Australian lawmakers have passed strict new rules that will ban children under the age of sixteen from using social media. The new law has been strongly backed by the country’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who says it is required to protect young people from the “harms” that social media cause. But there are plenty of critics of the ban, with one MP calling it “a 1970 solution for a 2024 problem”.
Albanese said the new law meant that parents of young teenagers would no longer feel pressured to let their children use social media, despite concerns of the impact it can have on their mental health. He said in a statement, “Parents can have a different discussion with their young ones, a different discussion that will result in better outcomes and less harm for young Australians”.
“Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them”, he added. “We’re making sure that mums and dads can have that different conversation today and in future days. We've got your back, is our message to Australian parents”.
The ban won't go into effect for at least twelve months and the law itself doesn’t state which platforms will be affected, with the country’s Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, empowered to make that decision. That said, she has already stated that Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X will all be required to make sure that no one under the age of sixteen uses their platforms within the country.
Websites where content can be consumed without setting up an account will not be covered by the ban, which means YouTube’s core platform won’t be affected. Gaming and messaging platforms are also exempt.
Australian lawmakers aren’t the first to consider new regulations in response to concerns about the impact of social media usage on young people, though their ban is by far the strictest. In France, anyone under fifteen can only use social media with parental consent. However, under the new Australian system, parental consent is irrelevant, no one under the age of sixteen can use social media services.
The legal obligation to make sure that happens is very much on the platforms, which could be fined up to AUS$50 million if they don't comply. That said, one of the criticisms of the new law is that it puts a lot of faith into automated age verification systems.
Even if those systems work, it will be possible to circumvent the age-based blocks within Australia by using a VPN, so that the social media platform thinks the user is in another country. And a lot of teenagers may already be using VPNs because of the other benefits those services offer.
Other criticisms have been made about the new law as it has been debated with Australian political circles. That includes privacy concerns regarding the information that might need to be provided as part of the age verification process, and that - for all the issues with social media - there are also benefits to young people learning to use such platforms in their teenage years, and the ban will therefore disadvantage Australian teenagers.
Another big criticism is that young people themselves have not had much of a role in the development of the new law, which - some argue - has been unnecessarily rushed through Parliament.
That could be addressed during the implementation period of course, with the government consulting more widely on how the ban should work. Certainly the tech companies - which have been very opposed to the new law so far - are now hoping to have influence over how the ban is implemented.
For the social media companies, the new law will likely have an impact well beyond Australia. Lawmakers in many other countries who share the concerns of Australian politicians will be watching how the ban works very closely.
According to Politico, the French government is already putting pressure on other EU member states to consider possible EU-wide restrictions, with ministers there pointing to the new Australian law as a possible template.