The Australian Senate has approved a bill that bans children under 16 from using social media.
The Guardian writes about it.
The document was supported by 34 senators, and 19 were against it.
The adopted law prohibits social media companies from providing access to users under 16. Violations are subject to fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($32 million). However, there is no penalty for children who can circumvent the ban.
How the age of users will be determined has yet to be clarified. This is planned to be clarified during a test period in mid-2025. The law will come into force in a year.
The law also did not specify which social media it refers to. Australian Minister of Communications Michelle Rowland says that TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Reddit, and Snapchat will likely be banned. At the same time, the ban will not affect YouTube because of its “important” educational role.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese explained that social media can be harmful to children, for example, affecting their physical and mental health. For example, social media can cause girls to have a distorted perception of their own bodies and boys to consume excessively violent and abusive content.
The law is one of the most stringent requirements for regulating the use of social media in the world.
Critics of the law, including academics, politicians, and human rights organizations, have emphasized that such a ban could backfire. Teenagers might use the darknet or feel more isolated. Also, the ban is likely to be circumvented by using a VPN.
The local branch of the human rights organization Amnesty International also opposed the law. They stated that social media owners may now start requiring users in Australia to prove their age using biometric data or uploading documents, which could violate the right to privacy.