Social media ban: Australia's House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a groundbreaking bill aimed at banning children under the age of 16 from using social media platforms. The proposed legislation now awaits approval from the Senate to become law, potentially making it a world-first initiative to regulate children's access to social media.
The bill, supported by major political parties, proposes fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (USD 33 million) for platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X, and Instagram if they fail to prevent young children from creating accounts.
Social media platforms to have one year to implement age restrictions
The legislation was passed with 102 votes in favour to 13 against. If the bill becomes law this week, the platforms would have one year to work out how to implement the age restrictions before the penalties are enforced.
Opposition lawmaker Dan Tehan told Parliament the government had agreed to accept amendments in the Senate that would bolster privacy protections. Platforms would not be allowed to compel users to provide government-issued identity documents including passports or driver’s licenses. The platforms also could not demand digital identification through a government system.
“Will it be perfect? No. But is any law perfect? No, it’s not. But if it helps, even if it helps in just the smallest of ways, it will make a huge difference to people’s lives,” Tehan told Parliament.
Lawmakers who were not aligned with either the government or the opposition were most critical of the legislation during debate on Tuesday and Wednesday. Criticisms include that the legislation had been rushed through Parliament without adequate scrutiny, would not work, would create privacy risks for users of all ages and would take away parents’ authority to decide what’s best for their children.
Australia, first one to put restrictions on social media
Australia has one of the world's most online populations with four-fifths of its 26 million people on social media, according to tech industry figures. Three-quarters of Australians aged 12 to 17 had used YouTube or Instagram-- a 2023 University of Sydney study found.
Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had said his centre-left government would run an age verification trial before introducing age minimum laws for social media this year. Albanese didn't specify an age but said it would likely be between 14 and 16. "We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm," he added.
The law would put Australia among the first countries in the world to impose an age restriction on social media. Previous attempts, including by the European Union, have failed following complaints about reducing the online rights of minors. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, which has a self-imposed minimum age of 13, said it wanted to empower young people to benefit from its platforms and equip parents with the tools to support them "instead of just cutting off access".
On Tuesday, the Google and Facebook-owner Meta Platforms urged the Australian government to delay a bill that will ban most forms of social media for children under 16, saying more time was needed to assess its potential impact.
Google and Meta said in their submissions that the government should wait for the results of an age-verification trial before going ahead. The age-verification system may include biometrics or government identification to enforce a social media age cut-off.
"In the absence of such results, neither industry nor Australians will understand the nature or scale of age assurance required by the bill, nor the impact of such measures on Australians," Meta said.
(With agencies input)
