MELBOURNE: On Thursday, Australian lawmakers approved one of the strictest crackdowns on popular websites like Facebook, Instagram, and X in the world by passing historic legislation banning under-16s from social media.
With 34 votes in favor and 19 against, the Senate passed the bill requiring social media companies to take “reasonable steps” to block accounts belonging to young minors.
The companies have characterized the legislation as “vague,” “problematic,” and “rushed.” Failure to comply could result in fines of up to Aus$50 million (US$32.5 million).
Before it is almost guaranteed to become law, the new guidelines will now go back to the lower house, where legislators previously supported the bill on Wednesday, for one last confirmation.
Legislation is characterized by platforms as “vague, problematic, rushed.”
Sarah Hanson-Young, a Greens senator, stated during the Senate debate that the ban would not “make social media safer for young people.” The fact that young people were “finding themselves addicted to these dangerous algorithms” was “devastating,” according to her.
Left-center Aiming for an election early next year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has fervently supported the new regulations and mobilized Australian parents to support them.
He described social media in the lead-up to the election as “a vehicle for scammers, a platform for peer pressure, a driver of anxiety, and, worst of all, a tool for online predators.”
His goal was to get young Australians “off their phones and onto the tennis and netball courts, the swimming pool, and the football and cricket fields.”
However, 12-year-old Angus Lydom and other young social media users are unimpressed.
“I want to continue using it. And being able to chat to all of my friends at home without it will be a strange experience,” he told AFP.
Many will probably look for ways to get around it.
“I’ll figure something out. All of my other buddies will, too,” Lydom remarked.
Elsie Arkinstall, 11, added that social media still had a place, especially for kids who wanted to watch painting or culinary tutorials.
“You can’t learn all those things from books, so kids and teens should be able to explore those techniques,” she continued.
Other nations consider limitations.
The prohibition appears to be among the most stringent in the world. However, experts are concerned that the current legislation would only be a symbolic piece of unenforceable legislation because it provides very little information on how the rules will be implemented.
Regulators will need to hammer out the specifics for at least a year before the prohibition takes effect.
Some businesses, like YouTube and WhatsApp, which teens could need for leisure, schoolwork, or other purposes, will probably be given an exemption.
To guarantee that digital identification issued by the government cannot be used to verify an individual’s age, late adjustments were submitted.
Susan Grantham, a social media expert, told AFP that digital literacy programs that teach kids to think “critically” about what they see online ought to be implemented; this is a model that Finland uses.
Other nations will keep a close eye on the legislation, with many considering enacting similar prohibitions.
Young teen social media bans have been proposed by lawmakers from Florida to Spain, but none of the policies have been put into effect as of yet.
Since 2021, China has prohibited minors from using Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, for more than 40 minutes per day.
In China, children’s online gaming time is likewise restricted.
