MELBOURNE: Australian lawmakers on Thursday passed historic laws to ban social media for under-16s, authorizing the world’s toughest crackdown on popular sites like Facebook, Instagram and X.
Legislation ordering social media firms to take “reasonable steps” to prevent young teenagers from having accounts passed the Senate by a vote of 34 to 19.
Firms – which face fines of up to Aus$50 million (US$32.5 million) for failing to comply – have described the rules as “vague”, “problematic” and “hurried”.
The new rules will now return to the lower house – where lawmakers already backed the bill on Wednesday – for a final approval before it is certain to become law.
Speaking during the Senate debate, Greens politician Sarah Hansen-Young said the ban would “not make social media safer for young people”.
He said it was “disastrous” that young people were “finding themselves addicted to these dangerous algorithms”.
Centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, eyeing an election early next year, has enthusiastically backed the new laws and rallied Australian parents to get behind it.
In the run-up to the vote, he painted social media as “a platform for peer pressure, a driver of anxiety, a vehicle for fraudsters and, worst of all, a tool for online predators.” What did
He wanted young Australians to “turn off their phones in the footy and cricket fields, tennis and netball courts, swimming pools”.
But young social media users, like 12-year-old Angus Ledham, were not impressed.
“I’d like to keep using it. And it’s going to be a weird feeling not to have it, and be able to talk to all my friends at home,” she said. AFP.
Many people may try to find ways around this.
“I’ll find a way. And so will all my friends.” Ledum said.
Similarly, Elsie Arkinstall, 11, said there’s still a place for social media, especially for kids who want to watch lessons on baking or art.
“Children and teenagers should be able to explore these techniques because you can’t learn all those things from books,” he added.
Other countries weigh sanctions.
This ban on paper is one of the strictest bans in the world.
But the current legislation offers almost no details on how these laws will be implemented – leading to concern among experts that it will be a symbolic piece of legislation that is unenforceable.
It will take at least 12 months for regulators to work out the details and implement the ban.
Some companies will likely be exempted, such as WhatsApp and YouTube, which young people may need to use for entertainment, school work or other reasons.
Late amendments were introduced to ensure that government-issued digital IDs cannot be used as a means of age verification.
Social media expert Susan Grantham said AFP that digital literacy programs that teach children to think “critically” about what they see online should be adopted – similar to the model used in Finland;
The legislation will be closely monitored by other countries, with many weighing whether to implement similar restrictions.
Lawmakers from Spain to Florida have proposed bans on social media for teenagers, though none have yet been implemented.
China has banned access for minors since 2021, with people under 14 not allowed to spend more than 40 minutes a day on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Online gaming time for children in China is also limited.