Australia passes social media ban for under 16s

After a period of intense public and political debate, Australia has approved laws that will ban anyone under the age of 16 from using social media.

While the laws were passed yesterday, it may well be a year until they come into effect -- and they will be the strictest in the world. Once in force, tech companies such as Meta could be hit with fines of up to AUS$50 million (US $32.5 million) for failing to comply.

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Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has spoken out strongly in support of the legislation saying that children need to be protected from the harm caused by social media. Celebrating the passing of the laws, he said: “We want our kids to have a childhood and parents to know we have their backs”.

While the legislation -- which, unlike similar rules elsewhere, is a blanket ban on under 16s accessing social media -- has been widely welcomed by parents, tech giants have voiced concerns. The bans have been described as being incredibly difficult to implement. Whether this is true in practice will be shown in the coming months as a trial for various methods of enforcements will commence in the New Year.

Social media firms have expressed concern that they will be required to come up with and implement age verification techniques without violating privacy. But Albenese does not see the difficulty of implementing these checks as being too big an obstacle. He added: “We don't argue that its implementation will be perfect, just like the alcohol ban for under 18s doesn’t mean that someone under 18 never has access -- but we know that it’s the right thing to do”.

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