Australia's Parliament Considers Legislation Banning Social Media For Under 16s

Melbourne: Australia's communications minister introduced a world-first law into Parliament on Thursday that would ban children under 16 from social media, saying online safety was one of parents' toughest challenges.

Michelle Rowland said TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram were among platforms that would face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts.

This bill seeks to set a new normative value in society that accessing social media is not defining feature of growing up in Australia, Rowland told Parliament.

re is wide acknowledgement that something must be done in immediate term to help prevent young teens and children from being exposed to streams of content unfiltered and infinite, she ded.

X owner Elon Musk warned that Australia intended to go furr, posting on his platform: Seems like a backdoor way to control access to Internet by all Australians.

bill has wide political support. After it becomes law, platforms would have one year to work out how to implement age restriction.

For too many young Australians, social media can be harmful," Rowland said. "Almost two-thirds of 14- to 17-years-old Australians have viewed extremely harmful content online including drug abuse, suicide or self-harm as well as violent material. One quarter have been exposed to content promoting unsafe eating habits.

Government research found that 95% of Australian care-givers find online safety to be one of ir "toughest parenting challenges, she said. Social media h a social responsibility and could do better in dressing harms on ir platforms, she ded.

This is about protecting young people, not punishing or isolating m, and letting parents know that we're in ir corner when it comes to supporting ir children's health and wellbeing, Rowland said.

Child welfare and internet experts have raised concerns about ban, including isolating 14- and 15-year-olds from ir alrey established online social networks.

Rowland said re would not be age restrictions placed on messaging services, online games or platforms that substantially support health and education of users.

We are not saying risks don't exist on messaging apps or online gaming. While users can still be exposed to harmful content by or users, y do not face same algorithmic curation of content and psychological manipulation to encourage near-endless engagement, she said.

government announced last week that a consortium led by British company Age Check Certification Scheme has been contracted to examine various technologies to estimate and verify ages.

In dition to removing children under 16 from social media, Australia is also looking for ways to prevent children under 18 from accessing online pornography, a government statement said.

Age Check Certification Scheme's chief executive Tony Allen said Monday technologies being considered included age estimation and age inference. Inference involves establishing a series of facts about individuals that point to m being at least a certain age.

Rowland said platforms would also face fines of up to AU$50 million ($33 million) if y misused personal information of users gained for age-assurance purposes.

Information used for age assurances must be destroyed after serving that purpose unless user consents to it being kept, she said.

Digital Industry Group Inc, an vocate for digital industry in Australia, said with Parliament expected to vote on bill next week, re might not be time for meaningful consultation on details of globally unprecedented legislation.

"Mainstream digital platforms have strict measures in place to keep young people safe, and a ban could push young people on to darker, less safe online spaces that don't have safety guardrails," DIGI managing director Sunita Bose said in a statement. A blunt ban doesn't encourage companies to continually improve safety because focus is on keeping teenagers off service, rar than keeping m safe when y're on it.