies being trialed.
Australia’s different world-first proposals are the very best age restrict set by any nation, no exemption for parental consent and no exemption for pre-existing accounts.
Laws will probably be launched into the Australian parliament this yr, with the legal guidelines coming into impact 12 months after being ratified by lawmakers, Albanese mentioned.
The opposition Liberal Social gathering has expressed help for a ban.
There will probably be no exemptions for youngsters who’ve parental consent, or who have already got accounts.
“The onus will probably be on social media platforms to reveal they’re taking affordable steps to stop entry,” Albanese mentioned. “The onus will not be on mother and father or younger individuals.”
“What we’re saying right here and what we are going to legislate will probably be really world main,” Communications Minister Michelle Rowland mentioned.
Rowland mentioned platforms impacted would come with Meta Platforms’ Instagram and Fb, in addition to Bytedance’s TikTok and Elon Musk’s X. Alphabet’s YouTube would probably additionally fall throughout the scope of the laws, she added.
TikTok declined to remark, whereas Meta, Alphabet and X didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The Digital Business Group, a consultant physique which incorporates Meta, TikTok, X and Alphabet’s Google as members, mentioned the measure might encourage younger individuals to discover darker, unregulated elements of the web whereas slicing their entry to help networks.
“Maintaining younger individuals secure on-line is a high precedence … however the proposed ban for youngsters to entry digital platforms is a twentieth Century response to twenty first Century challenges,” mentioned DIGI Managing Director Sunita Bose.
“Reasonably than blocking entry by bans, we have to take a balanced method to create age-appropriate areas, construct digital literacy and shield younger individuals from on-line hurt,” she added.
France final yr proposed a ban on social media for these beneath 15, although customers had been capable of keep away from the ban with parental consent.
The USA has for many years required expertise corporations to hunt parental consent to entry the info of youngsters beneath 13, resulting in most social media platforms banning these beneath that age from accessing their providers.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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