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CNN: “Well, a world first in Australia…”
CBC: “Australia has now done something that no other country has been able to do.”
DW: …”banning under 16 year olds from using social media”
It’s the Australian news that’s making global headlines.
Under the legislation, platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit and X will impose age limits to users under 16 – but exemptions will apply to health and education services including YouTube, Messenger Kids, WhatsApp, Kids Helpline and Google Classroom.
Companies that fail to enforce the ban could be fined up to $50 million.
The ban is set to come into effect in 12 months’ time – and t here’s been mixed reactions on this from young people.
“For the kids online that will be like, oh I don’t like the government because they’re trying to limit the amount of time that I’m trying to talk to my friends, when they grow older they’ll know that it’s for the best.”
“I feel like I’d still use it, just secretly get into something. Parent: You’re gonna miss it aren’t ya? Kid: Yeah.”
“I believe that it will only create a generation of young people who will be more technologically literate in bypassing by using fake ages and fake identification and won’t achieve the desired effects.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is touting the government’s social media ban as being the right move, saying the onus will be on the platforms to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent underage users from accessing services.
“World leading action to make sure social media companies meet their social responsibility. Social media is doing harm to our children. And today as a direct result of our legislation passed through the parliament… parents can have a different discussion with their young ones.”
But questions still remain about how exactly the ban will be enforced.
Identity documents and facial recognition have been flagged as possibilities for age verification – even for adults.
Jeannie Patterson from the University of Melbourne’s law school says many aspects of the ban have left her wondering.
“The question really to me is how effective are the mechanisms that in is gonna be, how onerous are they gonna be? And is this really gonna solve the problem of the sort of toxic element of the digital world?”
Social media companies have criticised the legislation.
Meta says while it respects the laws decided by the Australian Parliament, it maintains there is a lack of evidence in relation to the link between mental health and social media.
TikTok says the government will need to work closely with industry to fix the issues it says have been created by what it describes as a rushed process.
Meanwhile the ban has also sparked a debate over whether similar measures could work overseas.
The UK’s technology secretary flagged a similar move last week, but will wait for further research.
Still, students from the US and UK say it’s starting conversations.
“I don’t think it would be a good thing because it’s already just a part of our daily lives. It would be hard to get people off of it.”
“I know it’s a bit controversial, but I actually think it’s really good that they did that.”
