Teenage Use of Social Media Goes Under
Social media usage is a controversial topic, especially when it comes to user regulations. As America toyed with banning the TikTok app, at the end of last year, Australia banned children under the age of 16 from using social media altogether. The measure contains the tightest restrictions of any democracy in the world on children’s use of social media apps.
The Social Media Minimum Age bill was passed by the Senate with a vote of 34 to 19, while the House of Representatives passed it by a wide margin of 102 votes to 13. It was then signed into law by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Under the new law, which goes into effect at the end of 2025, social media companies such as TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram now face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (approximately $33 U.S. million) for failing to prevent children under 16 from creating accounts on their platforms.
Tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, obviously opposes the ban and has called for the bill to be delayed. Meta is “concerned the government is rushing this legislation without adequate consultation or evidence and there are still many unknowns with respect to its implementation,” the company said in a statement. “The Government’s approach will likely require each app provider to collect personal identification or biometric data from all Australians in order to prevent under 16s from accessing their services, an inefficient and burdensome process for everyone.”
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who owns X (formerly Twitter), condemned the bill in a post on his platform, saying it seemed to him “like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians.”
It’s not just the social media platforms that question the new measure, however. The Australian Human Rights Commission, an independent government body, expressed its own “serious reservations” over the proposed law in an analysis published in response to the new law.
“There are less restrictive alternatives available that could achieve the aim of protecting children and young people from online harms, but without having such a significant negative impact on other human rights,” the analysis read. “One example of an alternative response would be to place a legal duty of care on social media companies. We also need to help children and young people to better navigate online spaces by ensuring the national curriculum includes a specific focus on teaching digital literacy and online safety.”
“There are common sense exemptions,” Albanese said when addressing parliament, dismissing any objections to the new ban. “We want to make sure that young people can continue to access health and education related services – Headspace, YouTube, Google Classroom – as well as messaging services and online games,” he said.
He added that there would be “very strong and strict privacy requirements to protect people’s personal information, including an obligation to destroy information provided once age has been verified.” It seems the nation is in favor of the new law as well. YouGov, an international online research data and analytics technology group, conducted a survey that revealed 77% of Australians support the social media ban. Further, 87% said they espouse the introduction of stronger penalties for social media companies that fail to comply with the new regulations.
Looks like tech companies in Australia will have to beef up their koala-ty control.
Reg P. Wydeven
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