Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated on Thursday the federal government would legislate for a ban on social media for kids beneath 16, a coverage the federal government says is world-leading.
Australia is trialing an age-verification system to help in blocking youngsters from accessing social media platforms, as a part of a ban that might come into power as quickly as the top of subsequent yr.
“Social media is doing hurt to our children and I’m calling time on it,” Albanese informed a information convention.
Albanese cited the dangers to bodily and psychological well being of kids from extreme social media use, particularly the dangers to women from dangerous depictions of physique picture, and misogynist content material geared toward boys.
“In case you’re a 14-year-old child getting these items, at a time the place you’re going by means of life’s adjustments and maturing, it may be a extremely troublesome time and what we’re doing is listening after which performing,” he stated.
Laws will probably be launched into parliament this yr, with the legal guidelines coming into impact 12 months after being ratified by lawmakers, he added.
The opposition Liberal Social gathering has expressed assist for a ban.
There will probably be no exemptions for kids who’ve parental consent, or who have already got accounts.
“The onus will probably be on social media platforms to display they’re taking cheap steps to stop entry,” Albanese stated. “The onus received’t be on mother and father or younger folks.”
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland stated platforms impacted would come with Meta Platforms’ opens new tab Instagram and Fb, in addition to Bytedance’s TikTok and Elon Musk’s X. Alphabet’s opens new tab YouTube would seemingly additionally fall inside the scope of the laws, she added.
TikTok declined to remark, whereas Meta, Alphabet and X didn’t reply to requests for remark.
A lot of nations have already vowed to curb social media use by youngsters by means of laws, although Australia’s coverage is without doubt one of the most stringent.
France final yr proposed a ban on social media for these beneath 15, although customers have been capable of keep away from the ban with parental consent.
The USA has for many years required know-how corporations to hunt parental consent to entry the info of kids beneath 13, resulting in most social media platforms banning these beneath that age from accessing their companies.
