Australia will prohibit youngsters under the age of 16 from using social media, the prime minister announced Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their computers and “onto the footy fields”.
Federal legislation to keep minors off social media will be proposed this year, according to Anthony Albanese, who describes the sites’ impact on young people as a “scourge”.
The minimum age for children to use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has yet to be determined, but it is believed to be between 14 and 16 years old, according to Albanese.
The prime minister stated that his desire would be to restrict access to users under the age of 16.
The centre-left leader stated that age verification trials will take place in the coming months, although observers questioned whether an online age limit could be technically enforced.
“I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts,” Albanese said.
“We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm,” he told national broadcaster ABC.
“This is a scourge. We know that there is mental health consequences for what many of the young people have had to deal with,” he said.
Australia’s conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton said he would support an age limit.
“Every day of delay leaves young kids vulnerable to the harms of social media and the time for relying on tech companies to enforce age limits,” he said.
‘Easy to circumvent’
But it is not clear that the technology exists to reliably enforce such bans, said the University of Melbourne’s associate professor in computing and information technology, Toby Murray.
“We already know that present age verification methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent, or risk user privacy,” he said.
Analysts warned that an age limit may not in any case help troubled children.
It “threatens to create serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in the digital world,” said Daniel Angus, who leads the digital media research centre at Queensland University of Technology.
“There is logic in establishing boundaries that limit young people’s access,” said Samantha Schulz, senior sociologist of education at the University of Adelaide.
“However, young people are not the problem and regulating youth misses the more urgent task of regulating irresponsible social media platforms. Social media is an unavoidable part of young people’s lives.”
The prime minister said parents expected a response to online bullying and harmful material present on social media.
“These social media companies think they’re above everyone,” he told a radio interviewer.
“Well, they have a social responsibility and at the moment, they’re not exercising it. And we’re determined to make sure that they do,” he said.
Australia has been at the forefront of global efforts to regulate social media platforms, with its online safety watchdog bumping heads notably with Elon Musk’s X over the content it carries.