Australia’s leading party has introduced a bill in Parliament aiming to prohibit children under 16 from accessing social media. This legislation would make social platforms, rather than children or parents, responsible for compliance and impose fines up to AUD$49.5 million ($32.2 million) on violators.
The proposed bill by the Labor Party targets platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and X. It mandates these platforms to segregate and delete any data collected from underage users, although there are exceptions for health and education services like Headspace, Google Classroom, and YouTube.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland stated in Parliament on Thursday that social media poses significant risks to youths, noting that almost two-thirds of Australians aged 14 to 17 have encountered harmful online content, including drug abuse, suicide, self-harm, and violence. “A quarter have been exposed to content promoting unsafe eating habits,” she told lawmakers.
Reuters notes that this legislation would be among the toughest globally in addressing issues surrounding children’s social media interaction. It excludes exemptions for parental consent or existing accounts, requiring platforms to ensure compliance.
The bill has garnered support from both the majority (center-left) Labor Party and the opposition (right) Liberal Party. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed it as a “landmark reform,” acknowledging potential workarounds by kids but emphasizing the need to urge social media companies to improve their practices. “We know some kids will find workarounds, but we’re sending a message to social media companies to clean up their act,” he said.
However, the (left) Australian Greens criticized the bill, arguing it disregards expert advice in pushing the legislation through Parliament hastily. Senator Sarah Hanson-Young commented, “The recent Parliamentary Inquiry into Social Media heard time and time again that an age-ban will not make social media safer for anyone,” describing the bill as complicated and potentially harmful to youth. She said in a statement.
In the previous year, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy sounded the alarm on the dangers of underage social media usage, highlighting that children and adolescents spending more than three hours daily on social media are at double the risk of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, as per his office’s 2023 advisory.
In the United States, regulations require tech companies to obtain parental consent before accessing data from children under 13, but there are no age restrictions in place. Reuters also points out that last year, France implemented a similar ban for children under 15, which allows access with parental consent.
